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Hail Comrade Shvetsov: Two years, two records for the King of Comrades
We have two posts today. The first (this one) is just a recap of the race, and some of the physiology behind it. The second (which you can find below) is a little more "South African-centric", and focuses on the very weak display of the SA runners, and some of the financial reasons why this may be the case. As I say, it's quite SA-focused, but should hopefully stimulate thought no matter where in the world you are!
Leonid Shvetsov: A new breed of Comrades champion
Leonid Shvetsov is a name few in SA took notice of before last year. He'd run Comrades before - a second place in 2001, where he pushed SA's Andrew Kelehe all the way in one of the great races. But then he kind of disappeared, and was remembered as one of many Russians to run the race, nothing spectacular.
Well, his last two outings have hardly been "races". More like solo 35 km time trials off the back of a steady 50km warm-up! He stands out so dominantly from the rest of the field that one shudders to think how routine the race is going to be for the next few years. Having won by 14 minutes, and set two records in two years, he has the race in his care for the next few years. The only consolation (for the race and neutral spectator) is that he is 40 years old, and so will eventually run out power.
He is a new breed of runner for the Comrades Marathon - a sensationally fast marathon runner and an incredibly strong athlete. Certainly, fast marathon runners have tackled Comrades before - think Alberto Salazar, winner in 1996, and Zithulele Sinqe, who came close, but never conquered the race.
But in Shvetsov, we're seeing a guy who has a dozen sub 2:12 marathons in him, and a 2:09. And yes, they're not within the last few months either, but he's young enough and strong enough to carry that speed and power into the ultra distance. I don't think that Comrades has ever seen a runner with that much power and strength at the end of the race. Last year, after he obliterated the "Down" run record (which had stood for 21 years), I remarked that of the entire field, all 11,000 of them, nobody had the same degree of "bounce" in their legs as he did at the finish line.
And that was running a 5:20 Comrades! Well, the same happened yesterday. As early as the 60km mark, when he pulled clear and began his solo time-trial, he was moving differently to everyone else in the race. The leg drive, and in particular, the heel "flick" at the back was so obviously different to everyone else's (If you ever want to see the pedigree of a runner, look at the way their heel leaves the ground).
As the cameras shifted to his "rivals" (for what the word was worth yesterday), the difference in running style was obvious. Now, that is perhaps the most interesting thing about him - is that a neurological adaptation, a performance advantage he enjoys as a result of some kind of training - speed or distance, or hill work?
There is something there, and I suspect that it is neurological, or related to the muscle tendon unit. Specifically what it is, I don't know. It's certainly not cardiovascular, and considering that the elites are "only" running 3:45/km, an adaptation in the heart and lungs is unlikely the reason for such dominance.
The greatest margin of victory
His margin of victory on Sunday was almost 14 minutes - that is without doubt the largest margin recorded in my lifetime, and if I had more time, I'd look into the race stats and find out when last a victory was recorded by such a margin.
It's actually inconceivable that in this day and age, of professionalism and high competition, that one athlete can win so destructively over the rest of the field. But before the sceptics jump onto the case (we admire your scepticism, nonetheless), it must be pointed out the apart from Shvetsov, yesterday's race was actually incredibly weak. A 5:39 for second place is almost as unheard of as a 5:25 to win, and so the dominance was the result of two factors: Shvetsov's brilliance, and everyone else's mediocrity (more on that in the post below).
"Down" or "Up"? Is Shvetsov equally strong?
Back to the race physiology though, and a couple of comments on the physiology and science of it. We received a very good question from George (who always stimulates good posts) on the whole "up" vs. "down" run issue. It's without doubt true that some runners are more suited to either the up or the down version of the race. You don't have to be a Comrades runner to know that - just think of your preferred running terrain, even in a 10km training run. Some people just handle downhill running better than others, and vice versa for the ups.
Comrades, of course, amplifies that difference enormously. Think of Vladimir Kotov, the now former course record holder for the "up" run, but who was many minutes slower on the down run and never featured as a strong challenger.
And I think it certainly is true that every runner prefers one or the other, though of course, the degree of preference will vary. I also believe that Shvetsov is not a preferred "Up" runner - his strength is the "Down" run. His only other Comrades appearance (apart from that second in 2001) was a blow-out on the 2002 "Up" run, where he finished in over 7 hours! But I think he's certainly a better "Down" runner. This also lends some credence to the idea that his advantage is neuromuscular, because the "Down" run poses a far greater challenge to the muscles as a result of the massive eccentric loading on them during the race.
Briefly, running downhill involves far more "eccentric" contraction where the muscle lengthens as it contracts (an oxymoron of sorts!), and that damages the muscle more. So I think the ability to tolerate that eccentric contraction is a key factor that determines whether a runner prefers downhill running. Shvetsov's apparent "bounce" and elasticity, which suggests some kind of neuromuscular advantage, would also predict his down running ability to be a little better.
This is of course conjecture. And science doesn't know the answer, and so George is quite right, it's something for the whole field to look at!
Regardless, I reckon no matter which way you make the road point - up, down, level - Shvetsov is so superior that even if he hates the "Up" run, he'd win it 9 times out of 10. Of course, it doesn't help that his South African rivals are running more slowly now in 2008 than they were in 1978! But that's covered in the post below!
Ross
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Comrades. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Comrades. Tampilkan semua postingan
Selasa, 17 Juni 2008
Comrades 2008 and SA athletics
The Comrades 2008 Post-mortem: Russia's ticket to wealth, and the economy of running success
I have no idea what the average salary is in Russia. I'm "reliably" informed by Wikipedia that it's $640 per year. I don't know much about the tyipcal Russian's financial position, other than what I read in the news and Time magazine, and I won't claim to be an expert in Russian-South African relations.
But one thing I do know is that every year in June, a group of Russian athletes come to South Africa, to take on the greatest ultra-marathon in the world, and every year, they leave with their pockets lined with Rands and gold, until the next year. This year, Leonid Shvetsov, courtesy of his second consecutive title and race record, walked away with just a shade under R500,000 ($60,000) for his efforts. That's seven times what the average Russian is earning, and by my calculation, certainly not money to be sneezed at.
