Suzanne Koonce's Staging Area

There is so much to say about running my first Comrades … as a “novice” ..where to begin. The traditions of the oldest ultra marathon make it a truly a unique race as it is accessible to so many runners and there is a camaraderie I have never experienced in any other race. As the qualifying ( marathon) time is 4:50 it is very doable by most runners. I had originally planned to run it in 2020 and when it was cancelled, I doubted I would still make the trip – but Comrades called to me to come and at least try to finish the race. I knew that whether I finished it under the 12 hour time limit or DNF – it would be the highlight of my running adventures.

I had first heard of Comrades from Mike Sohaskey at an expo several years ago. After he piqued my interest in this fascinating race I went home and looked up what I could find about it, including a Runners World article and Amby Burfoot’s account in his book Run Forever. Let’s just say I was hooked on running this race. I watched countless videos of the amazing start and finish line, listened to podcasts, especially of Lindsay Parry the official Comrades coach, and then told my own coach I was in! ..let’s start planning for this race.

It is unique in that it is run in a different direction every other year. The course is extremely hilly, however, with the recommended walk breaks throughout the course, it is very doable. I had not really trained sufficiently with walk breaks, so I pretty much followed what others were doing, mainly walking a lot of the hills. I found the 11 hour pace group about 2/3 of the way into the race and stayed with them until about 2.5 miles to go – I was feeling great so I was able to run to the finish line at a pretty fast pace ( for me) I finished with a smile and lots of energy.

I am now a believer in the run//walk method especially for a long distance as I know it is what allowed me to finish strong and earn my bronze medal for a sub 11 hr finish. Prior to this race the furthest I had run was a 35 mile training run, in which I did walk several miles on a very hot day ( mid 80’s), and 3 yrs ago had run one 50k trail run.

All along the course other runners come along side of you and talk for a minute or two, asking where you’re from , how you are doing etc. You wear two bibs, one on front and back, with your name on it and also the number of times you’ve completed the race. Simply amazing to see a bib with 22 or 35 or 49 times run! I met a man who was running his 50th Comrades . I tripped and fell once on a street light and another runner stayed with me, and another runner gave me aspirin which I had neglected to carry with me. The crowd support is amazing – sort of like New York or Boston on steroids!I wore a USA singlet and received a lot of cheers and Go USA from the crowd of spectators.

All of the runners in SA are in local running clubs and they are cheering their members and all the runners on, singing in local languages, providing food and music along the course etc. I signed up with a company called ConSports and had 3 “bag drops” along the way with my fluids and nutrition that I was used to. However the course was well stocked about every 2 m with water and electrolyte drinks and food.

The whole atmosphere of the weekend was lively. I met runners from all over the world – its amazing how far people travel to this race. For me, it was over 30 hours of flight time from California.

I went with the Marathon Tours group and met some wonderful runners and their families. MT support was terrific, transfer from airport, 3 dinners, race day transportation to the start etc. Also with Marathon Tours we stayed at the Southern Sun Elangeni which is a beachfront hotel in Durban and also the official Comrades hotel, and where the elites stayed. So I was lucky to meet Gerda Steyn who won the women’s race and also Michael Wardian who I really admire.

There were apparently some major issues this year with shorter cutoff times which didn’t allow many runners finish the race which was very frustrating and extremely disappointing. The race was about 1.3 km shorter than usual due to road work on the earlier parts of the course. A big part of the drama is always the finish line – you must cross at 12 hrs – and the race is “gun” time. There are always many people just missing it by seconds. However, this year somehow the cutoff times didn’t allow for many runners to come into the stadium and hope to cross the finish line at the last second..

I could go on and on and on and may update this review but I suggest you read Mikes May 2015 post which includes an excellent, very detailed review by wghines and another runners experience which completely summarize the day and experience. It is a magical day and a race like no other.

I definitely want to return – if you run it two years in a row as a novice, you earn a special ” back to back” medal – so hopefully I will be at the starting line in June 2024.

Run Comrades – it will show you what you are capable of. Humanity was at its finest on June 11 on the road to Durban.

Well I finally ran Boston 2 Big Sur and it did not disappoint! My friend had encouraged me to do it to get the very cool jacket!
This year the races were only 6 days apart. I felt good coming back from Boston and was looking forward to the race.
To be continued ..will finish review later )