The hills are alive with tales from expeditious Kriel archives

In his book The Comrades Marathon Story, published as a revised version for the third time in 1985, Morris Alexander comments in the introduction “Little could dreamer Vic Clapham have visualised when he founded the Maritzburg Comrades Marathon in 1921 that some 10000 aspiring athletes would in later years crowd the start of his brainchild race. Yet in the mid-1980’s such was the response”.

That figure has since doubled to a ceiling of 20000.

Much more than mere numbers has changed of course and there appears to remain an appetite for Comrades stories far in advance of most other races.

For the runners there is a thirst for knowledge as they prepare to tackle almost 90km of torturous hills on the road to Durban.

One can expect that no car owner would ask his physician where best to purchase a vehicle and novice Comrades runners tend to seek out advice from whoever they believe can best dispense their knowledge to them.

Running one Comrades is unlikely to count for experience especially given that there are two very different Comrades Marathons. One is up. One is down. This year it is a down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

One of the most enduring stories to follow is that of Johan Kriel who has run 11 Comrades in Buffalo Road Runners colours; 14 for Savages and four for Hillcrest Harriers both of whom are domiciled in Durban. He has in addition run six for Johannesburg’s top club RAC. Kriel converted 31 of those attempts, bringing home 13 silver medals, three Bill Rowan, 12 bronze, three of which would today qualify for a sub-nine Bill Rowan and three Vic Clapham.

A best time of 6:24:35 would suggest that he is indeed a go to man for advice. It is more than that which suggests he is a man to talk to however.

Kriel got his monies worth in respect of time on the road when he made the cut by just 55 seconds in 2012, his last official finish in 11:59:05. So in truth he has done the full spectrum, short of winning the race, when it comes to running what is billed as the world’s greatest ultra-marathon.

Today he finds himself in a similar predicament to the nine-times winner, Bruce Fordyce, in respect of injury.

The world of a Comrades dedicated runner is interesting and a man like Kriel who has lived and run through more than four decades and out of three different provinces clearly has much to share.

He can reflect upon the changes in training methods, footwear, climate and more. For Kriel, as is the case of Fordyce who has complete 30 Comrades, walking away from a more than 30-year love affair is no easy option.

Walking, however is what Kriel has been reduced to and it was an article that he read about Fordyce walking at parkrun that motivated him to get out and follow suit, rather than allow a damaged nerve in his back, a resultant dead foot and a hip problem get the better of him. Sound like a Comrades type?

At the other end of the scale Kriel, in talking about his heyday, says he never ran an easy Comrades, everyone was a race from the gun, but that 1983 was his favourite based on it being his fastest, and also because the buildup was “fantastic” and at 33, almost half his current age, he was so strong.

While at Hillcrest Villages he was able to train with and be a part of a Comrades winning team combination with Comrades legends the likes of Tony Abbott, Graham Fraser and Derrick Tivers, which stimulated his and other club members running.

Similarities in Comrades stories perhaps help piece together best practice training methods as adopted by these earlier men of the road.

Kriel for instance ran a hard marathon of 2:40 in early March of 1983 and we know that Fordyce did the same when he ran a PB 2:17 in March of the same year and he then went on to win Comrades comfortably.

Three “mistakes” he made, according to Kriel, was to run the Golden Reef 100-Miler in 1984 and when he switched to doing a lot of trail running. Both negatively impacted his pace and resultant race times. The third was in 1994 when he bailed Comrades and got into a car because he was, on the day, “gatvol”. That signalled the end of a run of 13 silver medals interspersed with only one bronze and 11 of which were sub 7hrs.

In passing Kriel identifies a few local young men who run fast in training and in the odd local race, but cannot put it together on the big stage and suggests it is a training and attitude deficiency.

Asked if he accepts he has perhaps run his last Comrades, he giggles like a schoolboy and gives no direct answer saying only that “I am as keen today as I was 30 years ago.”

He adds that his partner, Paula Richardson, 72, with whom he has run many an event, remains a huge inspiration every single day.

For the three laurel Comrades Green Number 5147 the 2016 Comrades Marathon day looks set to be bitter-sweet.