Race report by Vishwas Survyavanshi
Comrades 2018 down run plan was set immediately after my last year’s UP run. But the actual Comrades training started during the second week of March (two weeks of gap after Delhi Full Marathon). This time I was alone. And my last year’s running partner Krishna Sirothia was not with me.
As my training kicked off, I ran my first long run of 55km in 05:40 in March at Lavasa. Subsequently the second long run of 65km at Mutha Ghat in 06:28. Here we did two laps of Mutha ghat (up & down). I was constantly keeping an eye on my watch & ensuring that I do all my run at a sub 6 minute pace. At the same time, I made sure to be focused on diet, rest, strength training, stretching & foam rolling. This time my training schedule was bit hectic and tiring – five days of runs per week, one day strength training & only one day rest (means no rest J). Weekly mileage was 80-90km & sometimes more than 100km. In between I caught up with Groin pain, so I had been doing icing twice till race day & groin exercises. I took a lot of care to get rid of this groin pain, stopped doing strides during strength training, reduced tempo intensity and that helped me to stand injury free at the start line. In the month of May, I did my last long run of 55k in 05:27 again at Mutha ghat (two loops up-down). Afterwards, I had three weeks of taper before we flew to Durban. The trip to Durban was exciting with ~1400km of Mileage under the belt since Jan I went to Durban for my second appearance at Comrades. I reached Durban on Thursday. And did an easy 5k on Friday morning and went to expo later. I’ve been to race expos before.
But by far, it was the largest, busiest and craziest expo I’d ever been to,?probably at least twice the size of any other. Collected bib & was roaming around expo, clicked many pictures in excitement. Friday second half & Saturday was strict rest. I prepared running cloths, race kit & went to bed at 5pm. Got up at 12 am, had bath, breakfast (Banana, Sandwich & protein shake), and reached Durban exhibition center at 2 am to catch the bus towards Pietermaritzburg (PMB). It was very cold & I wore singlet, two t-shirts & jacket. Had a short nap during the travel. Reached PMB at 3:30 am, submitted tog bag & walked to the respective section at starting line. I was in section C & starting 4:15 to 5:30 waiting there. It was cold & I was sitting at the corner alone. Off course there were lot of other local runners around. For some reason I was already getting nervous. I was just thinking of my 90km run which was waiting right in front of me. As I was alone I was thinking of joining a SUB 9 bus (JOE). So I discussed with him & realized that his strategy is different than what I practiced for. Checked with some other pacers & finally decided to go on my own. 10 min before the flag off, the barriers separating the sections were opened & I started moving towards start line. Sharp at 5:30 the fake cock crowed, gun was fired & race started. This time I was lucky enough to see all these formalities by the officials at start point. Race was started. It took me 45 seconds to reach the start line. It was too crowded during initial couple of km. I was going as per my plan comfortably. It was cold & I still couldn’t feel my legs for much of the first few km. 3rd km I took off my 1st t-shirt which I was wearing however it was too cold that I continued with my 2nd t-shirt till 20 km. So many up-hills & down-hills were already under way & I started to implement the plan on uphills. One gel & salt tablet for every 10km was the plan I followed in practice & same was followed in race. Crossed the first cut off Lion Park 15.57km in 1:32, at 20th km I took quick loo beak, removed the 2nd t-shirt & continued. Crossed second cut off Cato Ridge 30.28km in 2:56. I was going perfectly as per my plan. It was ok on up-hills but downhills were giving me discomfort. My thighs were so tight & heavy that once I crossed the third cut off Drummond 44.27km in 4:21. I took a break at aid station where volunteers did some massage & icing which made my thigh bit relaxed & I started again comparatively at a slower pace.
I knew that this is going to be tough & if I push too much with heavy legs it might results in cramp & that will spoil my race, so sensible call was to run within the limits. Meanwhile both the sub 9 pacers (JOE & JOHAN) went ahead. Till mid-way they were running around me only. Slowly but I kept on moving ahead, run on uphill & run-walk on down hills. Crossed the 4th cut off Winston Park 57.61km in 5:50 almost 15 min later than what I targeted. I was thinking that I will cover this time loss during last 20km and tackled all up-down throughout route. Excellent support throughout the route water, boiled potatoes, coke, watermelon, banana, oranges, energy drinks, protein bar, Vaseline. Everything was available on route. There were kids of all ages along the course. Some school students were standing around the route to cheer us which helped me not to walk & keep going. 5th cut off Pinetown 68.87km crossed in 7:12. This was the slowest part of the entire run. To finish a sub 9, I was having 21km to cover in 1:48 which means I needed to run at 5:15 pace. All calculations were clear in my mind. I realized sub 9 is not possible so focus on plan B which was 9:30 & that was under control. At every km mark, difference between Garmin & actual distance was increasing. I was already exhausted physically now it was time to push mentally. It was a complete mental game then & pushing alone was challenging. Every km was like 10k. It was getting harder & difficult to manage. I started reminiscing all the motivational thoughts that I listed down in my diary, started counting 1 to 100. Crossed last cut off point Mayville 81.31km in 8:34. Actually I didn’t bother much about any of the cut off as I was well ahead of the cut off limit.
More frustration was on time slippage. Now it was a flat route except one flyover on 87th km. I pushed in last 3 km, my Garmin already crossed 90km & just before entering the stadium, it switched off. I realized that in the morning when it was dark I turned on the light which I forgot to turn off later and that consumed all the battery. This is something to keep in mind going forward. As I started approaching the stadium I started increasing my pace, lot of cameras around capturing runners. When I entered into the stadium it was full of spectators & it was great experience to do final lap in beautiful Moses Mabhida Stadium. My eyes were constantly looking at clock ticking at finish line & I was sprinting. I crossed the finish line in full swing with smile on my face, so thankful to be done. I finished comrades in 9:28:05. Received my medal & finishers batch. Started walking towards International runner’s dressing room. Started searching for some familiar face but no one was around. Collected back to back medal, food bag & my tog bag, changed my cloths. Did video call to Rohit Roy using other runner’s phone. It was very emotional moment for me. Later Satish Gujaran & Suniel Shetty came, whom I met then we sat together, congratulated each other. Then other fellow runners started to come & the celebration started. Proud moment for me, I improved my timing by almost an hour from last year. Yes slippage from ambitious target of sub 9 but I’m ecstatic with this outcome of 9:28 for 91 km distance. It was a huge sense of satisfaction and proud moment for all of us.
Such huge efforts cannot be attempted single handedly. It’s always a teamwork. All the training long runs we did were supported by many people. Rahul Udhoji, Hrishikesh Mahajan, Sumitra Joshi, Ashish Joshi, Shaantanu Prabhune, Kiran Kakulate, Swapnil Patil, Shirish Patra, Kavitha Reddy, Rohit Roy, Vipin Gupta, Shrutika, Sameer Wagle & Ravi Telkar are the people who sacrificed their weekends & did water support for our long runs also some of the runners did running support like Muthu sir. Thanks to each one of them. My coach Atul Godbole who not only coached us but also gave moral support till the start line at PMB. His prediction on my finish time & target was perfect. Having him along with us was a great support. Thanks Atul for all your help. My wife & parents are great support system. They also sacrificed many weekends for me. Just too good. All my Pune Road Runners, Motiv8 friends & well-wishers who wished me through WhatsApp, Facebook & called me personally thanks to each one of them.
Towards fag end of the race when it was difficult to keep going I was thinking about all of you which gave me energy to keep putting step forward & not to stop. Thanks to all my fellow runners from Motiv8 for your continuous support & encouragement. Congratulations to all and yes I had a great time at Durban with you all.
Always aim high. “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”.