On the 9th of June 2019, I was fortunate to toe the starting line at the Comrades marathon (55 mile marathon from Durban to Pietermaritzburg also known as the Comrades Up), billed as the world’s largest and most famous ultramarathon. Around 19,103 runners participated with 86% successfully crossing the finish line. Despite the high percentage of finishers, this race promises to put every runner’s will power to the ultimate test of crossing the finish line within the allotted 12 hours. The five famous hills/mountains – Cowies, Fields, Bothas, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts – strike an ice cold fear through every runners’ heart, along with the countless other “minuscule” mountains. The hills are so long and steep, that even the winners of the race will occasionally end up walking a portion of Polly Shortts. Along the way, every runner need to beat 6 different cutoffs on the course. Missing any of these cutoffs meant the end of your race, and not being recorded in the official results. Crossing the finish line brings about an exhilaration, that I have not experienced in any other race I have participated in. This was my 4th successful Comrades completion. It is not uncommon to see runners who have completed 10, 20, 30, 40 and if you were lucky 46 comrades (two famous runners Louis Massyn and Barry Holland completed their 47th run this year). When you complete 10 Comrades, you get the coveted Green number (usually presented to you by a previous winner, and you get to keep your race number permanently). Runners from all walks of life: poor, rich, young, old, of every race, creed, and multiple nations run together as one. All differences are put aside as each as every runner will face the tribulations of the day together. It is the one day that South Africans are united together and rooting for each other to be successful. Every finisher ends the day forever changed.
I arrived in Durban on June 6th and met up with my friends Danni, Stephanie, Alison, Jaimie, Damien. After a few days spent hanging out in Durban, we got ready for race day. I wore the colors of Texas. Below are us looking very dapper with our big smiles at 4:30AM in the morning. We were up at 2:00AM and ate breakfast, so it was going to be a long day.
We made our way to the start line which was about a little less than 1km away, and made our way to our respective corrals; based on our marathon qualifying times. Race start was at 5:30AM. At around 5:00AM, we sang the electrifying anthem of South Africa (Nkosi Sikilel’ iAfrika) followed by unofficial anthem (Shosholoza), and finally by the unforgettable “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis. It was evident how these three songs brought the best out of everyone runner on the course. After 4 years of running Comrades, I will never forget these moments and memories that these songs evoke. Right at 5:30AM, after the famous cockrell cry of Max Trimborn, the start gun was fired, and we were off to the races!
It took several minutes for 19000 plus runners to cross the start line. I don’t recall how long it took, but it felt like forever, and the roads were so crowded. It was unbelievably crowded and I felt quite claustrophobic. Imagine thousands of runners in front of you and behind you trying to run up a road with 6 lanes through the city of Durban. It felt warm, humid and difficult to breath with thousands of runner inhaling oxygen and exhaling Carbon dioxide. I felt nauseous and started to struggle from the beginning. In addition to all of the above, all of us were avoiding the “cats eyes” on the road, as these were a potential trip hazard. I last ran the Comrades Up direction in 2015, and had forgotten how tough it was to climb up the initial hills of Durban, which presented a big challenge even before the first of the devil hills…Cowies Hill!
Most of the climbing on Cowies hill happened while it was dark, so mercifully I was spared the sight of a daunting slope. We managed to get to the top. The South Africans have a tradition of raising their arms in the air once they got to the top of the hill.
Once Cowies hill was conquered, then came Fields Hill, which is the monster hill on this course. Almost 3km long, this hill is meant to break your spirit. I believe that your destiny in the race is determined by how you decide to tackle Fields hill. I chose to run 1 min and walk 30s and repeat and rinse. This was a mighty hill that just never seemed to end. I seriously thought about throwing in the towel, as my nausea would not go away. It was right about this time I started to smell Arnica Ice spray (smells like ultra strong Ben Gay) being used by multiple runners. In addition to the smell, the spray was getting into my eyes. I am not sure how I made it up Fields Hill without throwing up, but I did.
Once Fields Hill was conquered, I decided that my original race plan of finishing in ten and a half hours was going to be impossible. I needed to focus on finishing successfully. Having travelled from the top of the world to the bottom of the world, I needed to secure that finishers medal. I did not want my training to be in vain. Therefore I decided to break up the rest of the race into milestones. Each time I hit a milestone, it would re-affirm my will to stay in the race. As someone that works in the field of project management, I believe in the philosophy that the successful completion of a journey to its final destination involves hitting intermediate milestones successfully on time.
