So with less than two weeks to go I’m finding this all a bit overwhelming. I was waiting for this to happen, it happened last year and bang on cue it happened again. The volume of emails I got this morning from fellow Comrades runners – ‘so what are you planning to eat on Saturday night?’, the official Comrades newsletter with its well meaning ‘last tips and the dos and don’ts’, meant by lunch I could hardly breathe. As your heart rate begins to climb its hard to not panic.

Tonight I was glad to see that it wasn’t just me on edge. Steve had managed to leave work and buy a brand new pair of trainers before getting to the club run at 6pm. His old shoes are fine, he is just worried that they might be just, well, too old. He ran with one new shoe and one old shoe as a test and then worried that he has unbalanced both pairs of shoes as one shoe from each pair had more mileage than the other. This coming from the man that put his shoes in the wash the night before leaving for Durban last year. See what I mean? This race messes with your head.

Running notes
Route: Lower Cable Station to the turn at the end of the tarmac on Tafelberg Road and back
Time started: 6pm
Total time: 55 minutes
Total distance: 1okm
Weather conditions: Cool
Temperature: 15˚
Runner’s condition: Fine