Category: Columns

In April 1974, a 32-year-old Titus Mamabolo from GaMolepo in Limpopo became the first black athlete to win an ‘open’ national title in Apartheid-era South Africa when he won the 5000m by outrunning pre-race favourite, Springbok Ewald Bonzet. In later years, he went on to become a record-breaking marathon athlete as well.– BY LAUREN VAN DER VYVER

MA: It’s been 40 years since that epic tussle with Ewald Bonzet, which came just a month after you won the Segregated Championships 5000m title as well. What was it like having a victory like that under your belt?

Titus:Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria had around 5000 people coming to watch and a lot of the crowd were behind me! That was South African athletics those days. I always knew it was going to be tough because back then the competition was strong.

Before the 5000m event, I thought I would feed off the crowd and it helped me to the finish.

MA: Where did your love of running come from?

Titus:I started running in Standard 6 in GaMolepo, but it really started when I was 15. After school, I moved to Pretoria to look for a job and started taking the sport a little more seriously, and in 1963 I joined a running club in Mamelodi. I remember joining the team one weekend for this one-mile race and I was runner-up to Edward Setshedi. Everyone was so surprised at how well I did.

After that, I represented Northern Transvaal in Welkom and did quite well. I was just doing it for fun, but Edward said I should train harder. Then it just went quickly – racing on track, cross-country and then travelling overseas on 15 occasions for South Africa. I remember visiting West Germany, Italy, North America and Brazil. There was so much support for us black athletes!

MA: Then in 1976, at your peak, you called it a day on the track. Why?

Titus:Honestly, I was tired. Three times a year, we’d be off travelling overseas and there was nothing else to prove. So my last track event was in Welkom in ’76 and I won it with the crowd behind me again. Then it was a 10-year layoff from the sport, until in 1985, I decided to look at taking on marathons.

MA: And it clicked! In 1991, you broke the SA masters’ record in Durban – and your record still stands today. That must have been something…

Titus:It was one of my greatest moments. I asked someone what the masters’ record was and it was 2:19.40, and I told everyone I’d break it. I finished in 2:19.29. It was just after I turned 50, too, so it was very special. I was in very good form back then, but people were surprised that I was that quick. The transition was easy from the track to the longer distances. My first few marathon attempts were slow, but then it improved. I think when I came back in 1985, I wanted a new challenge.

MA: Your grandson Ludwick seems to have taken after you with stellar performances in the last few years, especially his Comrades Marathon win in 2012. Do you lend him any advice?

Titus:He is such a talent and it’s so good for South Africa. I tell him to take it easy and keep focused. He had that mindset when he won Comrades. The talent has been passed down. My mother and uncle used to run well and we are all hard workers. I used to train everyday in my peak and people thought I was crazy, but I wanted to be the best!

MA: In 2001, you finally retired from competition. What are you doing today?

Titus:Running will never leave me, so I’m focused on development. In Lebowakgomo, where I live in Limpopo now, I’ve been training athletes from ages 10 to 17 for three years. As a coach, I tell them to stay away from drugs and alcohol so they can stay focused to make a future for themselves. Now we’re looking for sponsors so the young athletes can travel to compete more.

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) has announced that early bird entries for the 90^th Comrades Marathon entry process will close on 30 September 2014. So far, 9420 entries have already been received since the entry process opened on 1 September 2014.

This means that just over 13,000 entries are available before the overall entry process closes at the end of November or as soon as the cap of 23000 entries has been reached. Thereafter, no entries will be accepted so runners are urged to enter as soon as possible or risk missing out.

CMA Race Director, Rowyn James says, ‘South African runners can take advantage of the ‘early bird’ entry fee of R350 for the entire month of September. As of 1 October 2014, the entry cost for South African runners will be R380.’

Runners from the Rest of Africa will be charged an entry fee of R600 and the cost to International athletes is R2000. The entry requirements, which are clearly indicated on the entry form, must be adhered to at all times.

