Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 18

THE RUNNING MANN
A very happy Running
Mann comes home
Route profile, with the start and finish as the lowest points
Karoo Desert traffic police are highly skilled in the art
of camouflage – you have to be when there are no
bushes to hide behind. However, I was really glad to
see them as we headed back into town and greeted
them fondly as they helped this dusty desert wanderer
return to civilisation. I also found my sense of humour
again when I noticed the “Random Breath Testing”
sign on their car. I flashed them my winning smile and
asked whether they would take it on trust that I had
brushed my teeth that morning.
Comrades, and 25,000 South Africans will attempt
to earn “real runner” credentials in June 2020. That
leaves plenty of space in the second half of the year
for a few of these so-called “real runners” to ‘level up’
and take on 80 brutal, beautiful, brilliant kilometres in
the middle of the Great Karoo. There are thousands of
“real runners” out there, but just a handful who have
run Laingsburg’s Karoo Ultra and elevated their status
to that of “surreal runner!”
Other than the “WTF were you
thinking?” rhetorical question, the
second most popular query I was
asked after this race was, “How
does Karoo compare in toughness to
Comrades?” Here is my opinion…
Terrain: Karoo is way tougher. Running on gravel
and sand is a lot harder on the day. I never cramp,
but got ‘seizure-twinges’ in my calves over the last
quarter of the race.
Recovery: The good news is that the soft,
cushioning sand means your recovery after Karoo
is much quicker than the unforgiving tar between
Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
Surreal Finish
I was a very happy finisher – so much so that I
managed to muster the energy to give my camera
to a race official on the finish line and run back 100
metres to make sure the moment was captured for
posterity. (My Facebook posts on the event sparked
extended spells of nostalgia amongst past Karoo Ultra
devotees, and I am told that in ‘the old days’ they put
up tape for every finisher, so everyone was a winner.)
Of the 71 starters, 51 made it back to the Laingsburg
Sports Grounds to complete one of the last of the
remaining classic South African ultras (based on my
definition of being old, small and awesome). There
are just three ultra-marathons in South Africa that
have reached golden jubilee status with 50 events
(Comrades – 94, Arthur Creswell Bergville – 54 and
Two Oceans – 50). The Karoo Ultra is two years
away from achieving this milestone... but a few more
runners are needed to ensure the long-term future of
the race.
Rightly or wrongly, the generally accepted South
African definition of a “real runner” is completing the
18
Loneliness: At Comrades there are always fellow
runners and spectators to cheer (and goad) you
on. At Karoo, you have only rocks and imaginary
friends for company, and even the most antisocial
runners I know would struggle with the isolation
you experience in the Karoo Desert.
Race day logistics: Comrades is much tougher on
this score. Instead of waking up yesterday to get
into your seeding pen at Comrades to run today,
you can roll out of bed and amble over to the Karoo
start.
Hills: Here there is one clear winner... the long,
steady pull to the 44km mark of Karoo just can’t
compete with Comrades’ famous hills!
Tapering: With all the hype beforehand and the
total shut-down of the formal and social running
calendar, you can’t help but give Comrades a full
taper. Without more sensible runners to keep me
The Karoo Ultra ranks amongst
the toughest races
in check, I only took one extra rest day from my
normal training week before Karoo. Let’s just say I
am still learning... and I definitely paid the price in
race day pain for my much more casual approach
towards Karoo.
Length: Depending on the year, Comrades is seven
to 10 kilometres longer. This might not sound like
much, but it can be the difference between life and
death in the desert.
At this stage I would say Comrades is slightly
ahead on the toughness scale. However, there is
one final factor to consider…
The Heat: In the Karoo, the heat is oppressive. It’s
normally well over 30°C by the time you’ve finished
your second cup of coffee in the Karoo, and
Laingsburg locals don’t remove their jackets until
the barometer passes the 30-degree mark. Now
it’s all good and well that meteorologists officially
record temperatures “in the shade,” but these rules
don’t apply when there is no shade! (The case
study for understanding the effect of heat on the
unprepared runner is the infamous 2013 Comrades
‘Up Run.’ The official high in Pietermaritzburg that
day was 30°C and resulted in only 55% of the
starters finishing the race, whereas some 86% of
this year’s Up Run starters earned a medal.)
So does that final factor tip the scales? Not
quite... I’m calling it a tie – or a ‘dead heat,’ if
you prefer!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stuart’s blogs usually focus on his adventures (and sometimes misadventures) while
running marathons and ultra-marathons all over South Africa, and occasionally in other countries. He recently
fulfilled a lifetime goal of securing a shoe sponsorship from The Sweatshop branch in Broadacres (and a
running kit sponsorship from Runderwear), thus allowing him to run more races and share their stories. You
can read his original blogs at http://runningmann.co.za, and follow him on social media @runningmann100.
ISSUE 125 DECEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
The route starts at an altitude of 642m and slowly
climbs to 922m at the 44km mark. Of course,
I was told that the good news was that “it’s all
downhill from there.” Now, there are four kind of
lies: Lies, damn lies, statistics, and route profiles.
There were a significant number of climbs over the
last few kilometres as Moordenaars Road tried to
claim another victim, and I was delighted to realise
that the white rocks spelling “Laingsburg” on the
mountainside was not a mirage.
Karoo versus Comrades:
Which is tougher?