Chondromalacia patella, Iliotibial-band friction syndrome, stress fracture, higher respiratory tract an infection. This horrendous listing of power situations sums up the traps and mine-fields that await runners as they practice intensely via this important section of their Comrades marathon preparation. They lurk like camouflaged aliens ready to leap at devoted runners, ready to destroy inspiring working desires.
And sadly, many runners are going to confront these vicious enemies, and different nasty allies of theirs, in the subsequent few weeks. Sadly, many runners will change into injured or sick on this very important coaching time.
We know that statistically 65% of these runners who is not going to attain the Comrades marathon end line at Moses Mabhida Stadium on 28 August will fail as a result of they are going to be harbouring an harm or sickness.
The Comrades is hard sufficient for a powerful, wholesome runner. It is nearly unattainable for a runner with a handicap. There are some who battle via on a poisonous mixture of cussed braveness and dozens of ache killers however the value their well being pays just isn’t value it.
I’ve a very good working good friend, who shall stay anonymous, who earned his medal because of handfuls of anti-inflammatories. The value he paid for that medal was 5 nights in a Durban hospital recovering from kidney failure.
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In mid-July the Comrades runner is sort of a tightrope walker wobbling erratically whereas balancing precariously between excessive health and full catastrophe. I used to joke with my working companions that if a sparrow with a heavy chilly sneezed in a tree a kilometre away from me I might be bedridden with flu two days later. That’s how hazardous this time will be.
However, it’s how every runner responds to the occasional main wobble that determines success or failure at the Comrades.
We don’t have these statistics, however I might hazard a guess that greater than 90% of the runners leaving the Pietermaritzburg beginning line on race morning could have fought some downside or different in the weeks earlier than Comrades.
How do runners combat again towards the lurking enemy? A primary defence is to grasp that warning is the greatest type of assault. Don’t attempt something new and untested.
Comrades 1984 race
In the weeks earlier than the 1984 race I threw warning to the wind after I began vigorous fitness center work. I started lifting weights with my legs and arms. Perhaps the hamstring curls I tried had been too heavy, or maybe my semi-squats with weights had been too vigorous, however quickly I developed a slight niggle in my proper hamstring. I ignored the troublesome hamstring convincing myself that it was “just a minor twinge and would soon disappear.”
This is certainly one of our sport’s most ceaselessly cited excuses runners use for pushing on and ignoring frequent sense. “It’s just a little niggle. I’ll run it out.” It wasn’t, and I didn’t.
The cautious strategy additionally advises towards sudden will increase in coaching mileage. And but so many runners ignore that clever recommendation. Perhaps they’re pushed by an impending sense of future and the quickly approaching race date. But in addition they throw warning to the wind as they argue.
“I have to double my mileage. I must make up for lost ground. I’ve lost two weeks of training.”
Runners need to recognise that what’s gone is gone. Forget the missed coaching. Leave it behind, transfer on.
No good build-up
Do not ignore worrying signs or niggles irrespective of how trivial. That slight twinge in the hamstring might change into a critical tear, because it did in my case, that scratchy throat might change into a raging chilly or an infection.
Take consolation from the information that even the champions and elite runners could have struggled with their very own setbacks in the weeks earlier than Comrades. Yes, even Gerda Steyn and Bongmusa Mthembu could have skilled minor accidents and sicknesses that value them some coaching days. No one has an ideal build-up.
I perceive that it may be very miserable watching others working, whereas studying on social media about the prodigious distances others are logging of their coaching diaries, significantly when all you are able to do is clamp a bag of ice onto an infected ankle.
Take consolation additionally from the information that accidents are sometimes a “blessing in disguise”. They can act as “calming pills” or the valiums for over enthusiasm.
Comrades 1979 race
I recall 1979 Comrades champion Piet Vorster confiding in me that he didn’t charge his possibilities very extremely in that 12 months’s race. He had struggled for weeks with a nasty ankle harm and had been unable to coach. He was satisfied that he must bail (drop out of) the race at some stage as a result of he had not run adequate mileage in coaching.
Not solely did he not bail, however he received the race and in a brand new file time. At 80 kilometres he raced powerfully up and over Polly Shortts and was untouchable that day. I do know. I used to be chasing Piet and was unable to catch him.
Rest assured that should you reply properly and cautiously to a setback it will likely be a distant reminiscence on race day. When you first set eyes on the wonderful “1 kilometre to go” board you received’t bear in mind the misplaced coaching, the chilly you fought in July, or the harm that value you 5 days coaching.