The late and greatly missed Ian Emery once asked me why I was running very wide of the kerb on a bend near Drummond (halfway) while we were racing the Comrades Marathon.

“Bruce”, he panted, “you’ve been running the tangents so well in this race and yet suddenly you’re running wide. What’s up?”

Ian, by the way was a three-time gold medallist in our great race with a best place 4^th in 1985. He was knocked off his bike one awful morning and killed by a drunk motorist. I can’t believe that that sad day was more than 20 years ago.

“Ian,” I replied with a wink and a smile, “I know every inch of this route and the roughest tar and loose stones in this entire race line the inside of this long bend and for the next kilometre. If you want to avoid painful feet and blisters run wide like me, “

“Wow you really know this Comrades route well Bruce.”

“That because every year I drive it and I run sections of it as often as I can.” I replied, and I then braced myself for the long tough climb up Inchanga Hill.

Exploring the Comrades route should be an essential part of every runner’s preparation for the great race. Some call the task a route tester, others call it a dress rehearsal. But it doesn’t matter what runners call it, it should be an important part of every runner’s preparation.

Understandably not everyone enjoys the luxury of living in Kwazulu-Natal and so running the route may be impossible for many runners but at the very least runners should try and drive along the route a couple of days before the race so that they can familiarise themselves with the challenges that lie ahead.

There are some runners who say that they prefer not to study the route at all. They have no desire to know what lies ahead. They favour blissful ignorance, and they prefer to run the race blind.

I’m not one of those runners.

I believe knowledge is power, and that understanding the task ahead is as essential as choosing the correct running shoes for race day or preparing your race nutrition.

I have no idea how many times I have travelled over that infamous route on foot, in a car, or even overhead in an aeroplane, but after 30 runs and umpteen journeys I would expect to know the route intimately. Nevertheless, there are still sections that surprise me, or that I appear to have forgotten. Predictably the route concertinas. It shortens in the mind and despite my best efforts, as time passes the route lingers in my mind as easier and simpler than I recall.

“Yes, Polly Shortts is tough but it’s not that bad,” I fool myself into believing. “it’s just that squiggly bit in the beginning followed a long straight, bit followed by another squiggle, and you’re at the top”. But driving or running up Polly shortts reminds me just how long, steep, and treacherous the monster is. The concertina in my mind rapidly unwinds and stretches to its limit as I am introduced to reality .

It’s useful to remember that even the most experienced of us has not run the up Comrades for a few years, since 2019 to be exact.

Most runners are prepared for the legendary 5 registered mountains on the route (Cowie’s Hill, Field’s Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts ) but very few are ready for the challenge of the unexpected, the  dozens of unnamed hills along the way ( It’s not called the Valley of 1000 Hills for nothing!).

Every year I lead a bus tour of the Comrades route on the Friday morning before the race. The bus is almost always full of excited nervous runners many from overseas (For anyone interested in joining our tour tickets are available here) to begin with the runners are excited. The bus is full of eager chatter and laughter. But as the journey unwinds and the bus grinds its way up to Pietermaritzburg the voices get quieter and quieter. Runners adjust race schedules, faces become ashen. Harsh reality sets in.

Visiting the Enthembeni School.

En route we will drive all the major hills and take in the important landmarks such as the wall of honour and Arthur’s seat. We will also visit the Enthembeni school for the disabled. There will be a tea and refreshments break and several opportunities to take photographs. If possible we will have the opportunity to walk the final circuit on the grass at the finish.

2023 Comrades Route tour Kingsmead Stadium.

But at the end of the tour as we walk around the grass finish at Scottsville stadium there is not a single runner who neglects to thank me for the “invaluable insights and experience.”,

Comrades runners have perhaps two weeks of hard training ahead of them. After that there isn’t too much left for them to complete by way of final preparation, except perhaps to travel over the Comrades route in a final dress rehearsal.

I know my old running friend Ian Emery would agree.