It's hard money, sure, because 87 km of racing over that course is no mean feat, but it makes Comrade Shvetsov pretty close to a millionaire thanks to the race.
And that's great - what a pleasure it is to see such a fabulous athlete plying his trade in SA. He's the most majestic, utterly dominant runner the Comrades has seen. He's so dominant, in fact, that unless someone emerges in the next two years, I can see the race losing quite a big following as a result of the predictability of it all.
On the women's side, that happened long ago - the Nurgalieva twins, Olesya and Elena, have also made themselves a fair fortune in SA. Every year they come out here, and invariably, come first and second (usually, Elena is first), and must have made a few million out of the South African ultra-running scene in the last few years.
Where are the SA runners? Gone back to 1970
But this post is not about the contribution South Africa makes to Russia's GDP every June. Rather, it's about the fact that South African runners are not standing in their way. There have, admittedly, been some great triumphs on the "down" run - first Kelehe, then Nhlapo and then Ngomane, who all won the down run, to choruses of praise about the "South African renaissance". Unfortunately, these athletes would never again scale those lofty heights, and much like a gunshot, they eventually dissipate into the night as an ever-softening echo.
But on the whole, ever since the Russians first identified the goldmine that is Comrades, they've plundered the race with little opposition. Part of that is that they bring some magnificent athletes out here - Shvetsov is without doubt the best we've seen, a magnificent runner who has yanked the race into a new level. But a big part is also that South African running is in a steady and uninterrupted state of decline, and the occasional success of a talented runner happens in-spite of, rather than because of, the running system in this country. Sadly, that success provides the excuse to let things slide ("It can't be so bad", they say), and we'll eventually realise that we've slid too far to ever recover.
A cursory glance of the Comrades results since the race began reveals a few startling statistics. Perhaps the worst of these is the following:
In 1977, the race was won by Alan Robb, in a time of 5:47:00. Since that race, the winning time has very, very rarely been slower than 5:40. Perhaps most amazingly, most of those winning times were by South African men!
In other words, between 1977 and 2008, 30 years worth of South African runners have been capable of running 5:40 or faster. One year was an anomaly, when Jetman Msutu won the race in 5:46, but we must remind ourselves that he actually finished second to Charl Mattheus who was later DQ'd for drug use. But on the whole, South Africa's best finisher has run around 5:30 to 5:35, be it Mattheus and Bester in the 1990's, or Fordyce in the 1980's. That time, had it been run yesterday, would have been enough to finish second, and actually make a race out of it. Remember, the second place finisher was Jaroslaw Janicki, fully 14 minutes behind Shvetsov.
Instead, we got a best SA athlete who finished in just under 5:47, the slowest time by an SA runner since 1977, and on a day where the record fell (no excuses from the conditions, then).
How South African athletics pays for mediocrity
The reasons for this startling demise (which is, I might add, present across all running events in SA, not just the ultras) are vast, complex and probably require that we set up a blog all of its own to discuss. But consider for a moment that in the 1980's, SA had faster 10km runners than we do now - the world record is a full minute faster, but we're stuck. We might call it "Why South African running is failing", and spend the next two years discussing it. However, we won't do that to you, but I do just want to make two quick points here.
First of all, there has been a growing trend in recent times to incentivize local athletes by offering a special prize to the first SA runner to finish the race. This gesture, applauded by many as an effective tactic to boost local running and to stimulate interest in the event, is actually, in my opinion, a long term failure strategy, which actually undermines long term growth.
Why? Because it incentivizes mediocrity. It says the following to the typical South African runner: "Don't worry about Leonid Shvetsov and his 5:24 record performances. Don't worry about winning and being excellent, because we'll pay you to run 5:47 and finish 5th".
Any rational athlete, given the choice between an extra 30 minutes of training per day and the option to run a few more races each year is going to respond by saying "Sure, no problem. In 2009, my goal is to run about 5:40, because I've now seen that if I do, I might win a lot of money". Note that they are not aiming for 5:21, or even 5:25, because that is difficult - more training, more suffering. The prize money actually dis-incentivizes excellence.
In this same category are prizes that are awarded to runners who reach landmarks on the course first - the so-called "Hotspot prizes" otherwise known as primes elsewhere. On Sunday, money was awarded, for example, to the first runner to reach halfway and then finish the race. The result was that two athletes broke away and raced each other up to the halfway mark. The "winner", Charles Tjiane, celebrated at the halfway mark, and then soon started walking. One commentator says he wasn't running for that prize, but seriously, how do you go from running 3:00/km, to celebrating, to walking, in the space of kilometers, unless your mental approach is to plunder the "hotspots" and save your energy?
Now, he still walked away with a nice pay-day for their efforts. And best of all, these runners get to race again sooner, because rather than racing 87km, they raced perhaps 50km and then merely finished the race. But they represent two athletes, both with the possible potential to win the race, who have instead sacrificed that possibility in favour of a smaller, but more assured, pay-day (it's assured because Shvetsov and the big guns don't care about it, so don't race for it).
It was then pointed out to me that an athlete who wins three "hotspot" prizes in the race can earn himself R33 000. That is the same prize money as the 5th place finisher in the whole race!
Now, is there not something flawed in that model...?
Wrap-up: More on SA running to come
There's a lot more to be said about SA athletics, but because I know we have an international audience, these kinds of posts will be used sparingly (so don't worry!). But, for those who want to know the key problem in SA running, read this post (SA athletics on Trial), written about a year ago.
But we'll leave it for now, and turn instead to matters of "global importance", like weight loss!
Until next time!
Ross
I have no idea what the average salary is in Russia. I'm "reliably" informed by Wikipedia that it's $640 per year. I don't know much about the tyipcal Russian's financial position, other than what I read in the news and Time magazine, and I won't claim to be an expert in Russian-South African relations.