The next devil of a hill was Bothas Hill. I was surprised that after Fields Hill, this was not as overwhelming. Not to say it was not challenging, but for the first time, I was not smelling Arnica Ice. I decided to “smell the roses” instead”. I told myself how lucky I was to be enjoying this wonderful moment of running the Comrades marathon. It was amazing to see the camaraderie of the African runners. Africans do an amazing job of sticking together. Usually a leader (man or woman) emerges. He/she does a sing song like “1, 2, 3, 1, 2,3”, while the rest of the group chants the same. The leader leads the group on a run for several minutes and then switches to a walk. It was mesmerizing to observe this. It is at these moments that I know that my heart belongs on the African continent. I was born in Tanzania and also lived in Nigeria. It was at this time that I decided I was going to finish this race. I defined my milestones as every major hill and every one of the 6 cutoffs. Each time I hit one of these milestones, my motivation to stay in the race became stronger.
Inchanga Hill suddenly made its presence known. Having done this race a few times, I still end up asking my fellow runners if the hill in front of us is Inchanga. This is the one hill that is winding and visible in its entirety. To look at the entire length of Inchanga is akin to having a little mini heart attack of what you are about to take on. I just smiled and decided to do the 1 minute 30 second run walk routine, and climbed all the way to the top.
After Inchanga, it became a matter of wits of making it through cutoffs and putting one foot in front of the other. Every footstep forward was a footstep getting closer to the finish line. Around this time I was starting to getting cramps in my thighs and calfs. Having become an “expert” on dealing with muscle cramps, I walked for a couple of minutes and ingested a salt pill; my placebo for cramp reduction. When the cramp subsided, I continued moving on. Below are are some pictures of me enjoying my self-induced misery in style. A smile can go a long way to disguise extreme discomfort. Running Comrades means enjoying pain and embracing the suck.
After Inchanga, the next goal was to make it to Polly Shortts (no this is not named after Polly and her shorts. My understanding that this hill is named after the farmer that owned the land here). I managed to make it to the highest point – Umlaas Road- and make it to the base of Polly Shortts.
Oh! How I hate Polly Shortts. This is a cruel 2km hill. By now I knew that I was going to finish in the back of the pack in the field. My quads felt like blocks of lead, and I just marched up this hill. It was at this point I looked at my fellow runners and took sight of everyones suffering. It was heartening to see runners helping each other to get up this monster hill. This is what Comrades is about. I am not sure how things would be outside of the race, but today we were going to help encourage other to get to the finish despite the differences in our backgrounds or standing in society. On Polly Shortts I also saw Hilton Murray who is famous in South Africa for pushing Anita who sits in a wheel chair. I admired the both of them immensely. Hilton for pushing Anita for 88km, up and down every hill, and Anita for sitting in that chair the whole time. I finally got up to the top of Polly Shortts, and just continued running and walking towards the finish line (approximately 7km more). Polly Shortts takes everything out of you, and you more or less are pretty much hanging on by a thread, right up to the finish.
The road to the finish line went through several residential neighborhoods and countless number of hills (yes….there were no shortage of nameless hills). The finish line was at horse racing course, and even the entrance to the course had a hill (thank the Lord for that downhill followed by that uncalled for uphill). You can see how tired I am getting to the finish. Finally I crossed the finish line at 88km (based on my GPS watch) in 11:44 (16 minutes before the 12 hour cutoff). It was my slowest Comrades marathon and my toughest fought race. I was completely exhausted that I could barely wave to my friends who finished and were waiting for me at the finish line.
All of friends finished strong and I was very happy for them. I was just relieved. As soon as I collected my bag with change of clothes, we caught the bus back to Durban (a 3 hour journey, but that is another story 🙂 )
Exhausted but so relieved to be done!
While I was tired, I truly felt like the lion in below pic….victorious and content!
Acknowledgments :
- My family, who are always my biggest cheerleaders and give me the time and space to pursue my adventures
- Coach Lindsey Parry, who created the program that helped me get mentally tough to tackle the race of enormous difficulty
- My friends who I got to spend the week with before and after the race. While the race was important, spending time with and making new friends is what I treasure most from these experiences