If the miles behind me could be put into words before you, you would feel my efforts, my struggles, my desires. Most of all you would see my joy. Watch me from afar run the trails and hills and miles upon miles and you will see ...

Monday, May 30, 2011

My Comrades Experience

I could talk a ton about what it's like to be here but I'll keep it to the race only.
Leaving Sally's mom's place in Hillcrest at 4am got us to the race start around 4:30, one hour from gun time. It turned out it was warmer than I thought it would be, about 13 degrees whereas back in Hillcrest it was about 8. Better to start in Durban than Pietermaritzburg, a few people had told me. After a pre-race picture I left to go to the entrance to the race start area. With 45 minutes to wait I thought I'd bide my time in the bathroom line-up thinking that by the time I got to the front I'd have to go and also there wasn't much else to do anyways. I with I had brought a camera to the start to show what it was like lining up much like the start of the Sun Run where everyone's all packed together. I was waiting by the side fence when I felt a little drop fall on my hat. Surely it wasn't rain with not a cloud in the sky. It could only mean one thing - a good luck crap on the hat from a bird. It turned out to be lucky for me.
With the South African anthem sung, next came the singing of "Shosholoza", a traditional song as explained by Wikipedia:

Although the original author of the song is unknown, Shosholoza is a traditional miner's song, originally sung by groups of men from the Ndebele ethnic group that travelled by steam train from their homes in Zimbabwe to work in South Africa's diamond and gold mines. The Ndebele live predominantly in Zimbabwe(formerly, Rhodesia) near its border with South Africa, and they can also be found in the northern border of South Africa. The song mixes Ndebele and Zulu words and is Zimbabwean in origin even though the two ethnic groups are very similar. Some people argue that the song describes the journey to the mines in South Africa, while others say it describes the return to Zimbabwe. It is also sometimes sung "stimela si phume Rhodesia". According to cultural Researchers Booth and Nauright tell us that Zulu workers later took up the song to generate rhythm during group tasks and to alleviate boredom and stress. The song was sang by working miners in time with the music beat as the were swinging their axes to dig. It was usually sang under hardship in 'call and response' style (one man singing a solo line and the rest of the group responding by copying him). It was also sang by prisoners in call and response style using alto, soprano part divided by row. Former South African President Nelson Mandela describes how he sang Shosholoza as he worked during his imprisonment on Robben Island. He describes it as "a song that compares the apartheid struggle to the motion of an oncoming train" and goes on to explain that "the singing made the work lighter".

In contemporary times, it is used in varied contexts in South Africa to show solidarity in sporting events and other national events to rely the message that the players are not alone and are part of a team.

The song was usually sang to express the hardship of working in the mines. It expresses heart ached over the hard work performed in the mines. The word Shosholoza or "chocholoza!" means go forward or make way for the next man, in Ndebele. It is used as a term of encouragement and hope for the workers as a sign of solidarity. The sound "sho sho" uses onomatopoeia and reminiscent of the sound made by the steam train (stimela). Stimela is the Zulu word for steam train. "Kulezo ntaba!" means (At those far away mountains), "Stimela Siphume eZimbabwe" (the train come from Zimbabwe), "Wen´ uya baleka" (Because you're running away/hurrying). In contemporary times, its meaning it to show support for any struggle

Shosholoza
Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' eZimbabwe
Shosholoza
Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' eZimbabwe
Wen' uyabaleka
Wen' uyabaleka
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' eZimbabwe

A rough translation:

Go forward
Go forward
on those mountains
train from Zimbabwe
Go forward
Go forward
You are running away
You are running away
on those mountains
train from Zimbabwe