But one thing I do know is that every year in June, a group of Russian athletes come to South Africa, to take on the greatest ultra-marathon in the world, and every year, they leave with their pockets lined with Rands and gold, until the next year. This year, Leonid Shvetsov, courtesy of his second consecutive title and race record, walked away with just a shade under R500,000 ($60,000) for his efforts. That's seven times what the average Russian is earning, and by my calculation, certainly not money to be sneezed at.
It's hard money, sure, because 87 km of racing over that course is no mean feat, but it makes Comrade Shvetsov pretty close to a millionaire thanks to the race.
And that's great - what a pleasure it is to see such a fabulous athlete plying his trade in SA. He's the most majestic, utterly dominant runner the Comrades has seen. He's so dominant, in fact, that unless someone emerges in the next two years, I can see the race losing quite a big following as a result of the predictability of it all.
On the women's side, that happened long ago - the Nurgalieva twins, Olesya and Elena, have also made themselves a fair fortune in SA. Every year they come out here, and invariably, come first and second (usually, Elena is first), and must have made a few million out of the South African ultra-running scene in the last few years.
Where are the SA runners? Gone back to 1970
But this post is not about the contribution South Africa makes to Russia's GDP every June. Rather, it's about the fact that South African runners are not standing in their way. There have, admittedly, been some great triumphs on the "down" run - first Kelehe, then Nhlapo and then Ngomane, who all won the down run, to choruses of praise about the "South African renaissance". Unfortunately, these athletes would never again scale those lofty heights, and much like a gunshot, they eventually dissipate into the night as an ever-softening echo.
But on the whole, ever since the Russians first identified the goldmine that is Comrades, they've plundered the race with little opposition. Part of that is that they bring some magnificent athletes out here - Shvetsov is without doubt the best we've seen, a magnificent runner who has yanked the race into a new level. But a big part is also that South African running is in a steady and uninterrupted state of decline, and the occasional success of a talented runner happens in-spite of, rather than because of, the running system in this country. Sadly, that success provides the excuse to let things slide ("It can't be so bad", they say), and we'll eventually realise that we've slid too far to ever recover.
A cursory glance of the Comrades results since the race began reveals a few startling statistics. Perhaps the worst of these is the following:
In 1977, the race was won by Alan Robb, in a time of 5:47:00. Since that race, the winning time has very, very rarely been slower than 5:40. Perhaps most amazingly, most of those winning times were by South African men!
In other words, between 1977 and 2008, 30 years worth of South African runners have been capable of running 5:40 or faster. One year was an anomaly, when Jetman Msutu won the race in 5:46, but we must remind ourselves that he actually finished second to Charl Mattheus who was later DQ'd for drug use. But on the whole, South Africa's best finisher has run around 5:30 to 5:35, be it Mattheus and Bester in the 1990's, or Fordyce in the 1980's. That time, had it been run yesterday, would have been enough to finish second, and actually make a race out of it. Remember, the second place finisher was Jaroslaw Janicki, fully 14 minutes behind Shvetsov.
Instead, we got a best SA athlete who finished in just under 5:47, the slowest time by an SA runner since 1977, and on a day where the record fell (no excuses from the conditions, then).
How South African athletics pays for mediocrity
The reasons for this startling demise (which is, I might add, present across all running events in SA, not just the ultras) are vast, complex and probably require that we set up a blog all of its own to discuss. But consider for a moment that in the 1980's, SA had faster 10km runners than we do now - the world record is a full minute faster, but we're stuck. We might call it "Why South African running is failing", and spend the next two years discussing it. However, we won't do that to you, but I do just want to make two quick points here.
First of all, there has been a growing trend in recent times to incentivize local athletes by offering a special prize to the first SA runner to finish the race. This gesture, applauded by many as an effective tactic to boost local running and to stimulate interest in the event, is actually, in my opinion, a long term failure strategy, which actually undermines long term growth.
Why? Because it incentivizes mediocrity. It says the following to the typical South African runner: "Don't worry about Leonid Shvetsov and his 5:24 record performances. Don't worry about winning and being excellent, because we'll pay you to run 5:47 and finish 5th".
Any rational athlete, given the choice between an extra 30 minutes of training per day and the option to run a few more races each year is going to respond by saying "Sure, no problem. In 2009, my goal is to run about 5:40, because I've now seen that if I do, I might win a lot of money". Note that they are not aiming for 5:21, or even 5:25, because that is difficult - more training, more suffering. The prize money actually dis-incentivizes excellence.
In this same category are prizes that are awarded to runners who reach landmarks on the course first - the so-called "Hotspot prizes" otherwise known as primes elsewhere. On Sunday, money was awarded, for example, to the first runner to reach halfway and then finish the race. The result was that two athletes broke away and raced each other up to the halfway mark. The "winner", Charles Tjiane, celebrated at the halfway mark, and then soon started walking. One commentator says he wasn't running for that prize, but seriously, how do you go from running 3:00/km, to celebrating, to walking, in the space of kilometers, unless your mental approach is to plunder the "hotspots" and save your energy?
Now, he still walked away with a nice pay-day for their efforts. And best of all, these runners get to race again sooner, because rather than racing 87km, they raced perhaps 50km and then merely finished the race. But they represent two athletes, both with the possible potential to win the race, who have instead sacrificed that possibility in favour of a smaller, but more assured, pay-day (it's assured because Shvetsov and the big guns don't care about it, so don't race for it).
It was then pointed out to me that an athlete who wins three "hotspot" prizes in the race can earn himself R33 000. That is the same prize money as the 5th place finisher in the whole race!
Now, is there not something flawed in that model...?
Wrap-up: More on SA running to come
There's a lot more to be said about SA athletics, but because I know we have an international audience, these kinds of posts will be used sparingly (so don't worry!). But, for those who want to know the key problem in SA running, read this post (SA athletics on Trial), written about a year ago.
But we'll leave it for now, and turn instead to matters of "global importance", like weight loss!
Until next time!
