CONGRATS to both Peter & Sandy for successfully finishing the Comrades Marathon within the allotted time. As per my last update before I went to sleep last night, Peter continued to power ahead and reached the finish line almost exactly on target with the pace he had been keeping. An official finishing time of 10 hrs, 49 mins & 38 secs. Very safe within the 12 hour cutoff. Well done, Pete: fantastic achievement. And congrats also on becoming a “real man” 🙂
Sandy on the other hand … Sandy, Sandy, Sandy, what can I say?! I’m guessing she must really have been struggling, as she kept on losing time. Thank goodness I wasn’t awake waiting for her to arrive as I’m not sure my heart could have stood the stress.
On the other hand, I have to say, just like Peter, Sandy was a marvel of consistency. Not in terms of running pace yesterday, but in terms of finishing time. Those of you who followed my blog and race in 2011 would recall that, with myself running in race no. 13, and with a planned race finish time of about 10.5 hours, I ended up crossing the finish line with Sandy, with just 13 minutes (& some seconds) to spare before the dreaded final cutoff gun was fired. So in 2011 Sandy’s finish time was 11:46:50. Any guesses for what Sandy’s time was yesterday? Yep, you’ve got it: 11:46:38!!!! Just 12 seconds ahead of her 2011 time, and still with only THIRTEEN minutes to go. Thanks for the loyalty to no. 13, Sandy, but you are OUT OF CONTROL!
I see now on the Comrades stats that although Sandy ran again in 2013 that was also an “up” run, so yesterday also earned Sandy the official title of “real man” – as I said to Sandy in an email before the race, for her that’s a somewhat dubious distinction. Though I’m sure she’ll carry my Dad’s title with pride! As for me, I will have to forever remain in the “never-never land” of being “half a real man” 🙂
Just for the record, I surely can’t finish off without telling you all what happened at the front of the race, about 6 hours before our heroes finished.
A South African, David Gatebe, won the race in a record smashing run. The previous record for a down run was set in 2007 by Russian runner Leonid Shvetsov. Yesterday David Gatebe finished in 5:18:19 to break the Russian’s record by 2 minutes and 30 seconds. To contextualize this, these front runners are moving at an average pace of about 3.5 mins per km – an insane pace which for most of us amounts to a sprint. In the women’s ranks, about an hour behind the men’s winner, Charne Bosman stole the race from race favourite and defending champion, Caroline Wostmann.
Well, that about wraps it up for Comrades 2016. Congratulations once again to Sandy & Peter for their fantastic efforts and achievements. I tell you what, Pete – if you run again next year, I’ll finish off the last episode (in writing!) of my Comrades saga for you.
Wishing you both a safe trip back: to Perth & London respectively.
Rob.
Run Robin Run 
Thanks for the e-mails Robin! It was fun reading through them. One observation – it looks like you’ve decided to remain half-real-man. If that’s the case, my invitation is still on. Sign up for a half marathon here in the US – 13 miles (your number 13 and you’ll be done in a couple of hours), cheap vacation (you’ll stay with us) and contrary to the popular belief – some good beer drinking (not a Budweiser). And we can go jolling with Steven. Think about it!Cheers,Jimmy
Hey Robin, very entertaining reports (as always)! And of course, congratulations to your buddies Peter and Sandy! Truly amazing achievement! I run about 7 km once a week, so I don’t think I’ll ever completely understand what you guys are going through over these 89 km.