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Feature
Helping hand for Robbie
Triple Green at Last
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Having been unable to complete the 2016 Comrades when aiming for her 30th( and final) medal, 1991 women’ s winner Tilda Tearle returned in 2017 for another go at earning her Triple Green before hanging up her Comrades shoes for good. In her typically honest and irreverent way, here is her story.
n 2016 I failed to finish my 30th Comrades as I had been injured and couldn’ t train properly. However, I“ kept the faith” that I would do it in 2017, because I had made a promise to myself that after I completed 30, I would take Comrades‘ pension’… but then 2017 did not start well. I tore a calf muscle which reduced me to a swimmer and walker for six weeks. Life is not always a bed of roses!
After six weeks I was able to run again and decided to try compression socks. These helped, as I felt I was being“ kept together,” but I had not qualified for Comrades during 2016 and had to get my act together. So I entered the Pietermaritzburg 42km on just a few weeks’ training and one 21km run. Phew, I qualified in 4:56 – hurdle number one had been overcome and my calf remained intact.
All in all my training went well. I decided that this year I would not run so many races, but would do a lot of back-to-back training runs, and I also decided to stay off the route and rather use the Chatsworth 52km as my long run. I stayed away from trail runs, and was extra careful while running in the dark, so no further injuries, and as Comrades got closer, I never lost faith in myself. I know I am now quite slow, but I perform like an old truck and can just keep going once I’ m warmed up!
Friendly Support
Meanwhile, Stephan Bruwer( aka Fanie), who I have run with for many years, was not as fit as he should have been and was thinking about withdrawing from Comrades. I suggested he run with me and forced him into a few longer training runs. On Comrades morning we met outside the Hilton, and I gave his daughter some GU’ s, Rennies and sparkling water, as she would be seeing us at various spots. Fanie and I then walked up to the start and fought our way into a spot amongst the E batch runners.
It was the normal pandemonium at the start … runners jumping the fence, some unmentionable smells, a bit of pushing and shoving. Eventually the Comrades cock crowed, the gun went, and it took us four minutes to cross the start line. We got going with a few leaps over discarded tops and bottles, and potholes in the road. During the early stages of our run we saw the lady being pushed in the adult pram, the lady doing her thing in a racing wheelchair, the“ backwards man,” the blind man, and the barefoot man from Celtic Harriers. When we got to the bottom of Field’ s Hill we met Fanie’ s family and I collected a GU. This was unfortunately the last time I would see them.
Up Field’ s Hill I felt like James Brown and started pulling ahead of Fanie and Robbie Richey( who by now had hunted me down, because he has used me as a pacer since 2013!). We still went through Kloof together, but by the start of Hillcrest I had dropped the boys. I only found out later that Fanie encountered problems at Botha’ s and had to withdraw … His pulse rate shot up so high he thought he was having a heart attack!
Early stages with Fanie
My plan had been to get through halfway around 5:20, so I could walk a lot in the second half. I was a bit off, but still had lots of time for walking. I encountered lots of runners who wanted to chat and wish me well, and I saw everyone I had planned to see along the route, so my day was turning out happy. Meanwhile, Robbie had caught up again and made sure he stayed near me. At one stage I even held his hand to keep him going.
Digging Deep
During Comrades you have to learn not to panic. I had now lost my GU’ s, as Fanie’ s daughter was nowhere to be seen, but I knew that at Camperdown I had a GU at the Savages table. That thought kept me going,
Images: Jetline Action Photo
18 ISSUE 96 JULY 2017 / www. modernathlete. co. za