Ross
Minggu, 15 Juni 2008
Comrades Marathon 2008 Result
Magnificent, majestic Leonid: A thoroughbred runner makes Comrades history
Leonid Shvetsov has broken the "Up" run record in winning the 2008 Comrades title in 5:24:47. The 39-year old Russian, who won last year's "Down" run in a new record time, was again untouchable, breaking Kotov's old record of 5:25:33 by 46 seconds. He is completely in a class of his own, and the rest of the world, South Africa included, will wake up tomorrow to the realization that Shvetsov has moved the race into a new era. Their response will be interesting - failure to respond will guarantee that the race, already a Russian running procession, remains so for another generation.
At the risk of dismissing a group of highly talented runners as "also-rans", Shvetsov is a thoroughbred race horse in a world of Comrades carthorses, so dominant was his performance today. Of course, the runners he beat are fantastic athletes in their own right, so it's a little unfair on them. But if it's victory we're talking, the gulf between Shvetsov and the rest is alarmingly large. He won by 14 minutes - Jaroslaw Janicki of Poland walked up the final climb of the day, Polly Shorts, but hung on to finish second in 5:38:29, while Zimbabwe's Stephen Muzhingi was third, a further minute or so behind.
Just a comment - to finish second in a time of 5:39 is telling, because it suggests that Shvetsov's dominance is only partly due to his own super ability. 5:39 is a very weak second-place time, and this suggests that a big part of Shvetsov's dominance is that the competition is just incredibly weak, and unable to even run to the levels of ten years ago. Of course, some of that is down to the pressure applied to the field by Shvetsov's front-running, which pushes athletes well over their normal pacing limit. But it's noteworthy, for example, that South African runners have not improved in 20 years. The natural progression of the race has left us behind, not one athlete!
A front-running, destructive effort
The real story however is the manner in which he won. Much like last year, he hit the front early, and no one was able to survive with him, even for a short while. This year, it was after precisely 3:11:48 that he went into first place, when he overtook the early race leader Tjiane.
From that point on, he was unchallenged. The commentators got excited about a South African Mabule Rapotle (who'd go on to finish an unlucky but credible 11th), who managed to hang onto his shoelaces for about 5 minutes. "He's not having it all his own way this year", and "Shvetsov won't win this race without a challenge", we were told*. Barely two minutes later, the SA challenge was over, and Rapotle was dropped. Never mind the fact that at this stage, there were over 2 hours to go, and not a single challenger was left with Shvetsov!
From that point on, it was a race against the clock, the only "race" interest remaining was to see whether Shvetsov would crack. Jaroslaw Janicki of Poland was in second, about 2 minutes back, and lying in wait to pick up the pieces IF Shvetsov cracked. But it was not to be, and Shvetsov got quicker and quicker, while the rest just got slower and slower.
Shvetsov makes history, then, as the first international runner to win both "Up" and "Down" runs, and he is also the first man to hold both records since Bruce Fordyce. His cumulative time for "Up" and "Down" races is incredible - over 6 minutes faster than anyone else in history. Quite amazing, and we'll look in more detail at the reasons for this in our Insight-Comrades post on Tuesday.
Women's race - another Nurgalieva victory
On the women's side, it was (surprise, surprise) another Nurgalieva victory. The Nurgalieva twins (Elena and Olesya) have dominated Comrades completely in the last 5 years. In fact, their dominance extends to SA ultra-running in general, having won five Comrades titles and two Two Oceans titles between them. It's usually Elena Nurgalieva who comes out on top in the ultras, making up six of those seven victories (Olesya Nurgalieva, here twin sister, is the more accomplished standard marathon runner). And the 2008 race was again won by Elena Nurgalieva, her fourth title, and a repeat of her 2006 victory.
Their dominance is part of the reason we didn't preview the women's race - it is, to be blunt, usually pretty boring, much like watching the Williams sisters playing each other in the final of tennis tournaments a few years ago. This year, however, the women's race ended up providing a little more drama than usual, and that's only because Elena fell twice in the first two hours of the race. She was apparently tripped up by men who tend to gather around the women (to get onto TV and benefit from their normally steady pace-setting). She ran for a long while with quite a limp, and blood streaming down her shin bone from a gash in her left knee.
But even that was not enough to break her race, and she ran with her sister Olesya and another Russian, Tatiana Zhirkova, until about 15 km from the finish, when she moved clear and created what would be the decisive gap.
Her winning time in the end was 6:14:36, not spectacularly fast, but hers was a courageous win, after the fall. Second went to her twin, Olesya, just over a minute behind, with third going to Zhirkova in 6:17:44.
Sadly, the first South African was about thirty minutes further back - all in all, not a great day for SA ultra running, but at least we've done a great deal to help give the Russian economy a boost.
Looking ahead - Analysis and insights into the race: Coming soon...
So that's a very short report on the race result. Because I've now done three Comrades posts over the weekend, I'll probably give it a day before doing a full analysis of the race - I don't want to jam up any inboxes with posts come the work week! Also, it will be good to digest some of the race action before doing some insight.
There's a lot more to be said, however - why SA men are so poor at the moment, how Shvetsov can win a race by 14 minutes. So the full race-report happens on TUESDAY, when I'll look at Shvetsov, and go into a little more detail into just why SA and the rest of the world need to take drastic measures to close a gap that is now absolutely enormous.
So do join us then, for the more in-depth opinion and analysis!
Ross
* I can't post on TV coverage without mentioning commentary (my pet peeve). However, on the whole, the commentary for this year's race was good - Mike Finch, Helen Lucre and Norrie Williamson were particularly deserving of credit: knowledgeable, interesting, and well-spoken/eloquent. You'd have thought those three criteria would be non-negotiable for the selection of ALL commentators, but apparently not! Still, it was better than some of the drivel served up by Supersport for athletics (and other sports) events. Hopefully, someone was paying attention...
Leonid Shvetsov has broken the "Up" run record in winning the 2008 Comrades title in 5:24:47. The 39-year old Russian, who won last year's "Down" run in a new record time, was again untouchable, breaking Kotov's old record of 5:25:33 by 46 seconds. He is completely in a class of his own, and the rest of the world, South Africa included, will wake up tomorrow to the realization that Shvetsov has moved the race into a new era. Their response will be interesting - failure to respond will guarantee that the race, already a Russian running procession, remains so for another generation.
