Cyclists with a "Running" Problem

[McD23]

Course was 88.8km on my garmin and a mates. So not as short as made it.

[Rowl]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

I agree. Was a bit weird, i think because the route was almost 4km shorter it prob made a big difference. Well done to everyone who finished and got a pb. Gerda is a machine, she is now dominating the Comrades like the Russian twins did in the past. Cant see anyone challenging her in the future, except maybe Adele. I was disgusted with Tete and Mothibi's attitude when Piet was asking for a little bit of their sportsdrink and 1 sachet of water. If the race was 100m longer Piet would've showed him the middle finger. They are team mates and that's definitely not in the spirit of the Comrades. 

Also didn't like the approach from Tete and Mothibi, they basically tried to shut him out of the race. I didn't see his attack earlier but apparently he attacked out of the Nedbank team/group and Tete wasn't very happy with that?

Edit: Was rooting hard for Piet to catch Tete at the end, Tete's neck must be very stiff today.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Roul
Piet detail

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

Seeing a lot of posts on social that the cut-off at Pinetown was 1.5-2km further than the communicated 68.86km. Lots of people also complaining about being well within finishing pace but then cut-off at Sherwood with 6.3km to go.

Would be interesting to see the finishing % compared to previous years and also compare the number of people coming across the line in the last minutes.

[Lexx]

11 minutes ago, Fred van Vlaanderen said:

Seeing a lot of posts on social that the cut-off at Pinetown was 1.5-2km further than the communicated 68.86km. Lots of people also complaining about being well within finishing pace but then cut-off at Sherwood with 6.3km to go.

Would be interesting to see the finishing % compared to previous years and also compare the number of people coming across the line in the last minutes.

Could be why there were so few runners at the end.

[Shebeen]

3 hours ago, Fred van Vlaanderen said:

Seeing a lot of posts on social that the cut-off at Pinetown was 1.5-2km further than the communicated 68.86km. Lots of people also complaining about being well within finishing pace but then cut-off at Sherwood with 6.3km to go.

Would be interesting to see the finishing % compared to previous years and also compare the number of people coming across the line in the last minutes.

 

I would be extremely hacked off if this is the case. This should not be possible. there should be layers of people double checking this is done correctly.

[shaper]

Was a tough but great day out, up until 12kms to go where my right hamstring started tightening and the quads were on fire. Had to back off slightly, but happy to get a Bill Rowan with an 8:42hr time.

Yesterday after the run the body and legs were broken, fortunately today all recovered.

Well done to all who raced, faced their daemons and went through all the dark places to come out triumphant and finish!!

[ycowley]

On 6/9/2023 at 12:35 PM, dave303e said:

come now, I said it a few weeks back when someone in Comrades association declared the 2022 race drug free after a tiny amount of tests. There is no way there were not back markers chucking down illegal substances for pain, or to get them through ahead of cutoff. I have seen guys doping for 5km park runs. Hell there is so much marijuana abuse in ultra trail I am sure it is likely spilling into the back markers here.

Someone openly admitted on TV yesterday when interviewed that he had chucked down a banned substance to get to the finish because his knee was sore. 

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

30 minutes ago, shaper said:

Was a tough but great day out, up until 12kms to go where my right hamstring started tightening and the quads were on fire. Had to back off slightly, but happy to get a Bill Rowan with an 8:42hr time.

Yesterday after the run the body and legs were broken, fortunately today all recovered.

Well done to all who raced, faced their daemons and went through all the dark places to come out triumphant and finish!!

Well done. Brilliant time. 

[tjommies3]

As a sports fan, I definitely watch way too many events. I was so caught up in the tennis final - backing Djokovic to get to his 23rd grand slam, that I forgot to watch the Comrades finish. When I had a chance to watch it, it turned out to be so underwhelming. It reminded me of when a restaurant or store has more staff than customers. Very disappointed that there was no drama. WELL DONE to the winners, especially Gerda, Tete just irritated me.

On another note, I do feel that some entrants should stop training for cut-offs. I know that it isn't always possible - especially due to race day conditions - but I can't imagine training forever to be cutting it fine. Organisers are to blame in some cases but they don't build up our fitness, we do. So you have to look after your investment. One of my friends beat the 2 cut-off times by 2 and 6 minutes respectively. He labelled it as 'living on the edge'.

[dave303e]

On 6/9/2023 at 2:35 PM, Shebeen said:

I haven't seen much drug taking in AR, maybe I'm not fast enough.

(Does red bull count?) I have seen people treat myprodol as smarties though. Last time I checked it is not banned,

 

 

 

edit: a decade plus ago I bought a set of tents from Cape Epic when they were clearing out the old ones for new sponsor logos. in one of them i found a whole bunch of ziplocks with pills marked A, B, C ,D etc. wonder how legal those were!

tramacet/tramadol a plenty, diamox and prednisone for high altitude races. They are there if you look closely

On 6/12/2023 at 6:38 AM, Lexx said:

I agree. Was a bit weird, i think because the route was almost 4km shorter it prob made a big difference. Well done to everyone who finished and got a pb. Gerda is a machine, she is now dominating the Comrades like the Russian twins did in the past. Cant see anyone challenging her in the future, except maybe Adele. I was disgusted with Tete and Mothibi's attitude when Piet was asking for a little bit of their sportsdrink and 1 sachet of water. If the race was 100m longer Piet would've showed him the middle finger. They are team mates and that's definitely not in the spirit of the Comrades. 