Entries may be made as follows:

·        online via the Comrades Marathon website:www.comrades.com; 

·        by posting the completed entry form with proof of payment to the CMA Office in Pietermaritzburg: P.O. Box 100621, Scottsville, 3209;

·        by handing in the completed entry form together with payment at the CMA office in Pietermaritzburg: 18 Connaught Road, Scottsville. 

Runners may enter the race before running a qualifying marathon (minimum qualifying distance of 42.2km run in under 5 hours) which must be run between 1 August 2014 and 3 May 2015. Please note that the 2014 Comrades Marathon will not be an automatic qualifier for the 2015 race.  Qualifying details must be submitted to the CMA by 5 May 2015.

The 90^th edition of the world’s leading ultra-marathon is all set to showcase South Africa’s and the world’s ultra-runners once again come Sunday, 31 May 2015. Being an ‘up-run’, the race starts at the Durban City Hall at 05h30 and ends 12 hours later at the Oval Cricket Stadium in Pietermaritzburg.

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) and KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) officially launched the Comrades-KZNA Relay Challenge at the Prime Human Performance Institute in Durban yesterday.

The exciting athletics event is targeted at schools across the province and aims to give KwaZulu-Natal’s brightest young athletes the opportunity to showcase their athletic prowess.

The inaugural 2013 Relay Challenge was initiated by KZNA and the Fast Feet Athletics Club. It is now bigger and better; and includes sponsorship from the CMA and sportswear brand adidas. Up for grabs among various categories is R50,000 in cash and R70,000 in equipment from adidas as well as a bronzed spike trophy for winning schools.

The Relay Challenge is a team based event that encompasses a 1x800m, 1x400m, 2x200m and 4x100m with eight athletes per team in three age categories — u15, u17 and Open boys and girls. Four districts have been invited from across the province with 16 teams per age group in the male and female categories – that is 32 teams per age group and 96 teams in total.

The semi-finals take place on 26 September and the finals will be held on 2 October 2014 at the Kings Park Athletics Stadium.

While running with an older running friend the other day, he looked at his heart rate monitor, then asked me if I knew how high is too high for a heart rate, because his wife had told him she was convinced he is going to blow his heart up! Damned good question, I said, so I decided to look into it, and found that maximum heart rate is an elusive number, especially for runners. 

When calculating your maximum heart rate (MHR) for your age, the usual equation used is 220 minus your age, but that does not apply to everybody – many people can tolerate higher heart rates, while others cannot get to the formula-driven max, no matter how hard they push themselves. Also, this formula was developed many years ago from studies of young athletes, but more recent studies looking at a broader age distribution have shown that this formula often underestimates the MHR in older subjects, and thus Tanaka and co. came up with a revised formula in 2001 of MHR = 208 – (0.7 x age). A further study in 2007, by Gellish and co., revised that still further to MHR = 207 – (0.7 x age).

Now my friend is 52, so using the three different formulas, we get an MHR of 168, 172, and 171 respectively, so the difference is minor. The good news, for his wife, however, is that he said his heart rate monitor usually hovers around 160 during his workouts, only occasionally going over the 170 mark, and his heart rate drops to 140 or below during the regular walk breaks he includes in all workouts, so he appears to be safe from an imminent heart meltdown, according to basic MHR calculations.

EXPERT OPINION

According to Dr William Roberts, a medical doctor who specialises in sports medicine, heart rate tolerance is specific to each individual and is best determined by experience. “The closer you are to your MHR during your workouts and races, the shorter the duration of exercise that you will be able to maintain at that pace, but if you can maintain a rate of 160 comfortably during your workouts and races, as in this case, then your MHR is well above that.”

“This subject is unlikely to ‘blow up his heart,’ as he has a proven load tolerance, but if your heart rate increases at the same workload or your exercise tolerance drops off unexpectedly, you should consult with your physician. If you develop chest pain, pounding heart beats, increased heart rate, or dizziness during your workouts, you should stop and seek medical advice, because something has changed. It is never a bad idea to discuss your exercise, health and risk factors with your physician, and at age 52, you should be meeting with your physician every year or two to look at health and prevention issues.”