At the risk of dismissing a group of highly talented runners as "also-rans", Shvetsov is a thoroughbred race horse in a world of Comrades carthorses, so dominant was his performance today. Of course, the runners he beat are fantastic athletes in their own right, so it's a little unfair on them. But if it's victory we're talking, the gulf between Shvetsov and the rest is alarmingly large. He won by 14 minutes - Jaroslaw Janicki of Poland walked up the final climb of the day, Polly Shorts, but hung on to finish second in 5:38:29, while Zimbabwe's Stephen Muzhingi was third, a further minute or so behind.
Just a comment - to finish second in a time of 5:39 is telling, because it suggests that Shvetsov's dominance is only partly due to his own super ability. 5:39 is a very weak second-place time, and this suggests that a big part of Shvetsov's dominance is that the competition is just incredibly weak, and unable to even run to the levels of ten years ago. Of course, some of that is down to the pressure applied to the field by Shvetsov's front-running, which pushes athletes well over their normal pacing limit. But it's noteworthy, for example, that South African runners have not improved in 20 years. The natural progression of the race has left us behind, not one athlete!
A front-running, destructive effort
The real story however is the manner in which he won. Much like last year, he hit the front early, and no one was able to survive with him, even for a short while. This year, it was after precisely 3:11:48 that he went into first place, when he overtook the early race leader Tjiane.
From that point on, he was unchallenged. The commentators got excited about a South African Mabule Rapotle (who'd go on to finish an unlucky but credible 11th), who managed to hang onto his shoelaces for about 5 minutes. "He's not having it all his own way this year", and "Shvetsov won't win this race without a challenge", we were told*. Barely two minutes later, the SA challenge was over, and Rapotle was dropped. Never mind the fact that at this stage, there were over 2 hours to go, and not a single challenger was left with Shvetsov!
From that point on, it was a race against the clock, the only "race" interest remaining was to see whether Shvetsov would crack. Jaroslaw Janicki of Poland was in second, about 2 minutes back, and lying in wait to pick up the pieces IF Shvetsov cracked. But it was not to be, and Shvetsov got quicker and quicker, while the rest just got slower and slower.
Shvetsov makes history, then, as the first international runner to win both "Up" and "Down" runs, and he is also the first man to hold both records since Bruce Fordyce. His cumulative time for "Up" and "Down" races is incredible - over 6 minutes faster than anyone else in history. Quite amazing, and we'll look in more detail at the reasons for this in our Insight-Comrades post on Tuesday.
Women's race - another Nurgalieva victory
On the women's side, it was (surprise, surprise) another Nurgalieva victory. The Nurgalieva twins (Elena and Olesya) have dominated Comrades completely in the last 5 years. In fact, their dominance extends to SA ultra-running in general, having won five Comrades titles and two Two Oceans titles between them. It's usually Elena Nurgalieva who comes out on top in the ultras, making up six of those seven victories (Olesya Nurgalieva, here twin sister, is the more accomplished standard marathon runner). And the 2008 race was again won by Elena Nurgalieva, her fourth title, and a repeat of her 2006 victory.
Their dominance is part of the reason we didn't preview the women's race - it is, to be blunt, usually pretty boring, much like watching the Williams sisters playing each other in the final of tennis tournaments a few years ago. This year, however, the women's race ended up providing a little more drama than usual, and that's only because Elena fell twice in the first two hours of the race. She was apparently tripped up by men who tend to gather around the women (to get onto TV and benefit from their normally steady pace-setting). She ran for a long while with quite a limp, and blood streaming down her shin bone from a gash in her left knee.
But even that was not enough to break her race, and she ran with her sister Olesya and another Russian, Tatiana Zhirkova, until about 15 km from the finish, when she moved clear and created what would be the decisive gap.
Her winning time in the end was 6:14:36, not spectacularly fast, but hers was a courageous win, after the fall. Second went to her twin, Olesya, just over a minute behind, with third going to Zhirkova in 6:17:44.
Sadly, the first South African was about thirty minutes further back - all in all, not a great day for SA ultra running, but at least we've done a great deal to help give the Russian economy a boost.
Looking ahead - Analysis and insights into the race: Coming soon...
So that's a very short report on the race result. Because I've now done three Comrades posts over the weekend, I'll probably give it a day before doing a full analysis of the race - I don't want to jam up any inboxes with posts come the work week! Also, it will be good to digest some of the race action before doing some insight.
There's a lot more to be said, however - why SA men are so poor at the moment, how Shvetsov can win a race by 14 minutes. So the full race-report happens on TUESDAY, when I'll look at Shvetsov, and go into a little more detail into just why SA and the rest of the world need to take drastic measures to close a gap that is now absolutely enormous.
So do join us then, for the more in-depth opinion and analysis!
Ross
* I can't post on TV coverage without mentioning commentary (my pet peeve). However, on the whole, the commentary for this year's race was good - Mike Finch, Helen Lucre and Norrie Williamson were particularly deserving of credit: knowledgeable, interesting, and well-spoken/eloquent. You'd have thought those three criteria would be non-negotiable for the selection of ALL commentators, but apparently not! Still, it was better than some of the drivel served up by Supersport for athletics (and other sports) events. Hopefully, someone was paying attention...
Sabtu, 14 Juni 2008
The "Real" Comrades Marathon
The "Real" Comrades Marathon: A "human race" and a lesson in survivorship
Yesterday we did a post previewing the elite men's race in tomorrow's Comrades Ultra-Marathon, an 87km haul from Durban in Pietermaritzburg. And while the elite men and women will garner most of the media attention and focus on race day, they represent only a very tiny, perhaps "insignificant" part of what the Comrades is really all about. So I thought that today, I'd do a more "human"-aspect preview of the race, and for that I'll borrow a section from a post I did a full year ago, just after the race (back then, I think only our friends and families were reading the site (under duress, sometimes), so I'm going to get away with a partial "re-run" for today!)
