Runners World South Africa- March/April Edition 2022

E X P E R T

A D V I C E

F R O M

W O R L D - C L A S S

C O A C H E S

A N D

A T H L E T E S

RUNNING RESET: MOTIVATION REBOOT / INJURY-PROOF YOUR BODY / OWN RACE DAY

HOW TO

P.40

RACE-DAY GEAR UPGRADE

45 ITEMS TO INSPIRE A PB!

CAN YOU BREATHE YOURSELF FITTER? P.54

THE 21.1KM PLAN TO WHIP YOU INTO THE BEST SHAPE OF YOUR LIFE

P L U S

ULTRA TRAGEDY 172 STARTED – AND 21 NEVER CAME BACK P.64

RYAN SANDES' 1 100KM LESOTHO MEGA-RUN P.14

'You Need To Be Strong!'

HOW DOM SCOTT ENTERED THE RECORD BOOKS

RUN TRAILS...

FAST! P.38

MARCH/APRIL ISSUE 2 / 2022

SOUTHERN AFRICAN EDITION

RSA R80.00 (VAT INCL)

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RUN YOUR WAY TO MARATHON GLORY IN 16 WEEKS

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HIGHLIGHTS REGULARS

WARM-UPS

COACH

WARM-UPS

MARCH/ APRIL 2022

HUMAN RACE

FEATURES

GEAR

Coach Parry’s

HIGHLIGHTS

P46 Ace The Half It’s the perfect distance to challenge endurance and speed.

Here’s the plan to run your best (or first) 21.1km.

P40 Running Reset Motivation dip?

Struggling with injury? Need some inspo? Get back on track with a little expert advice.

P73 Race-Day Gear Upgrade Feeling good, in the right running kit, can make a big difference to your race-day result. Start here.

P54 Breathe Yourself Fitter Can the way you breathe make you fitter and stronger as a runner? Here’s what the experts say.

I L L U S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K

46

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I M AG E S : A D O B E S TO C K | P I E TA R I P O S T I | F R E E P I K | S U P P L I E D

11

Rules of Half-Marathon Running

38

54

WE’RE FIRST FOR ADVICE For all the latest news and views on training, events and gear, visit runnersworld.co.za Here’s what’s trending...

REGULARS

FEATURES

P14 Rave Run The Lesotho Loop.

P40 Your Running Reset Sometimes you need to ditch your bad habits and form new ones.

Here’s how to have a first date with running again.

P18 The Inside Lane with our Editor, Mike Finch.

P38 The Sports Scientist Trail skills to make you run like a rock rabbit.

P46 11 Rules of Half Marathon Running Coach Lindsey Parry is one of SA’s leading running coaches. Here’s his 8-week plan to get you ready for a solid half marathon.

P90 Backmarker Your Saturday serotonin surge is back!

WARM-UPS P20 Oil Your Wheels Can fish oil build mental toughness?

Saturdays are for...

Parkruns! p90.

P24 Pro Recovery Secrets for crushing back-to-back runs or races.

P64 The China Tragedy 172 runners started one of China’s most scenic ultras. 21 of them never came back. There are lessons to be learned.

I M AG E S : A D O B E S TO C K | P I E TA R I P O S T I | F R E E P I K | S U P P L I E D

I L L U S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K

HUMAN RACE P30 My Running Life She’s reinvented herself in Europe – it’s Meg Mackenzie 2.0.

Caffeine kicks for the win. p34.

Fad or functional? More importantly, could it work for runners?

P54 Can You Breathe Yourself Fitter? The latest research suggests it’s possible. Read why, try the exercises, see for yourself.

P58 The Marathon Record If you’re a muso and also a runner, sooner or later you’ll write a song about running. One of RW’s own went one better: he wrote a whole album. And you can stream it free.

P26 Mind Power Be awesome in your head. Your body will follow.

THE WATERMELON DIET

SHOULD YOU CHANGE YOUR STRIDE LENGTH? Run more like Eliud, or be happy with the way you run now... Finding the balance is key.

GEAR P36 The Test Zone Stuff we tested

NUTRITION

P73 Race-Day Gear All you need to kit yourself out the winning way from head to toe – it’s the RW race-season gear guide.

P34 The Performance Benefits of Caffeine Turns out the hipsters were right.

A bag for water? p36.

P87 What We Wear The thought of stuffy, scratchy woollen running kit putting you off? Here’s why you should change your mind.

BEAT LOWER BACK PAIN It all starts with the core. Here’s some expert advice on symptoms and treatments.

