View Workout (Rahul Razdan)

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Comrades ultra!!

June 10, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Ok here we go!!!
I think the first thing I want to say is:

This will be a long day out, so please expect good & bad patches and be prepared for both. Don’t try to kill paces as soon as you are in a good patch…..stay steady & focused and not let the sudden energy fly away with you so you get tired with 20 or 30 miles to go. Expect the lows and bad patches and hang in there to work through them. Push through them knowing it’s not necessarily for the rest of the race. The fuel will kick in, Or the wind turn your way or you will mentally experience second, 3rd and 4th winds.
Just keep digging deep, pull on your grit to get through them.

Remember your body at this point is used to the demands of being on your feet for long times. You’ve done several long back to back days, several marathon and longer efforts and of course have kep t up with speed to keep up with the anaerobic system.

One of my biggest suggestions is to break the race up in 10 miles with shorter type walks every 3 to 5 miles and a longer walk after ten miles.
If possible, I wouldn’t completely stop for too long.

Physically, your body begins to cease up and the chance of being able to find any kind of rhythm again is minimal. So walk and eat as much as possible but don’t cccompleteky stop much if at all.

I think you can hit many running miles in the 10’s and 11’s which is fast enough so when you do walk, it’s ok. By getting through each 10 mile block, you will deserve a longer type walk break so take it!!!!

On steep hills, save your legs. Walk them for 30 seconds or so and jog them light. You will make up a lot of time on downhill running.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned in ultra marathon research and in training a few others is that your form will really start to stoop and suffer. Try to focus on staying tall and lifting legs as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to experiment with shorter strides, longer strides, quicker cadence whatever, but staying tall and not stooping too low is important.


Take gels or anything for quick energy.
You will need the calories. No doubt!!!!!!
Drink, water, Gatorade anything with electrolytes. You will need sodium/potassium.
I really do suggest calories every 6 to 8 miles.

Last thing is to enjoy it!!!
This is a huge, prestigious, challenging, beautiful, crowd filled race with great views to look at and a huge support crew.
You really have a great opportunity at stock!!!

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Race day started with waking up at 2 a.m.. not too hard because in my jet lagged state, I was waking up at this time anyway. We learned that the hotel had kindly offered to serve breakfast at 2 a.m. (wow), so we grabbed a light meal. In previous days, we had arranged for a taxi to take us for the hour drive to the start of the race. Four of the five of us were ready at 2:15, but one person was missing. While we were waiting, the driver implored us to get started early because soon roads would be closed. A half hour later the last runner arrived and we were off.

The taxi ride was in the dark and as we approach pietermaritzburg, the traffic backed up. Though we had left a lot of time before the start, we were getting worried about getting to the race on time. Indeed as the driver had warned, they had started to close the streets for the race. With some panic, we got to within a 1km of the race and just started jogging to the start.
For myself, I ended up in the back of the pack in the last group. In most races, this is not an issue because the field soon spreads out and it is easy to equalize. However, as I was to learn this would not be the case with this race.

The starter's gun went off and then...nothing happened for a full 7 mins (which is counted against your time) and it was 12-13 mins before I got to the starting line. The density of people was so high that it was impossible to actually start running at pace. Also, many folks were using the run/walk method, so one would find the person ahead of you suddenly stopping..worse a group running together suddenly stopping. It was all a bit depressing in the dark. This activity was to continue for at least 20km.

About an hour after the race, the sun rose and that was a great boost to morale. Soon afterwards, it was warm enough to shed the sweatshirt and run a bit more freely. The course itself is fairly hilly with some relatively long uphills and the last bit is largely downhill. All was going reasonably well for the first 50 km or so and in this period I passed the 12 hour bus, the 11:30 bus and was in sight of the 11:00 bus. These were the pace runners with intended finish times. The public support was excellent and there were frequent stops where I grabbed salted oranges, bananas and a lot of gatorade.

Around the 55 km mark after many downhills, I started to feel my left hamstring area twinge (as it had in the marathon). With the memories of the results, I geared back the pace and things subsided for a bit but I would still feel the tightness. The crowd must have seen my facial expression because I got increasing chants for “You can do it Rahul.”

As I approached the 76km (a long downhill), the calf started to get impacted and I just decided to shut it down. The calculus was that creating a lot of damage for the next 14 km was not worth it for an activity which whose purpose is to promote health. Thus, I walked over to the “bagger” bus and told them I was done. He looked at the time and asked me if I was sure (since I had plenty of time to finish).

The bus itself looked like a hospital ward. The scene consisted of one runner whose face was full of salt particles.. obviously dehydrated. Another runner had his hat out and was vomiting in it. A couple of japanese runners were shaking and very cold (even though it was relatively warm). The bus drove us to the stadium and with that, race day was over.

The stadium scene was chaotic and looks a lot like a medic center. Everyone was limping or could not even limp (they were on the ground). I ran into a number of the other runners and discovered most had finished..including Atul. Reasonably tired, I walked to the tote bag area and walked the 2 km to the hotel. Got a beer and some pizza and collapsed on the hotel bed.
Atul came in a bit later. He had finished under 11 hours (so a bronze metal) and was very happy about the result. He was in significant pain and in fact could not walk to the hotel.
With that, the long day ended.

For myself, my quads were sour as were my arms and shoulders interestingly. However, I did not seem to be in nearly as much pain. I wondered if I had made the right decision to stop early...however too late at this point.