Hail the Comrade

Well the Comrades Marathon has come and gone for another year. One wonders how long it will be before the prizegiving ceremony becomes bi-lingual, as none of the prizewinners had a clue what was happening this year. After the biggest onslaught since Glasnost; soon it will all be in Russian (with maybe some English subtitiles). Reports are in that the title of the race could be given a less socialist slant, but Butana Khompela (parliamentary portfolio for sport/rugbyforthebruthas ringleader) is quite happy with ‘Comrades’, but would prefer it if there could be some black Russians in the top ten. Personally, I have never been scared of a White Russian.

Bruce Fordyce was almost solely responsible for the peak in Comrades interest in the 80’s, and his unbeatable down run record has been shattered by Leonid, the good soviet, after 21 years. To put a 5:20 Comrades time into perspective, you have to rapidly say 3:35min/km. It’s just a shade more than four 75min half marathons back to back; if that doesn’t keep you awake at night, nothing will.

Why the interest in Comrades, you say? Well it is definitely on the to-do-list, but probably perched on page two for now. It does happen to be the first leg of the most insanely crazy ridiculous must-do event ever thought up in this country – ‘The Freedom Challenge Extreme Triathlon’.
Leg 1 – Comrades Marathon – 89km Durban <=> Maritsburg
Leg 2 – Freedom Trail MTB – 2200km Maritzburg <=> Paarl
Leg 3 – Berg River Canoe Marathon – Paarl <=> Velddrif



It is so mad that no one is even attempting it this year, I think you’d want to do each leg individually first at least once, before trying them in one shot.

The ride itself is a totally self supported adventure. The help you get is 25 accommodation/food stops roughly 100km apart. Before the start the riders draw up insane spreadsheets and ship 25 icecream containers to the respective stops. This is the entrance exam to a Ph.D course in forward planning. It requires Fairchild Semiconductor logic, Noakesian dietetics, Da Vincian mechanical gurubility and some suspiciously lucky sangoma bones to get right. Even Lance would struggle with this one it is ‘about the bike’. You have to know how to fix, manipulate and nurse everything that will eventually break.

The first week they are joined by a larger group who do the “Ride to Rhodes”, which involves a lot of offroad uphill. Thereafter it is the 15 on their own, some even with blogs and all with sportstrack gps units for the public to follow (a cruel paradox, as competitors aren’t allowed GPS navigation). We’ll be watching it closely to whet the appetite for Barlowworld hitting the TDF in July.

The record time is 16 days, which requires a fair amount of early starts and night riding, and would give a week’s recovery for the Berg. I’ve got to admit it is a very tempting undertaking and if ‘DIKTRIL WP’ is your desired motor numberplate, then this is a way to earn it. Makes the Cape Epic look like a Sunday stroll and reduces the much hyped Argus to a mere walk to the bar fridge.