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Join The Movement

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South African Edition

A licence venture between Hearst Magazines International and QuickBrownFox (Pty) Ltd EDITORIAL Editor-In-Chief Creative Director Chief Sub/Managing Editor Contributing & Gear Editor Scientific Editor Editor-at-Large

MIKE FINCH (mike@qbf-agency.co.za) ALANA MUNNIK (alana@qbf-agency.co.za) DAVE BUCHANAN RYAN SCOTT PROF. ROSS TUCKER BRUCE FORDYCE

runnersworld.co.za

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ON THE COVER

ISSUE 2 / 2022

PUBLISHED BY QUICKBROWNFOX (PTY) LTD UNDER LICENCE FROM HEARST MAGAZINES INTERNATIONAL NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED, STORED IN A RETRIEVAL SYSTEM OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER.

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PARTNER CONTENT

EVENT DATES 15 May

Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K (entries open 1 Feb)

10 July

Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K (entries open 8 Mar)

24 September

Absa RUN YOUR CITY JOBURG 10K (entries open 5 Apr)

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Get Ready to #RunYourCity at the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series In South Africa, running is a national pastime.

The country has a rich history in the sport, from Olympic golds, world titles and world records, to a race calendar packed with hundreds of races.

So it’s no surprise that the running community gets really excited when something new and fresh comes along… like the innovative and exciting Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series, which has been raising the bar in SA road running since 2015.

On 15 May 2022, the city centre of Cape Town will be painted red as thousands of runners take to the Mother City’s streets for the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K. Formerly a 12km race, it will now form part of a national 10K series. Then, on 10 July, eThekwini will be a sea of red as the Absa RUN YOUR CITY DURBAN 10K races around the Moses Mabhida Stadium precinct.

And finally, Egoli will host the Absa RUN YOUR CITY JOBURG 10K on 24 September.

Together these races form South Africa’s premium road running series, bringing fun mass-participation running events right into the hearts of these city centres. The races also inject new excitement into the top end of the sport, with SA’s best distance athletes being given the opportunity to race some of the fastest athletes in the world!

The series is organised by Stillwater Sports, one of SA’s foremost eventing companies; and Absa, the proudly African bank, was announced as the new title sponsor in 2021.

“A formidable influencer and leader in its field, Absa not only drives high performance to

achieve sustainable results, but the brand also focuses on bringing possibilities to life, which aligns perfectly with the key values of the series,” says Michael Meyer, Managing Director of Stillwater Sports and founder of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series.

Making it All Possible

The idea for the series was born out of Meyer's experience as a coach and athlete manager.

“I was lucky enough to go to all the major marathons in the USA, but my eyes were really opened when I went to events like Bay to Breakers, Peach Tree and Cherry Blossom.

These are all shorter events between 10km and

Routes incorporate iconic landmarks and feature magnificent views, while boasting exciting on-route entertainment from start to finish. The entertainment is compliments of leading performing arts groups and sponsors such as PUMA, who have treated us to the popular PUMA Beat Bolt Sprint since the inception of the first event,” says Meyer.

While the more social runners revel in the party atmosphere at the races, the elite athletes always deliver racing of the highest calibre.

“In 2017 we saw the world’s fastest time ever run for 12km in Cape Town, when Kenyan Morris Gachaga clocked 33:27, and the first three races in Durban produced the fastest 10km ever run in

We wanted to create events that highlight the splendour of each host city, while giving runners of all fitness levels the opportunity to participate in a road running experience like no other.

15km, but they have massive fields that take over the cities. That is something I really thought South Africans would like,” Meyer says.

Stillwater Sports launched the CAPE TOWN 12K in 2015, followed a year later by the JOBURG 10K, and in 2017 the DURBAN 10K was added to the series.

“We wanted to create events that highlight the splendour of each host city, while giving runners of all fitness levels the opportunity to participate in a road-running experience like no other.

SA,” says Meyer. “That’s because our elite athlete programme incentivises both national and international athletes to perform well, and that has produced world-class results. Also, the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series continues to raise the performances of our South African athletes, giving them greater confidence when they line up in international races.”

Exciting Times Ahead

Looking ahead, Meyer says runners can look forward to an even more exciting series in 2022.

“Since the inception of the series, our focus areas have been innovation, inspiration, fitness and fun; and with Absa’s commitment to the series, we believe that the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series will continue to welcome thousands of runners across South Africa to the starting line, as well as world-class athletes from across the globe hoping to break records on African soil. We can’t wait to welcome runners of all fitness levels to the start line in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg in 2022 – all ready to #RunYourCity.”

For further information and to enter the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series, please visit runyourcityseries.com

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LESOTHO LOOP,

LESOTHO

WORDS Mike Finch

RUNNERS Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel

PHOTOGRAPHS Craig Kolesky

BEST TIME TO RUN Autumn. Lesotho can be brutally hot in summer and freezing in winter. Finding just the right time between the extremes is key.