That song was sung very loudly by most I could see around me. Pretty emotional. After that all that was left was for the rooster to crow, something a competitor used to belt out before he ran the race. I believe they tape recorded him once and now they play that before every race. The gun fired at exactly 5:30 and 16,000 folks all left on a journey of self-discovery.
Although they call this an "up" year, it's hard to imagine how many hills there actually are. I can't wait to get home and download the profile from the Garmin. The route travels one side of the closed off freeway out of town before turning off onto the old highway at about 8km. Cowies Hill, the first of The Big Five comes at about 17km and although it didn't feel too bad to run steadily up it on the outside of the road (less steep) I should have taken more walk breaks. Like most people you get caught up in running because everyone else is. Up and over that my legs were feeling great and the next challenge was Fields Hill at 25km. This was a longer, steeper, and with a few tight S turns. I walked a couple times up this one just because I thought it would be a good idea not to blow up this early. After that climb it was the usual rolling hills but mostly rolling up than down. 35k in we crested the road to Hillcrest. It here that there was the most people watching and cheering. I was amazed how I got inundated with "Go Canada Go" and "Hey Canada" (all pronounced Ca-Na-Da). It really lifted me up on this long steady grade out of Hillcrest. One aid station was playing a song that the kids like but I always make fun of. It really made me think of them and all sorts of things and I admit I got a bit choked up at that point. The elation and energy would not last long.
The sun was hitting us pretty hard by now and for those of us who have had no heat training to speak of it was starting to take its toll. I thought I was drinking enough but by the time I was halfway up Botha's Hill (#3 of 5) I could feel those dreaded beginnings of cramping in my quads. I started with the electrolyte tabs, something I haven't used all year. I never really know if those are helping or if I should just drink more fluids. I really picked up on the drinking of water as well as my own drink mix. Passing the the halfway mark at 3:25 I knew by how my legs felt and that there were still some ugly hills upcoming that a sub-7 finish probably wasn't in the cards. I started focusing on sub-7:30.
The distance markers for this race count backwards every single kilometre and I passed the time by doing the math on converting the kms to miles and how slow I could run them and still reach my goal. After Botha's Hill comes Inchanga, short but relatively steep climb where my quads and calves really started talking. I began stopping at about every second aid station that had people to rub ice or arnica cream on my legs, anything to get me to the next one. I figure I did this probably a dozen times over the last 40kms.
Through the area known as Camperdown and up to the highest point in the race at 810m was Umlass road. You'd think being the highest point that it would be all downhill after that but not a chance. We did get a nice easy descent for a couple kilometres after that though. To get a 7:30 finish my average pace had to say above 8:15 minutes per mile. At this point I was around 8:00 and figured it'd be no problem, even with the last ugly hill upcoming.
Around the 12km remaining mark came what's known as Little Pollys. Not to be confused with it's bigger, upcoming cousin, Polly Shortts. People sometimes think they're on the big one when the first have to get over the little one. I can't remember much about Little Pollys because by this point I was really messed up, thinking only about how I could nurse my legs a few more kilometres. Once onto Polly Shortts you know you're on it. It starts with a few twists and turns then all you see in front of you is a deadly steady go. You might say I walked a bit of this one.
After Pollys I knew there was lots of downhills but they killed my legs as much as going up. My mental fortitude was tested often as all I wanted to do was walk the ups, downs, and the flats. The only thing that kept me going was that I had come all this way for a silver medal and had the cut-off been 7:00 or 7:15 I would have known I couldn't make it and therefore probably walked most of the last 8km after Pollys.
The km markers ticked down and I knew I could run the last two miles in twenty minutes easy barring and last minute leg seizings. I hoped like hell I could manage just a little longer. Everything was locking up - quads, hams, calves, and even my ankles were causing me to run awkwardly on the outsides of my feet once in a while. I stopped at the top of the last little hill when someone ran by and yelled on his way by, "Don't stop now or you won't get the silver." I knew I had the silver, it was just a way of appeasing my body momentarily for all it had been through.
Finally on one of the last turns I saw Sally and Sean holding out my Canada hat and the sign I made for the fam to carry across with me. A half lap around the outside of the cricket oval and the finish was in sight. Having watched a bunch of people's finishing videos on the computer from last year it was a little emotional seeing it from this side. I thought about how long I'd been thinking of that very moment - for a few years but specifically eighteen months ago when I had signed up for last year's race. I know now that had I come here for the race on such little training due to my stress fracture I would have suffered horribly. Even though it was a "down" year last year it still would have killed me with insufficient training.
My average pace ended up at 8:12 minutes/mile with a finish time of 7:26, 426 overall.
I hung around until the end, chatting with fellow Canadians and watching people come across the line. Sometimes there would be a huge mob of runners finishing at the same time, led in by one of the "buses", as in "The 11 hour bus", or what we call pace bunnies.
Still not sure what caused the ugliness in my legs this time. Lack of heat in the spring? (probably not). Underestimating this race's hills and difficulty? (probably)
I can't say I'd do it again but it would be interesting to see what the down run would be like.
Looking back on the last two years' worth of racing results I'm going to take a hard look at what is important to me and what I want to occupy my time with. Will ultrarunning be a part of that time? Time will tell.