History of the race - a tribute to war heroes
The Comrades Marathon was first run in 1921 to commemorate South African soldiers killed during World War I - the brainchild of Victor Clapham (after whom the "copper" medal for a finish time between 11 and 12 hours is now named). The race was therefore dedicated to war heroes, which lends a certain irony to the statement made to me last year by a research scientist from Austria who was at Comrades in the medical tent working with us on a study.
Our medical passes got us into the medical tent and the final finish chute, where the runners receive their medals and then grab a Coke or Energade or leave for home/hotels. I'm sure TV shows this just as well, but the attrition in that finish chute is something to behold, as is the drama that builds progressively in the medical tent, where, by about 10 hours, beds are in short supply! If I dropped you into the middle of the chute and medical area, you'd wonder why all the "soldiers" were wearing running clothing!
His words were (read in your best German accent) "Zis race is more the survival, no? People are training for 4 hours a week, zis is impossible in Austria!" He was absolutely amazed at how many people (11,000 tomorrow) run an event so long and arduous on what he perceived to be so little training. Apparently (I'll take his word for it) in Austria, few people even do exericse without a proper plan and approach to it - apparently, six hours a week of training is about the average for a marathon runner in Austria (he did research on this, so I'll believe him!) Welcome to the Comrades Marathon!
The race is certainly a test of survival - 12 hours on your feet, for those who finish at the back, is no mean feat. And those who will watch the race on TV tomorrow (I'm not sure if there is an international broadcast) will probably find the last hour the most riveting, for the fact that people are streaming across the line - probably half the field finish in the final 10% of the available time.
And yes, some of them are very undertrained. There are of course many (a majority, in fact) who prepare really well, and run the Comrades strong, doing more than simply surviving. But in South Africa, it's not unheard of for a runner to do three marathons a year - one to qualify for the race (you have to complete a marathon to enter the race), and then two more marathons on race day, when they run a back-to-back marathon, with 5km easy to finish! And often, that's about the extent of the running they do. I can list at least five runners who probably do a TOTAL of 60km of training for the race, between January and June! They then double their yearly distance in 11 hours between Durban and Pietermaritzburg!
Yet they make it, through a combination of considered walking and mental stubborness. I wouldn't advise it, but it's part of the race and its unique spirit.
That spirit is perhaps best demonstrated by the examples of three runners I met last year while working in the medical tent. All finished the race, all ended up needing medical treatment. Their stories are below (this is the part adapted from last year's post, incidentally!)
The racer: Reduced to 30 min/km by the race
The first is an experienced marathon runner from England, with a fast 2:36 to his credit. He finished the race in 7:09, and so was one of the faster runners. But I kid you not, there is a walk of about 200 m from the finish line to the medical tent where we were stationed. I met him at the line, and we started walking at 13h04 and arrived, 200 m later, at 13h29 - 25 minutes to walk 200 m. And every time he took a step, he groaned, mutter unprintables under his breath, and then soldiered on. Fifteen minutes earlier, he was running at 5 minutes per km to get his silver medal.
Absolutely remarkable how his brain just shut everything down the moment the goal had been achieved! And if you thought a wounded "Comrade" would get some sympathy along the way - think again, every single person we walked passed on the way to the tent chuckled at him and made jokes about his pain! To his credit, 30 minutes in the medical tent, a cold beer, a massage and he was talking about trying the "Up-run" in 2008, and so I expect he'll be running again tomorrow!
The persistent survivor - back for more
The second was a guy who finished in about 10 hours. He came to the medical tent for treatment though, because he had severe cramp in just about every muscle - in fact, he was bandaged up around both quads and both calves! I ask him how the race was and he says it went according to plan. I say it looks as though he had a tough day, and his reply is that this happens every year! He has run 8 Comrades and EVERY single year, he ends up in the medical tent with massive cramps! He says he'll be back for sure next year! Imagine standing on the start line knowing with almost 100% certainty that in about 10 hours, you won't be able to stand properly and you'll end up in a medical tent in complete agony - that's a Comrades runner.
The legendary blow - pacing gone wrong, but Comrades runners hang in
Finally, met a guy who got to Drummond in 4:10, on course to run well under 9 hours and claim a Bill Rowan medal (for a sub 9 hour clocking). But then the wheels came off...he ran the second half in 7:30 and he finished just under the overall cutoff of 12 hours! His expected "end-point" moved further and further away, and he must have felt that he was walking/jogging towards a mirage, the finish line became like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
It was only his second run over 21 km - he qualified on Loskop and then ran Comrades! Only in SA! But what an amazing guy, tremendously positive and optimistic, disappointed of course, but seemed ready to go again soon after leaving. I'm sure he'll be back. He too was the epitome of a Comrades runner - they all finish in some pain, very few tell you they had a good run, and many swear never to come back, yet they all do, year after year, for more of the same.
10,997 more stories will be written tomorrow
That's just three stories from 2007's race. You can be sure that another 11,000 will be written tomorrow, some good, some bad. If you are one of those runners, and you happen to read this post before, good luck! Remember, slow and steady, and if you think you're running the right speed at halfway, slow down! You can ruin your day with aggressive pacing!
For those reading it afterwards, congratulations, I trust your legs have forgiven you!
Our race report is next, after the race tomorrow! Join us then!
Ross
Yesterday we did a post previewing the elite men's race in tomorrow's Comrades Ultra-Marathon, an 87km haul from Durban in Pietermaritzburg. And while the elite men and women will garner most of the media attention and focus on race day, they represent only a very tiny, perhaps "insignificant" part of what the Comrades is really all about. So I thought that today, I'd do a more "human"-aspect preview of the race, and for that I'll borrow a section from a post I did a full year ago, just after the race (back then, I think only our friends and families were reading the site (under duress, sometimes), so I'm going to get away with a partial "re-run" for today!)
History of the race - a tribute to war heroes
The Comrades Marathon was first run in 1921 to commemorate South African soldiers killed during World War I - the brainchild of Victor Clapham (after whom the "copper" medal for a finish time between 11 and 12 hours is now named). The race was therefore dedicated to war heroes, which lends a certain irony to the statement made to me last year by a research scientist from Austria who was at Comrades in the medical tent working with us on a study.
