This is what was on facebook: COMRADES FACES ROAD WORK CHALLENGE - GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS FOR 9;30 TO 12 HOUR RUNNERS Any Comrades runner planning to finish in Comrades Marathon 2019 - Up Run on Sunday faces an additional challenge less just 9km into the race that will add between 4 and possibly as much as 12 minutes to their journey !!! PINETOWN CUT OFF POINT REMOVED: The GOOD NEWS is that planned cut off at St Johns Road in Pinetown set at an unrealistic 2 hours 40 minutes has now been scrapped and runners will not fear being removed from the race until they complete 30km at Winston Park. This is outside the sponsors Caltex Garage SLOW - ROADWORKS AHEAD! The BAD NEWS for slower runners is that having crested out at Jan Smuts Avenue at 45th cutting and commenced the descent to cross the N2 which has an effective three lane highway the road works on the Westwood Mall narrows the route to 1 curved lane with concrete barriers on each side. At peak flow around 1400 runners per minute will approach this 3.5 metre wide section. This is where the race organisation expect the runners to concertina from 12 metre wide into the single lane. These roadworks have been ongoing since the before the turn of the year, and are described by Race Director, Rowyn James, as "minor" in Durban on Thursday. He made no specific comment on these roadworks in his initial presentation to the media. When questioned on the effect, James saw no real issue with using only the single lane and estimated a maximum delay of 6 minutes for any runner. RUNNERS VIEWS MAY DIFFER: A large percentage of the 20,000 the organisers expect to line up on Sunday may disagree with that statement when they arrive at the Westwood bridge in the dark and have to squeeze and walk their way through Runners will hit this section from just before 06:00 am for normally around a 40 minutes period. The mass of runners will hit this section around 06:10am and the peak will come around 06:20 for over 5 minutes where effectively only half of the runners arriving each minute will get through the 'door' of the single lane. One estimate is that the back up may see the runners delayed by up to 12 minutes depending on how the runners react to the stoppage. DOUBLE WHAMMY FOR BACK RUNNERS Based on times from 2017, these are the same runners who take between 6 and 12 minutes to cross the start line after the gun. Any delay becomes a double whammy as it could see a total of around 20 minutes being taken from their 12 hour limit to get from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. RACING FOR CUT OFFS While the removal of the Pinetown cut off will take away the immediate concerns, any delay at 45th will further reduce the time to make the already tight cut offs at both Winston park and half way. A senior organiser made it clear that there would be no official change to the other cut off times, but they may extend these on the day. A number of runners point out that this will be of no benefit to the runners as they will still be forced to hard to make up time in case the cut off's are not extended and the damage to their race plans will have been done. CATS EYES AND DARKNESS ADD TO RISKS: Concerns have been aired to Comrades office by experienced multiple finishing comrades runners as it is felt this is also a safety issue, particularly with the cat's eyes and the dark. It is feared that if anyone trips or falls in that section during the crowded peak time, the pressure from behind may see them trampled under foot. APPEAL FOR CALM COURTESY BY RUNNERS Appeals are made from the old hands locally that runners be aware on this section and that Comrades organisers adopt at least the advice and suggestions that have been made to minimise the risks and back up. Runners will need to work together to make their progress through this section, where pushing and shoving will only slow the time taken to negotiate the roughly 300m long section. Front runners and contenders for the prizes will not be affected by the roadworks.