Comrades Pictures

Darin's Comrades Videos

Friday, May 27, 2011

A Little Scared Now

So I went on the bus tour of the route yesterday. It's not called an Up Year for nothing. There were The Big Five of course - Cowies, Fields, Bothas, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts, but it seemed like when we weren't going up those ones, we were heading up some other type of incline. It never ended. I may have to call off all the bets on the 6:30, 6:45 and possibly the 7:00. The goal is still definitely sub-7 but even a 7:30 to get the silver medal (awarded to the finishers between 6 hours and 7:30) would be an accomplishment. It amazes me that the winners of this thing go under 5:30.
I know it's getting close to winter here but I still figured it'd be pretty warm in this part of the world. The weather I looked at beforehand seemed favourable. At getting here, though, it was drizzly and cool but still warmer than at home. That was Wednesday. Wednesday night and Thursday were pretty much filled with wind storms and rain showers. I went for a :30 run in between downpours and did the legs ever feel heavy!! Mind you I went up a pretty long steep hill which wasn't the best thing. Steep enough that I could feel it in my quads and IT bands the next day. I'll try them out again today for around 20 minutes.
My hosts here in Pietermaritzburg, Sally and Sean Jackson, have been superb in meeting all my whiny and moaning needs. They've been driving me all over the place. We're about and hour out of Durban so in order to be that much closer to the bus tour at 8am in Durban we stayed at Sally's mom's house in Hillcrest, only 30 minutes from Durban. We'll stay there Saturday night as well to give us that extra time to sleep. 3am comes early. Should be a chilly start so am glad I brought a sweatshirt to throw away after the start. Gloves too. Could have used an old pair of sweatpants but hey, if it's chilly for me it'll be freezing for these SA boys. Score one for the Canadian.
More later.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

That's About It

Three and a half more days until I leave. What more is there to do? Well there's packing, for one. I'm notorious for leaving things until the last minute and packing all my crap is no exception.
The long runs are a thing of the past. Today was my last one, clocking in at a harrowing time of 1 hour, about 8.75 miles. Tomorrow is 4 x 1 mile on the treadmill maxing out at around 5:45 per mile. Saturday is 3 miles, Sunday 6 miles at "pace", according to my schedule. As my pace to be a sub-6:30 time has to be 7:10 per mile, and I've been averaging sub-7:00 the last couple of weeks, it might just be 6 miles on Sunday running how I feel. Monday is 3 miles, then 10,621 miles of flying. Wednesday is 3 miles, Thursday and Friday off, Saturday 2 miles then Sunday is the big hurt.

The race starts 5:30am SA time Sunday May 29th, which is Saturday night at 8:30pm Vancouver time. That means I will hopefully be finishing around 3am Vancouver time. Set your alarms for 2:30 and track me to the end at the Comrades website. My number is 58807. You can watch the whole thrilling adventure streaming live online. What else would you rather be doing?

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Zippidee -do da

So I don't know what it is but the plan has come together and everything is feeling perfect (knocking on wood). As soon as I was done the really long stuff I was to switch to shorter, faster runs. Not that I had an idea what I would be running these faster runs at, just that they'd be less than the 7:30 per mile I'd been doing in the training runs. I found out today that the Comrades "up" run this year is officially 86.96km, shorter than the "down" runs which are usually around 89km. This is good news as I have a better chance of hitting my time goal of 6:30. If it was 89km I'd had to have run a 6:57 average mile and now it'll be 7:13. Much more manageable and possible (but not guaranteed). To get a 6:15 it would be 6:57 per mile but with the hills I can't see that happening without me blowing up.
Anyways, back to the week that was. The key runs this past week were a fast 10k and a "long" run of 1:30. I slapped on the racing flats for the 10k and set out thinking I'd stay steady at a 6:45 pace. As the minutes went on I kept seeing the average pace on my Garmin dropping but I still didn't feel taxed. I ended up doing the first 3 miles averaging 6:18 per mile and the second 3 miles with a 6:04 pace and felt great. Now I know it's only one tenth of the race and I won't be going that fast, but it was a great mental boost to have some speed after weeks of long slow stuff. The next day was a 1:30 run along the hilliest part of 0ave again and ended up cranking out a 6:49 average over 13 miles. Again, felt awesome. Today was only an 8 mile scheduled run and after ten minutes I was flying again with steady breathing and not feeling bad at all. Two weeks to go before I leave!!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Long Runs Done

