Training for the Comrades Marathon

13th Mar, 2020

In June 2020 more than 27.000 runners will run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban for the Comrades Marathon and you will be one of them? Congratulations! You managed to get one of the highly sought-after spots. Now it’s time to get yourself ready for “The Ultimate Human Challenge”. In this article, we are going to talk about how to layout your training to see optimal results for the daunting 90K race.

Step 1 – Define your Goals

Are you in it to win it? Or are you just looking for that incredible feeling you get once you cross the finish line and they hand you the finisher medal? 

Before you start your training it’s important to set clear goals for yourself. Take a look at the results from previous years and think about previous races you have done and what pace you might be striving for at the Comrades Marathon. 

It’s important to define clear goals before you start training. These goals will remind you why you are training and what you are training for. If you, for example, want to be top 10% in your age group, check the pace of a previous year it took to make top 10% and train to run this pace for as long as possible. 

Step 2 – Find a Training Group with Similar Goals

Don’t go out and train by yourself! It’s always better to train with friends and in groups. For safety reasons and for improvement reasons. If you run by yourself, you will only run against the clock. But if you are running with friends or in a group, you will have other people to push you and to motivate you. We recommend joining a local running club. With the guidance of experienced runners and with many other motivated runners its much easier to train and you will see better results than when you go out and run by yourself every day. Once you find your perfect running partners, it’s time to put in the required work. 

Step 3 - Familiarise Yourself with the Course and Plan your Race Day

When you are getting closer to D-Day, make sure you familiarise yourself with the course and set a plan for race day. On the website of the Comrades Marathon, you will find an interactive route map which will show you elevation, distances between checkpoints and the gradient. We certainly recommend to familiarise yourself with that map before you go out and race. It’s also important to know your race day (and day before race day) routine. Are you going on the bus from Durban to Pietermaritzburg? How will you get to the bus? Who will support you in the finish area etc? These are all questions you should ask yourself and probably be able to answer well before the race.

Now it’s time to go outside and train! Meet up with your local running friends and team members and together get ready for the biggest race of the year, the Comrades Marathon. We wish you happy training for “The Ultimate Human Race”.

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