Fordyce’s Comrades tales: Training is a science but racing is an art

“How do I pace myself correctly on Sunday, Bruce, if my goal is to earn a Bill Rowan medal?”

A nervous novice asked me this question at a Comrades Marathon function held by a running club a few days ago.

He seemed puzzled when I struggled to answer the question. I think he was hoping I would present him with a simple average time per kilometre pace that he should run.

I struggled because it’s an extremely difficult question to answer. And unfortunately, questions on pacing for various goals at Sunday’s 96th Comrades Marathon are now the most frequently asked.

The best answer I could give him was to try and explain that there isn’t really “a correct pace”. Training for Comrades is an exact science but running and racing the Comrades is an art.

ALSO READ: Fordyce’s Comrades tales: Some superstitions do work

The training for Comrades is indeed an exact science. Blend the correct mixture of long runs, speedwork, hill work and rest and you will create a Comrades-ready runner.

But running and racing the Comrades is an art. Considering the surrounding conditions, the heat and humidity, the cold at the start, possible headwinds, the runners around you, and the monstrous Comrades hills, each runner must paint his or her own picture on race day.

Pace yourself

It has been said that those runners with the best pace judgement are those closest in athletic DNA to our early hunter/gatherer ancestors. Prehistoric hunters had an innate knowledge of the pace required to run an antelope to exhaustion.

I always believed that the running watch on my left wrist was probably the least important piece of equipment that I carried on race morning. I think I glanced at it at Drummond Village (halfway) and again at the finish.

The rest of the morning I simply ran, checking my breathing, feeling the state of my legs, remembering to drink occasionally and monitoring the other runners around me. I used my racing opposition both as targets and pace setters.

ALSO READ: Five things to know about the 2023 Comrades Marathon

In addition, the Comrades distance markers are sadistically placed in reverse order. After an hour or so of steady running a runner might come upon a distance marker indicating 78 kilometres to go. How do you measure that? How do you pace yourself?

I preferred to use the famous Comrades landmarks as milestones.

“Get Camperdown behind me, then tick Cato Ridge and Inchanga Hill.” And much later, “Just Tollgate Hill to climb and I’m nearly home.”

Pacing charts

Having said that, however, I know that many Comrades runners rely on pacing charts. And I was able to offer some comfort to my enquiring friend by suggesting he carry an expert Bill Rowan pacing chart.

These are easy to come by and are generally calibrated and organised to factor in the big hills en route and the natural slowing of a tired runner towards the end of the race.

Be warned, however, that the writing on some of these charts is so small that those like me, who are seriously myopic, will struggle to read the chart without glasses.

Join a bus

I also suggested that he might like to consider joining a Comrades “bus”. This is a group of like-minded runners who have a similar finishing time in mind. They run together and are led by a very experienced “bus driver” who runs at the correct pace.

Shahieda Thungo is a renowned and legendary bus driver who brings the 12-hour runners safely home before the cut-off. She is an expert at cajoling and persuading runners not to climb off the bus.

ALSO READ: Comrades Marathon at a glance: A look at the race by numbers

It helps that Shahieda’s bus is the slowest bus and the easiest to” drive”. This makes it the most reliable bus. The faster the bus the trickier it can become to set the correct pace. These are the less reliable buses.

I once attempted to drive the 9-hour bus at Comrades but realised on Field’s Hill that I was struggling and was going to disappoint a large group of Bill Rowan hopefuls. I had to hand the bus driver’s flag to my friend Rory Steyn. He then successfully drove the bus for the rest of its journey.

Patient strategy

There are runners who prefer to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ by running as fast and steadily as they can and by putting money in the bank at Drummond. Their aim is to be as far ahead of schedule as possible at halfway and then hang on in the second half.

But I believe this is a disastrous pacing strategy. For every minute gained at Drummond, runners can lose many, many minutes in the second half.

To all those running this weekend, my final advice is: Start like a coward, finish like a hero or heroine.

NOW READ: Title contenders: Top athletes to watch at the Comrades Marathon