I was also a bit disgusted with it. But the reality is when you have R1,2 Mill on the line and your previous work was a security guard you will not let someone else's planning ruin your race. Tete and Mothibi seemed to have a plan and their team/ 2nds were on point. Comes down to studying the race and planning to a T. I am sure Piet will come back a lot more prepared if he comes back next year.

2 hours ago, tjommies3 said:

As a sports fan, I definitely watch way too many events. I was so caught up in the tennis final - backing Djokovic to get to his 23rd grand slam, that I forgot to watch the Comrades finish. When I had a chance to watch it, it turned out to be so underwhelming. It reminded me of when a restaurant or store has more staff than customers. Very disappointed that there was no drama. WELL DONE to the winners, especially Gerda, Tete just irritated me.

On another note, I do feel that some entrants should stop training for cut-offs. I know that it isn't always possible - especially due to race day conditions - but I can't imagine training forever to be cutting it fine. Organisers are to blame in some cases but they don't build up our fitness, we do. So you have to look after your investment. One of my friends beat the 2 cut-off times by 2 and 6 minutes respectively. He labelled it as 'living on the edge'.

Ya this popped into my head, if you know there is a 12 hour cutoff you should be aiming for an 11 hour finish to give yourself time for when the brown squidgy stuff hits the fan on the day.
But each to their own. Someone that was on a previous coach's whatsapp group had a key detailed plan of where and how long to walk and where to shuffle and it worked out at like 10mins short of cutoff. I guess we are all wired differently and many are there just to scrape a finish, many others are there to really test themselves for a better time. But we all have different goals in life.

For me I think the itch was too much this year, coach was very very happy yesterday when I said put Comrades 2024 on the calendar, I guess this also means I need to finally run a road marathon...

[Shebeen]

4 hours ago, tjommies3 said:

As a sports fan, I definitely watch way too many events. I was so caught up in the tennis final - backing Djokovic to get to his 23rd grand slam, that I forgot to watch the Comrades finish. When I had a chance to watch it, it turned out to be so underwhelming. It reminded me of when a restaurant or store has more staff than customers. Very disappointed that there was no drama. 

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!!!!!

 

 

We did the same, switching between the two. seems likely that the incorrect cut-off could have stopped many potential finishline grass dramas

[Shebeen]

On 6/12/2023 at 6:38 AM, Lexx said:

 I was disgusted with Tete and Mothibi's attitude when Piet was asking for a little bit of their sportsdrink and 1 sachet of water. If the race was 100m longer Piet would've showed him the middle finger. They are team mates and that's definitely not in the spirit of the Comrades. 

"Team mates" is a bit of a misnomer. The international runners who are in nedbank colours might not even meet the local guys running in the same outfit.

 

Piet is only 26. He said he's never done a race* like this. He said while he should have started the kick earlier if it was 2km longer he would have gone later anyway. He will definitely be back, Also, while it was close at the end, Tete had 30 seconds to play with at the stadium, with all that neck scratching he could have just run properly and won by 90 seconds.

 

 

*granted he did podium at World 100km champs last year, how is there not more synergy between this and comrades - we should be seeing the same people at the top10 of these events? https://iau-ultramarathon.org/2022-iau-100-km-world-championships-race-report.html

 

 

[shaper]

On 6/12/2023 at 6:50 AM, McD23 said:

Course was 88.8km on my garmin and a mates. So not as short as made it.

I recorded 88.7 and 5 other athletes I coached recorded 88.6, 89.0, 88.0, 88.5 and 88.7.  Discrepancies likely depending on where your 2nds were stationed and whether you were taking the shortest line.  All recorded longer than official distance given.

[McD23]

7 minutes ago, shaper said:

I recorded 88.7 and 5 other athletes I coached recorded 88.6, 89.0, 88.0, 88.5 and 88.7.  Discrepancies likely depending on where your 2nds were stationed and whether you were taking the shortest line.  All recorded longer than official distance given.

I got 88.8km as did my mate who started in B with me.

[Vetplant]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0aLBokvRsTnVxKDiZQz9BuhbrAHAaPJwKqgk2H39KsyYEyMeEDhpUbgbgwx3hwgYul&id=100046372424376&mibextid=Nif5oz

In numbers:

2022: 195 finishers in last 4 minutes, of which 57 was in the last minute

2023: 28 finishers in last 4 minutes, none of which was in the last minute. 

Someone screwed up... 

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

9 hours ago, dave303e said:

For me I think the itch was too much this year, coach was very very happy yesterday when I said put Comrades 2024 on the calendar, I guess this also means I need to finally run a road marathon...

You won’t regret it. Something magical about the Comrades.