KNOW YOUR ZONES

To effectively use a heart rate monitor in your exercise life, you should aim to work out within specific heart rate zones that fall within a particular percentage of your heart rate. Here is a general guideline used by exercise physiologists, who say that most of your workout should be done in zones 1 or 2.

• Zone 1: 60 to 70% – very comfortable effort, use this for warm-up and cool-down.
• Zone 2: 71 to 80% – comfortable enough to hold a conversation, most training is done here.
• Zone 3: 81 to 93% – comfortably hard effort, you may be able to say short, broken sentences.
• Zone 4: 94 to 100% – hard effort, the pace is sustainable, but conversation is a few words at a time.

 In 1974, when Lood Rabie ran 2:19:22 in his debut marathon at the Peninsula Marathon in Cape Town, he became only the fourth South African to break the 2:20 barrier. Ironically, he had only taken up marathoning because of illness, having contracted glandular fever the previous year and seen his times on the track suffer as a long-term result of all the weight he lost, but now the road became his focus, and launched him on an endurance sport career that continues to this day. 

Running in South Africa was a lot more competitive back in the seventies, says 61-year-old Stellenbosch-based medical doctor Lood Rabie with a glint in his eyes. “I can remember one morning I ran up the old Helshoogte Pass just outside Stellenbosch with Danie Malan, and that same evening he broke four minutes for the mile at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town. We weren’t that focused when it came to training, we just ran, doing 110 to 120 miles a week.” (That’s 180 to 200km a week, for track athletes! – Ed.) “But I believe our results were more luck than science, because we often competed tired due to the hard training we did. Just the other day I was chatting to Ewald Bonzet, and he said if he was competing today, he would train less.”

FAMILY MAN

Born in Grahamstown, Lood’s family moved to Stellenbosch when he was in primary school and he has remained here for much of his life, except for two years in the Air Force, four years working as a GP in the Eastern Cape after his medical studies, and a short stint in Canada. He came back to become an ear, nose and throat specialist and opened his practice in Stellenbosch, where he and his family have made the most of the sporting environment. He is married to Riana, who he has known since childhood, and they have three children, all of whom have done well in sport on top of being academic achievers: Oldest daughter Anel was a top cyclist, second daughter Mari has represented SA in Olympic triathlon, and Lood Junior is currently part of the SA waterpolo team.

Having represented SA in cross-country and been one of the country’s leading marathoners throughout the 70s, Lood was later sidelined by a calf problem – but that opened a new sporting door for him. “A friend recommended that I take up cycling, and the next step was duathlon, which in turn was followed by triathlon. So there I was, learning to swim competitively at the age of 39!” No surprise, though, that Lood went on to represent SA at various age category Tri World Champs around the world, often finishing in the top five in his category, and also finishing third in the 55-59 age group at the XTERRA World Champs in Hawaii in 2012.

GOOD AT EVERYTHING!

He also took up competitive mountain biking, most often teaming up with younger brother Chris, and to date has completed the Cape Epic five times, the Sani2c six times, and the Wines2Whales five times, plus the Trans-Alps and the Trans-Andes overseas. Another goal was to do his first Ironman when he was 60, and he also took up canoeing and surfski racing just before his 60th. He has now has done the Breede River and Fish River races twice each, regularly takes part in the Surfski Series, and is busy training for the arduous 250km Port Elizabeth to East London surfki race – and he still finds time to sail yachts competitively as well!

“When it comes to time management, I believe that the morning training session is the key. I’ll do an afternoon session if work allows, but living close to work means my travel time each day is usually only about five minutes, or 15 minutes on a bad day, and that gives me an extra hour per day for training. I just want to stay healthy, so I will keep running, cycling, swimming and paddling as long as my legs and heart allow.”

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) launched its campaign for the 90th Comrades Marathon today (Thursday, 14 August 2014). Members of the media along with South Africa’s top runners, sporting personalities and stakeholders converged on Johannesburg to be part of the celebratory launch of the world’s biggest and oldest ultra-marathon.