The last two weeks were the longest in terms of mileage in a couple years when I hit 100 miles each week twice. When I did that I almost broke myself, having the shin splints return. This time I topped out at 75 miles each week and felt much better for it.
My regime which I borrowed from www.halhigdon.com and used for almost all my road races (the site has programs from short distances through the marathon and even one specifically for Comrades, which I've been following for a few months now) has emphasized back to back long runs which I've never really done in any of my ultra training. I always found it was too much at once. I understand that the first day is to tire you for the second to simulate the latter stages of a long race and hopefully to get you though it. Whenever I've tried this I find that I'm mentally not into the second day's run and the fatigue seems to be more of a block than I can hurdle. Two weeks ago my long runs consisted of 5 hours at Chuckanut in the trails, then a 4 hour run the next day. Chuckanut started out really well. I planned two, two and a half hour loops of lots of steady climbing, mostly on well-groomed trails. When I went to start my second loop my legs felt like they weren't into it. I managed to run all the hills like the first loop but at a slightly lesser pace. When I was about 4 hours into it I did the math as to how much time I had left and realized I wouldn't be able to run the last bit of the second loop because I needed to get home. Also that section of the loop was pretty steep and technical in spots and I'd be walking a lot of it anyways. Not really beneficial training when getting ready for a road run. I still ended at 5 hours and the Garmin read 32 miles. The next day I started running along 0 ave again through the hilly section, eventually getting to a rolling stretch of about five miles where I'd turn around and run it in reverse. When I was close to an hour and a half I felt a deep ache in my knee and started freaking out that it might be something bad. I decided to turn around at the 90 minute mark and hopefully make it back to the car. As I kept running on the return route something hit me: I remember that I had this same discomfort a few years ago. I stopped, stretched the quad of my left leg really well then started out again. What do you know there was no more discomfort. I remember going to see Active Release Therapy ace Colin McKay one time with the same ailment and he said it was tight quads. Here we go again.
After fifteen minutes I had to stop and stretch again. It wasn't debilitating but it was definitely bugging me. Luckily I had a massage later that day and that seemed to help a bit. I ended this run with 24 miles done.
A few shorter runs over the weekend and I was on to the last week of long runs. This time I decided to do a 5 hour run on Wednesday and a 4 hour run on Friday with Thursday being a rest day with another massage in there, too. The 5 hour run consisted of starting in Maple Ridge at 240st and Dewdney Trunk Road, right along the old H2H course. I intended to head east to the Mission Municipal Hall, refill the bottles, and head back. As I've been staying off the roads as much as possible the last few months, this would be a test of the legs. I've been trying to stay on routes that have a dirt or gravel shoulder to run on to minimize impact. Lots of times the ground is soft and probably makes me run with greater effort because of the absorption of energy when running. However I thought this would only make me stronger and hopefully reduce the chance of getting hurt again. I couldn't remember if the H2H route had much of a shoulder as along this section it's always been dark and I stuck to the road surface. Turns out that about 75% of the stretch I ran along had a decent shoulder.
The run started reminiscent of the actual H2H race: about 4 degrees and raining. The shoulder was quite often full of puddles and muddy but I stuck to the plan and ran through it all to avoid the asphalt. I had everything that day - rain, sun, wind, hail. I don't think it was the best temperature training for S. Africa but I'll deal with that by hitting the sauna from now to when I leave. I even went the first half with no music but treated myself to the tunes on the way back. My ears end up bleeding if I listen to the music for too long. I ended up the run at 5 hours and 40 miles. 7:24 minutes per mile average. I was pretty happy with this because the route was very hilly in stretches and I felt strong on the return trip. The knee was aching for most of the run but it got to a certain point then didn't get any worse so I could ignore it.
Two days later I went out to Aldergrove Lake for the last time (thankfully). I'm getting to know every inch of that loop and the only thing that changes is the amount of horse poop along the path. I felt excited to do the run and the legs felt peppy as well. This is what I was hoping for. I did one loop of the trails then headed out around the neighbourhood roads to switch things up. I came back and ran the same trail route in the opposite direction in the same time as the first loop, only in a new pair of shoes to break them in. I still needed about :40 after this to hit the 4 hour mark so changed into the racing flats I want to use on race day and cranked out some 6:45 minute miles to finish off the run. Everything went really well on that day and I wasn't even dead tired. I'm beat the nights after the run and the next day but the day after that I'm ready to go again. Confidence is high for the run that's only, holy crap, 27 days away. Now time to taper with some shorter, speedier runs and quick hill repeats. Knock on wood I don't break before the race.