Our medical passes got us into the medical tent and the final finish chute, where the runners receive their medals and then grab a Coke or Energade or leave for home/hotels. I'm sure TV shows this just as well, but the attrition in that finish chute is something to behold, as is the drama that builds progressively in the medical tent, where, by about 10 hours, beds are in short supply! If I dropped you into the middle of the chute and medical area, you'd wonder why all the "soldiers" were wearing running clothing!
His words were (read in your best German accent) "Zis race is more the survival, no? People are training for 4 hours a week, zis is impossible in Austria!" He was absolutely amazed at how many people (11,000 tomorrow) run an event so long and arduous on what he perceived to be so little training. Apparently (I'll take his word for it) in Austria, few people even do exericse without a proper plan and approach to it - apparently, six hours a week of training is about the average for a marathon runner in Austria (he did research on this, so I'll believe him!) Welcome to the Comrades Marathon!
The race is certainly a test of survival - 12 hours on your feet, for those who finish at the back, is no mean feat. And those who will watch the race on TV tomorrow (I'm not sure if there is an international broadcast) will probably find the last hour the most riveting, for the fact that people are streaming across the line - probably half the field finish in the final 10% of the available time.
And yes, some of them are very undertrained. There are of course many (a majority, in fact) who prepare really well, and run the Comrades strong, doing more than simply surviving. But in South Africa, it's not unheard of for a runner to do three marathons a year - one to qualify for the race (you have to complete a marathon to enter the race), and then two more marathons on race day, when they run a back-to-back marathon, with 5km easy to finish! And often, that's about the extent of the running they do. I can list at least five runners who probably do a TOTAL of 60km of training for the race, between January and June! They then double their yearly distance in 11 hours between Durban and Pietermaritzburg!
Yet they make it, through a combination of considered walking and mental stubborness. I wouldn't advise it, but it's part of the race and its unique spirit.
That spirit is perhaps best demonstrated by the examples of three runners I met last year while working in the medical tent. All finished the race, all ended up needing medical treatment. Their stories are below (this is the part adapted from last year's post, incidentally!)
The racer: Reduced to 30 min/km by the race
The first is an experienced marathon runner from England, with a fast 2:36 to his credit. He finished the race in 7:09, and so was one of the faster runners. But I kid you not, there is a walk of about 200 m from the finish line to the medical tent where we were stationed. I met him at the line, and we started walking at 13h04 and arrived, 200 m later, at 13h29 - 25 minutes to walk 200 m. And every time he took a step, he groaned, mutter unprintables under his breath, and then soldiered on. Fifteen minutes earlier, he was running at 5 minutes per km to get his silver medal.
Absolutely remarkable how his brain just shut everything down the moment the goal had been achieved! And if you thought a wounded "Comrade" would get some sympathy along the way - think again, every single person we walked passed on the way to the tent chuckled at him and made jokes about his pain! To his credit, 30 minutes in the medical tent, a cold beer, a massage and he was talking about trying the "Up-run" in 2008, and so I expect he'll be running again tomorrow!
The persistent survivor - back for more
The second was a guy who finished in about 10 hours. He came to the medical tent for treatment though, because he had severe cramp in just about every muscle - in fact, he was bandaged up around both quads and both calves! I ask him how the race was and he says it went according to plan. I say it looks as though he had a tough day, and his reply is that this happens every year! He has run 8 Comrades and EVERY single year, he ends up in the medical tent with massive cramps! He says he'll be back for sure next year! Imagine standing on the start line knowing with almost 100% certainty that in about 10 hours, you won't be able to stand properly and you'll end up in a medical tent in complete agony - that's a Comrades runner.
The legendary blow - pacing gone wrong, but Comrades runners hang in
Finally, met a guy who got to Drummond in 4:10, on course to run well under 9 hours and claim a Bill Rowan medal (for a sub 9 hour clocking). But then the wheels came off...he ran the second half in 7:30 and he finished just under the overall cutoff of 12 hours! His expected "end-point" moved further and further away, and he must have felt that he was walking/jogging towards a mirage, the finish line became like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
It was only his second run over 21 km - he qualified on Loskop and then ran Comrades! Only in SA! But what an amazing guy, tremendously positive and optimistic, disappointed of course, but seemed ready to go again soon after leaving. I'm sure he'll be back. He too was the epitome of a Comrades runner - they all finish in some pain, very few tell you they had a good run, and many swear never to come back, yet they all do, year after year, for more of the same.
10,997 more stories will be written tomorrow
That's just three stories from 2007's race. You can be sure that another 11,000 will be written tomorrow, some good, some bad. If you are one of those runners, and you happen to read this post before, good luck! Remember, slow and steady, and if you think you're running the right speed at halfway, slow down! You can ruin your day with aggressive pacing!
For those reading it afterwards, congratulations, I trust your legs have forgiven you!
Our race report is next, after the race tomorrow! Join us then!
Ross
Jumat, 13 Juni 2008
Comrades Marathon 2008
It's Comrades' time: The 2008 "Up" run preview
If it's mid-June, then it must be Comrades! Our overseas readers may not be familiar with Comrades concept (and lifestyle, for many SA runners), so I thought it would be interesting to give a brief run-down of the race, and then look at some of the "behind the scenes" aspects of what goes into running the race.
What's the big deal, you ask? Well, the race profile for the 2008 race is shown below.
This year's race is what is called the "Up-run", which means the runners cover the not-too-insignificant distance of 87 km between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Next year (and last year, of course), the route is reversed, and they do the "Down-run", from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, meaning that the race effectively runs on a two year cycle, which makes predicting winners even more tricky than it would normally be for a race consisting of back-to-back marathons and 5km time-trial!
If it's mid-June, then it must be Comrades! Our overseas readers may not be familiar with Comrades concept (and lifestyle, for many SA runners), so I thought it would be interesting to give a brief run-down of the race, and then look at some of the "behind the scenes" aspects of what goes into running the race.
What's the big deal, you ask? Well, the race profile for the 2008 race is shown below.