The 2015 campaign is centered on the CMA’s vision of an all-inclusive Comrades Marathon, with the slogan: ‘Be Part of It – Bamba Iqhaza’. CMA General Manager, Chris Bruwer who unveiled the campaign says, ‘We invite every Comrades runner, stakeholder, volunteer and supporter to be a part of this iconic race in one way or another.’

Bruwer adds, ‘There are numerous ways to get involved and participate in the camaraderie while uniting the nation through this iconic event. Please visit our website www.comrades.com to see how you can be a part of it.’

The 90th edition of the race will be run on Sunday, 31 May 2015. The ‘up-run’ will start at the Durban City Hall at 05h30 and end 12 hours later at the Oval Cricket Stadium in Pietermaritzburg, covering a distance of 87km.

1 September 2014 is the opening date for entries into the 2015 Comrades Marathon. The entry period will close on 30 November 2014 or as soon as the special entry cap of 23,000 has been reached. Prospective entrants are encouraged to get their entries in early so as to avoid disappointment.

Entry fees for the 2015 Comrades Marathon are as follows:

• Local Entries : R 380.00
• Rest of Africa : R 600.00
• International : R2000.00

South African runners will be eligible for the ‘early bird’ entry fee of R350 if their entry is received before 30 September 2014. The regular South African entry fee of R380 will kick in on 1 October 2014 until the entry process is closed.

Runners can enter as follows:

• online via the Comrades Marathon website: www.comrades.com;
• by posting their completed entry form with proof of payment to the CMA Office in Pietermaritzburg:
P.O. Box 100621, Scottsville, 3209;
• by handing in their completed entry form together with payment at the CMA office in Pietermaritzburg.

Entry forms will be available at local running clubs, provincial sporting federations and the CMA; as well as selected qualifying races which the Comrades Team will be attending from September to November.

Qualifying for the 2015 Comrades Marathon will be applicable from 1 August 2014 till 4 May 2015. Runners are advised that the 2014 Comrades Marathon will not be an automatic qualifier for next year’s race.

Race Director Rowyn James says, ‘The reason for this is two-fold. We want to encourage runners to be fit and healthy for Race Day. Further, we want to support all other road-running races in the country, especially the Comrades Marathon qualifying races by driving Comrades runners to participate in those running events.’

The Substitution window period will be from 1 – 21 April 2015.

In a first for South African road-running, R1.5-million is up for grabs to the First Man and Woman respectively who break the current male and female up-run records thereby making the Comrades Marathon by far the most lucrative race on the local athletics scene. Leonid Shvetsov holds the male up-run record of 5:24:47 for his 2008 win while Elena Nurgalieva’s 2006 victory in a time of 6:09:24 stands as the female up-run record.

The first man and woman to cross the finish line will receive R375,000 each. The total prize money for the 2015 Comrades Marathon is R2.600,000; in addition to the respective R1.5-million incentives for the man and woman should they break the record.

CMA Chairman, Macdonald Chitja says: ‘We are pleased to unveil our 2015 Comrades Marathon campaign and invite the nation to be a part of it. The 90th edition of this world-famous ultra-marathon promises to be the best one yet.’

Registration is now open for the fourth intake of the Modern Athlete Dare to Tri Academy, so make that commitment to become an IRONMAN in 2015. Training starts 1 July!

The Dare to Tri programme has enjoyed three very successful years since our initial pilot project with just 10 athletes in 2011, transforming ‘Average Joe’ athletes and couch potatoes alike into IRONMAN 70.3 finishers, and this year we also had our first group going on to the full IRONMAN. Last season we had 170 finishers across various events – for an incredible finishing percentage of 97% – and the success of the programme is down to a manageable training workload that fits in with your family, work and social schedule, with group training sessions on weekends that really keep the athletes motivated.

SIGN UP TODAY!

