Pirates Road Running created its own route for the much-anticipated Race the Comrades Legends Run.
The virtual run saw people all over South Africa run five, 10, 21, 45 and 90km for real medals on 14 June, in lieu of the postponed Comrades Marathon. The Pirates route was vast and people could join it at any location, at any time, and run in either direction.”The guys had a choice of a 10km, 21km and 45km option consisting of two loops for the 21km and four loops for the 45km,” explained the running club’s chairperson, Natalie Mills.
“It was so awesome to see familiar faces on the road as we were all running along the route. Comrades is the most anticipated event of the year for a lot of us. Even though we were all sad we couldn’t be on the start line in Pietermaritzburg it was great to be on the road with our fellow club mates rooting each other on and knowing we were all in this together.”
Mills said about 10 club members ran the 45km and one member, Johan Botes, completed the full 90km. Many others ran 10km and 21km, with about 60 people taking part in the Pirates route. “We even had our very own Wall of Honour on route where the runners had to sign their name as well as an Arthur’s Seat,” Mills added. “Due to our current situation with Covid-19, our committee has really had to think out of the box and come up with different ideas to keep things exciting and keep guys in high spirits.”
This included the club starting a Social Distancing Time Trial Challenge, where members are encouraged to run the Pirates 5km or 8km time trial route every week, on any day and at any time. “Each week they need to log their time and try beat their previous weeks’ time. They get a point for running the route and a point for beating their previous weeks’ time. After seven weeks we will tally up the points and see who the top five guys and girls are in line for winning some awesome prizes. It’s really great to get out onto the route even if it’s on your own and challenge yourself.”
Furthermore, the weekend of 27 and 28 June will see Pirates Road Running host a treasure hunt. This will include 100 clues that members need to find over a 12km course. This can be done at any time on either the Saturday or Sunday.”We are looking forward to doing all sorts of crazy things like counting the boats at Zoo Lake and finding the skull and cross bones every kilometre,” Mills concluded.