This year's race is what is called the "Up-run", which means the runners cover the not-too-insignificant distance of 87 km between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Next year (and last year, of course), the route is reversed, and they do the "Down-run", from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, meaning that the race effectively runs on a two year cycle, which makes predicting winners even more tricky than it would normally be for a race consisting of back-to-back marathons and 5km time-trial!
A brief discussion of the route - ups and downs (but far more "ups"!)
The route, as you can see from the image above, is perhaps one of the most demanding of any 'mass event' around. By way of comparison, the Boston Marathon, which we covered earlier this year, features a sequence of hills called the Newton Hills, shortly after the halfway mark. The most famous of those, "Heartbreak Hill", is an 800m long climb that rises about 30m. On Sunday, the Comrades runners will encounter the following:
- Cowies Hill - starts at 14km, and then climbs up 137m in 1.5km (9.1%)
- Fields Hill - begins after 22km and rises 213m over 3km (7.1%)
- Botha's Hill - a 2.4km climb that rises 150m (6.3%)
- Inchanga - just after halfway (only a full marathon and then some!), a 2.5km climb that also rises 150m (6%)
- Polly Shorts - the make-or-break moment of the elite race, a shortish climb of 1.8km that climbs perhaps 100m, but it's here that the elite race is often decided, simply because runners have two full marathons in their legs, having run 80km to this point.
The elite race - Russia vs. South Africa, impossible to call with certainty
Actually picking winners and favourites for Comrades is a lottery that even we are not going to tackle with any certainty! We're not shy to call a winner here, and even a race time in the marathons (we got London and Boston fairly close earlier this year), but for a race that is double the distance, it's a little more tricky.
What complicates the prediction is that previous form is almost irrelevant, because:
- There's no real guide to performance over 87km throughout the year! It's not as though the elite are doing a series of "tune-up" ultra-races. Marathon performance, while a good indication, is by no means foolproof when you consider the increase in distance. Picking the favourites for a 42km race is simplified by the fact that the previous "reference point" is often only 3 or 4 months ago, and there's more certainty in translating a 21km performance to the marathon. No such priviledge over an 87km race.
- The race changes direction each year, and there are without doubt runners who are favoured one way or the other. The South African men, for example, are traditionally a little better on the "Down-run", whereas the Russians have basically owned the "Up-run". It's been 16 years since an SA runner won the "Up-run" - don't expect that trend to reverse this year. The surest bet (if there is such a thing) is that a Russian will win. Who it will be, that's another question...!
- Last year's winner, Leonid Shvetsov of Russia, who smashed the "Down-run" record is by no means a certainty this year, since the whole nature of the race changes. That said, you'd be a brave person to bet against someone with that kind of performance history.
The other big Russian name to look for are the defending Up-run champion, Oleg Kharitanov, who has five top ten finishes in six attempts, and should feature.
South African men - raw talent, but will they deliver?
Among the South African men, it's a real lottery. Two names I will throw into the ring are Sipho Ngomane and Leboka Noto.
Sipho Ngomane
Ngomane was, in 2005, a revelation. He won the down run in spectacular fashion, capping off an incredible season that saw him finish in the top 10 of just about every race he ran in. Unfortunately for him, it was a case of "killing the goose that laid the golden egg", because his managers and team exploited his talent to the point where he was effectively racing a marathon every month. There was a sequence of six months where he ran three ultra-marathons (50km or more) and three marathons, and then to cap it all off, he raced in the SA Half Marathon championships! It may not surprise you that he broke down injured soon after, and has never quite captured that same form. He's still competitive, and should feature, but the different between winning and losing is the difference between his 2005 and a sensible approach.
He is a sad example of the wealth of talent possessed by South Africa, but that is never fully realised because of the perverse economic incentives created for people to exploit that talent and cash in on the abundant supply. It's a case of "Let's bleed this one dry, because we know there are a hundred others like him". Very sad, and frustrating, and little wonder it's been 16 years since an SA man won this particular race.
Leboka Noto
Leboka Noto is another example of the way of SA running. He is employed full-time in a platinum mine - hardly conducive to training three or fours hours a day for a big race. I actually met Noto earlier this year - he came into the Sports Science Institute of SA and sat for a morning with Prof Tim Noakes discussing some aspects of the race that may help his performance. He was 10th in 2006, and 5th last year, and so is a candidate for race winner status. Remarkably, what emerged from his meeting with Noakes is that his training is done entirely alone, and consists of 70km training runs in the Lesotho mountains, with NO food, no water and no assistance! That's 4 to 5 hours, a couple of times a week, no diet strategy to assist.
Last year, he ran in the company of the Russians, and remarked that he was "surprised at how much the Russians drank and ate" - that is another demonstration of his raw talent, which hopefully, he can improve on this year. The simple act of eating and drinking on the run, if he gets it right, might make him a challenger. Then again, the simple change in lifestyle that would see a talented runner not have to spend the day on his feet in an underground mine might be the secret to unlocking a title for an SA man!
Our prediction - we're going conservative
OK, so here's our head on the block, and we'll be conservative, and "run with the herd" on this one. We pick Leonid Shvetsov to win, and to challenge the "up-run" record, which currently stands at 5:25.33 by his comrade (pardon the pun) Vladimir Kotov in 2000.
Shvetsov himself has said he's in the kind of shape to do it, but then so do all the main contenders - they're hardly going to admit to a month of lost training and poor preparations! So it's all based on self-reported training, which makes Sunday's race so fascinating!
As for the real "Comrades" - the race begins at 7 hours
However, the real story of Comrades is the non-elite runner - the men and women who slog it out for up to 11 hours on the roads of Natal. We'll do a post tomorrow on the "behind-the-scenes" aspects of the race, including the medical tent.
On a personal note, this is the first race in four years where I (Ross) won't be at the Comrades, in the medical tent at the finish line. The last three years have seen us there, doing research on the runners who end up requiring medical tent. It certainly adds an interesting perspective on the race, and that's what I'll talk about a little more in the next race - Comrades survivorship!
So do join us then!
Ross
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