Comrades is timed gun-to-gun as opposed to chip time. And has different medals for different finishing times. The main qualifying time is a sub-4.45 marathon which gets you to the start line but if you’re going for any of the faster medals, you need a decent qualifying time. This will get you placed in a better batch and therefore better chance of qualifying.
I still have in my head I need to be doing a comfortable 4.15-20 marathon to even contemplate the start line. The old qualifying time was a sub-4.30 when the overall cut-off was 11 hours. Now it’s 12 hours they changed the qualifying time. It used to be 5 hours but they’ve brought that in a bit. I don’t think I’ve met anyone with a 4.30+ marathon time that’s managed to finish comrades. I am sure they’re out there but it’s a tough old day that requires a lot of focus.
I remember reading or watching something last year (maybe linked here?) that explained all the different medals and also went into the history. It seemed a bit ‘blazer committee’ to me but the history was very interesting.
I really liked the idea of them forming a barrier to prevent people from crossing the line after cut off. Not sure why that appealed
I’m really not sure, did 6k round the park yesterday and felt dreadful, heavy sore legs. And woke up this morning feeling rough but ok now.
It’s really just to sample it, it’s going to be difficult although conditions look good and the ground should be firm.
Can’t see it being faster than 4:15 and maybe slower than that if I am struggling, but really just to get round and a bit more in the legs towards UTMB.
Sounds good. All being well, I should see you there. My original plan is out of the window after rolling my ankle. Longest run in the last 3 weeks was yesterday at 3k Hoping to do 8k on Thursday. New plan is easy up/down Pen-y-ghent and see how it’s holding up. Weather is looking food.
I thought I had an outside chance of 4 hours when I did it in October but lost chunks of time on Whernside and Ingleborough climbs; I was 45 and 41 mins against their 4 hour schedule’s 28 and 28! Gained on the schedule PyG to Ribblehead (the long flattish bit) and could match it on Whernside and Ingleborough descents.
Useful to know. A few friends I know have done it, one did 3:59 and another 4:15. Ordinarily I’m somewhere between them but I’ve no idea on how conditions were on the day and their fitness for them.
I’ll possibly pick up time on the flats, I vaguely remember bits on the CX version but that must have been 10 years ago so pretty sketchy, and in the opposite direction.
As above it’s more just to have a go at it really, can possibly go back again in the future.
Hoping to do 8k on Thursday. New plan is easy up/down Pen-y-ghent and see how it’s holding up. Weather is looking food.