ROAD RUNNING
Coaching Sidenote
All these years later , and with the benefit of modern science behind him , Comrades Coach Lindsey Parry explains : “ If you go into Comrades with minimal training , let ’ s say grossly under-prepared , you seriously increase your risk of injury from soft tissue damage in muscles , tendons and ligaments , to more serious injury to joints and / or meniscal surfaces .
“ By preparing the body through training , we increase the strength and efficiency of the muscles to withstand long periods of stress . Being under-prepared means fatiguing much sooner and causing muscles to underperform , putting stress on joints , ligaments and tendons . It is difficult to give you a magic number , because it is affected by experience , age , and running ability , but as a reasonable rule of thumb , I would say that you need to do 600 to 800km between 1 January and race day . Ideal for a finish is around 800-1000km ,” adds Parry .
inspector of physical education in schools , the trio decided they should attempt a slightly longer run , close to 30 miles , but thanks to the cold , they didn ’ t even complete that .
Not too long after that , race weekend arrived and the three set off for Pietermaritzburg with Kirkness ’ s brother , who was to be their second , as there were no refreshment tables in those days . “ We didn ’ t know much about it . We said to him , ‘ Don ’ t give us water to drink , just enough to wet our lips every now and again ,’ which was , of course , wrong information .”
The men arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Maritzburg to register on the day of the race . “ There were these people at the counter – runners , apparently – and we heard one say , ‘ how many miles have you done ?’ And then one said ‘ only 750 ,’ and the other one said , ‘ I did 1200 .’ Meanwhile , if we ’ d done 200 , it would have been a lot . We just looked at each other and said we ’ re here , we might as well go for it .”
: Coming home for a 10 th Comrades finish in 1983 , 24 years after his first
With Friends Like These
So , less than 200 miles wasn ’ t exactly the best build-up ... Nevertheless , Kirkness and his friends set off from Pietermaritzburg after hearing the live cockcrow from Max Trimborne outside the famous city hall . ( The famous cockcrow was later recorded and is still played before every Comrades start , a much loved race tradition ). However , they hadn ’ t got far outside of Pietermaritzburg when his friends left him behind and raced on ahead . “ They talk of the loneliness of the long distance runner . Today there is no such thing at Comrades , but on that particular day I went for miles and miles and miles without seeing any other runner ,” said Kirkness .
“ We were leading up towards Drummond and I was exhausted by then . My friends were gone , and my second was nowhere in sight .” Kirkness therefore stopped for a break and to wait for his brother , who then coaxed him onwards towards the Drummond Hotel . “ He said I should just walk to the top of the hill , which I did and got to the Drummond Hotel , where I lay down on the grass . He ’ d gone on again to suss out the area . Unbeknown to me , my two friends had withdrawn from the race , and they were inside the pub , having a drink , and they saw me , but didn ’ t let on they were there .”
Believing his friends were still up ahead , Kirkness dragged himself onwards towards Durban . “ I got into that little dip at Mayville and a Durban car coming the opposite way stopped and a chap in tennis gear got out and said , ‘ Come with me ’.” Explaining that he was about to give up because his second said there were still seven miles to go and he wouldn ’ t make it under the then-cut-off mark of 11 hours , the tennis player promptly told Kirkness what he thought of his second !
On his way to a Green Number in the 1983 Comrades
“ He said I must just follow him , and he took me from there , jogged along and spoke to me . There was no traffic control in those days , but he ran out into the road , held up the traffic , got me through and we set off towards Kings Park where the finish was that year . As we approached Kings Park , Natal had played Transvaal that day in rugby and the crowd had just started coming out the gate . Again , he just cut through them , separated them , then this chap took me to the back of the
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