– The 2014/15 programme will run from 1 July 2014 to 31 January 2015.
– We take complete novices to their first standard Olympic-distance finish, then train for the 70.3 half IRONMAN.
– The programme is aimed at triathletes in Gauteng who can participate in our weekend group training sessions, but triathletes from all over SA can sign up and follow on their own.
– DTT members receive a weekly e-mail from Dare to Tri Coach Derick Marcisz, reviewing the past weekend’s training and detailing the next weekend, and a full programme for the month is distributed at the beginning of each month.
– New this year: ‘Performance Programme’ for athletes looking to improve on previous results.

Register at www.modernathlete.co.za at R1000 for the full seven-month programme. Plus, we have our own distinctive training and racing kit available online!

MARK THE DATE:
DARE TO TRI 2014/2015 LAUNCH!
When: Sunday 29 June
Where: Jeppe Quondam Club, Bedfordview
Time: 9am (optional 7am easy 10km run – showers available)
Who: Coach Derick will give you more info on this year’s programme, plus hear from previous DTT members about their experiences.

When you take those first few steps in the morning after getting out of bed, or after sitting for a while, and the bottoms of your feet hurt like crazy with a burning pain, chances are you have plantar fasciitis, a common overuse injury. That’s the bad news. The good news is that a bit of rest should be enough to get you up and running again.

Knee pain, shin splints and Achilles pain seem to get all the ‘fame and glory’ when it comes to running injuries, whereas the bottom of the foot literally stays out of the limelight. Until you get plantar fasciitis, that is. Then every step just walking around at home can be painful, let alone actually running. If you’re lucky, the pain will go away or get less after a few steps, but your foot may hurt still more as the day goes on, especially when you go up stairs or just stand for a long time.

The plantar fascia is the thick, fibrous band of tissue (fascia) that reaches from the heel to the toes, supporting the muscles and arch of the foot. When this fascia is overly stretched, tiny tears can occur in its surface, causing inflammation and pain when you stand or walk. This is known as Plantar fasciitis, can happen in one foot or both, and is common in middle-aged people, but can also occur in younger people who are on their feet a lot, like athletes or soldiers, especially if:

Your feet roll inward too much (overpronate) when you run.
You have high arches or flat feet.
You walk, stand, or run for long periods of time, especially on hard surfaces.
You are overweight.
You wear shoes that don’t fit well or are worn out.
You have tight Achilles tendons or calf muscles.

DOCTORS’ ORDERS

When you go for a check-up, your doctor will check your feet and watch you stand and walk, and may take an X-ray if he or she suspects a problem with the bones of your foot, such as a stress fracture. Once diagnosed as plantar fasciitis, there is no single treatment that works best for everyone, but there are several things you can try:
Give your feet a rest: Cut back on activities that make your feet hurt, and try not to walk or run on hard surfaces.
Ice your heel: This will reduce the pain and swelling – or take an over-the-counter pain reliever like ibuprofen or aspirin.
Stretch the fascia: Do toe stretches, calf stretches and towel stretches several times a day, especially when you first get up in the morning. (For towel stretches, pull on both ends of a rolled towel that you place under the balls of your feet.)
Replace your shoes: Pick shoes with good arch support and a cushioned sole, or try heel cups or shoe inserts (orthotics).

If these treatments do not help, your doctor may give you a splint to wear at night, shots of steroid medicine in your heel, or other treatments. You probably will not need surgery, which is only recommended for people who still have pain after trying other treatments for six to 12 months. Instead, good old rest is your best bet to get over the problem.

Pacing can make or break your Comrades Marathon. Go out too fast on Sunday and you are in for a long day. Go out too slow and you will be chasing the clock all day. But how do you get your pacing strategy spot on?

You are going to lose some time at the start. Everyone does. It is normal. Don’t try and make that time up in the first five to ten kilometres of the race. The Comrades Marathon is called that because it is a marathon. It is not called the Comrades Sprint. Running too fast too early can be extremely costly. If you find yourself running faster than you should running on race day, back off and slow down. In the words of Comrades Coach Lindsey Parry, “If you don’t slow down now, Comrades will slow you down later”.

Lindsey gives some more great advice on this episode of the Ask Coach Parry podcast about how to run the perfectly paced Comrades Marathon.