Training Log Archive: Stijn

Added some hills this time. Up an 8km gradual climb to the Seven Passes road, ran one of the passes, down via the Hoekwil road and back via the lagoons. Awesome views over the coast at sunrise.

In Wilderness, on a road trip to Cape Town. Leg-loosener on a mostly flat road along the lagoons. Got soaked by the rain.

Emmies, around Zoo Lake and back. Autumn is the best time for running!

Comrades quote of the day (1927):
"Furthermore, the 'roads' in 1927 were still paths rather than paved highways, and the routes over the major hills rather more direct and therefore steeper than those of today. Indeed, modern-day entrants might feel humbled by a comment in a newspaper report of the 1927 race: 'At Mpushini, Newton crossed without a falter, but the third man R. A. Sutton stumbled slightly at the water jump!' "

Tried to focus on a brisk but efficient gait on the ~3km downhill section of each lap. Great run - feeling strong.

Comrades quote of the day (1923):
"Was there any long-term future for an ultramarathon of a nature never before contemplated, never mind established, anywhere in the world?

Only the future could tell. For the moment, there was a gimmick to attract attention. A woman was going to attempt the race - unofficially, of course. What a horror story! No woman was capable of anything approaching the demands of the Comrades course. Such, at least, was the opinion not just of the organisers of the Comrades Marathon, but of medical science worldwide.
...(snip)...
It was widely held that participation in physically demanding sports - of which long-distance running could be regarded as the most arduous - would jeopardise women's primary function, namely child-bearing.

Miss Frances Hayward of Durban was unconcerned about her perceived gender limitations when she lined up, albeit unofficially, alongside the official all-male competitors in the 1923 Comrades Marathon.
...(snip)...
Four and a half hours after Newton's triumph, a large crowd was still in attendance to witness the race's other personality, Miss Frances Hayward, cross the line in 11.35 to a tremendous ovation. Rather ironically, in view of her own breakthrough and those by women in the latter half of the century, she commented, 'Now that I have done it, I think it is too much for women. I think it is the last ten miles that kill!' This must have disappointed many of her female admirers."

FYI, women and non-white runners were only first officially recognised as late as 1975!

Started breaking in my Comrades pair of shoes. I always seem to have a much lighter/softer foot strike in new shoes.

Comrades quote of the day (1922):
"Arthur Newton became the first runner to face the most famous of all Comrades obstacles, Polly Shortts. His comments afterwards have been echoed a thousand times, although perhaps not quite as eloquently.

'It was an enormous relief to get to the long downhill stretch after Camperdown, and I seemed almost to coast along for mile after mile. But I knew what was waiting at the bottom and wasn't looking forward to it at all. A three-quarter-mile incline followed by Polly Shortts cutting had to be climbed, and the latter was a considerable hill of some 500 feet, with just over a mile to do it in. Well, for the moment there was only one serious thing to be considered in all the world, and that was Polly Shortts. I reduced my stride as I had long since learnt to, and gently, ever so gently, crept up the long rise. Great James! It was terrible work! It might have been nothing desperate for a man who was quite fresh, but when you had already run a much longer distance than you had ever tackled before in your life, the thing became a sheer nightmare.

Up I went, and still up, but I began to feel that it was impossible to keep going. It got so bad that when it came to the steepest part, I stopped dead in a single stride, convinced in the moment that it was absolute idiocy to attempt to carry on. Two seconds' consideration, however, told me that it was probably as bad for those behind me: also that as I had already stuck so much, it didn't make much odds if a trifle more were added. Without stopping to debate the point, I shoved one foot in front of the other and continued the climb. I have often since wondered what those in the cars nearby thought of my momentary stop.

Even your worst time is left behind sooner or later, and when I was wondering whether I should be able to keep going on my legs at all, I reached the top and saw the city of Pietermaritzburg in the valley four miles away.' "

Legs still a bit heavy, but felt good otherwise. Beaut of a morning for a run!

Comrades quote of the day (1921):
"Vic Clapham, in nature and in deed, was always true to the spirit of comradeship which had sustained him through his wartime experiences and which he strove to instil in his life's ambition, his Comrades Marathon. While Clapham demanded much of himself, he didn't spare his family either. His son Eric recalled the busiest day in the family's year:

'Runners would descend on our home at 31 Greyling Street before the race. My dad, an arch-scrounger, got donations of tea, milk and biscuits for all. I would have to give up my bed and sleep on the floor so a runner could have a comfortable night's rest. On the morning of the race, my brother Douglas would have to cycle around Maritzburg at 4:30am in the freezing air with notebook and pencil to rouse the local runners. Each had to sign he'd been wakened. My mother would fry thick steaks on the coal stove in the kitchen. Each runner would get a massive steak topped with a couple of eggs for breakfast. Both my parents believed protein produced energy.' "