TERRAIN Varies from high-altitude mountain trails with rocky, grassy tracks on the escarpment, to open farm roads on the west side of this hilly country.

CONFIGURATION Circular, 1 100km.

THE RUN Starting from the Tele Bridge border post in the southwestern corner of Lesotho follow the contour of the border for its entire circumference.

HOW TO GET THERE Fly in to Bloemfontein and then drive to the Tele Bridge border post via Lady Grey.

THE EXPERIENCE Ryan Sandes and partner Ryno Griesel recce’d their proposed Lesotho loop earlier this year, with a plan to run the course for real in April.

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RAVE RUN

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RAVE RUN

Together with SkyRun organiser Adrian Saffy (who is in charge of logistics), they got to experience some of the terrain and conditions likely to occur during their attempt on the 1 100km journey.

The run is expected to take between 10 and 14 days, with an average of 70km a day during the tough mountain stages and 100km a day on the flatter farm-road sections.

The two will be self-sufficient for the more remote stages, sleeping in a light single-man tent together and carrying much of their supplies with them.

One of the biggest challenges facing the two will be the village herd dogs, which sometimes travel in packs and are aggressive towards stangers.

“It’s the hardest terrain I’ve ever had to negotiate,” says Sandes.

“It’s not really trail running, on the mountain sections – more like fast hiking! There’s tons and tons of elevation.”

The two hope to be able to formalise a route and establish the challenge as an FKT (Fastest Known Time).

TO KEEP TABS ON THE PAIR’S LESOTHO ADVENTURE, FOLLOW @RYANSANDES ON INSTAGRAM

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THE INSIDE LANE Mike Finch Editor-In-Chief Instagram: @MikeFinchSA

Oceans Reboot the proposed race dates on 16 April (Half) and 17 April (Ultra). Over the past three years the race has been mired in controversy, in-fighting and accusations of mismanagement; but after months of delays, the news that entries are now open was greeted with much excitement.

starting from ground zero, and the pressure will be on them to pull off an event worthy of sponsor interest and investment.

Looking back, the race itself has been pivotal in South African running. When the event first held the Half Marathon, in 1998, it almost single-handedly changed the face of running in our country, by popularising the shorter distance with the credibility of the

When the event first held the Half Marathon, in 1998, it almost single-handedly changed the face of running in our country...

It will be no easy task for the current organisers to match the events of the past, as the race is struggling to find meaningful sponsors. Entry fees can only cover so much of the costs; sponsors are critical to enhancing the runner experience.

With no fun runs or trail event, this year’s Oceans is likely to be a watered-down affair in all respects. The organisers are

Ultra behind it.

Back then the naysayers suggested that the Half would eventually kill off the Ultra; but in reality it became a feeder event for the 56km, and it wasn’t long before Ultra entry numbers were showing healthy growth.

Since 2007 the Two Oceans Half has been the biggest half marathon in the country, with close to 16 000 entering each year. The very best

3 Great Moments in Two Oceans History 1988: Thompson Magawana breaks the world 50km record, on his way to a stunning record time of 3:03.44 – a time that has not been matched or bettered since.

1989: Frith van der Merwe establishes a women’s record of 3:30.36 – another time that has yet to be beaten.

runners compete for line honours at the front of the field, while the thousands behind either chase PBs or just enjoy the festival vibe out on the course.

Two Oceans over the Easter weekend in Cape Town is a tradition. The Ultra itself can rightly claim to be one of the world’s most beautiful roadrunning races, and the spirit of the supporters along the route makes it a celebration of everything that is good about South African running.

It is critical that the Two Oceans Marathon regains its place among our most respected races.

It is a catalyst for growth and excitement, and gives everyone a boost – from individuals to clubs to the running industry.

We wish the organisers the greatest success.

1998: The race introduces a half marathon alongside the Ultra. In its first year, 3 593 entered the Half.

G A L LO I M AG E S / I M AG E S A

AT THE TIME OF WRITING, ENTRIES FOR THE TWO OCEANS ULTRA AND HALF MARATHON HAD FINALLY OPENED, barely two months before

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21 22 24 26 MIND + HEALTH

NUTRITION

TRAINING

MENTAL BARRIERS

WARM-UPS

SUPPLEMENTAL OUTCOME

OIL YOUR WHEELS

Can fish oil boost your mental toughness?

MENTAL STRENGTH is a slippery subject, but one study that’s caught our attention suggests fish oil could tip the scales by helping to unlock your inner endurance warrior.

Researchers at Kobe University in Japan found study participants who were given a dose of the supplement were able to handle pain for longer and with less discomfort than the control group. The scientists believe the

DHA fatty acids in fish oil can amplify the effects of endorphins, which help you cope with the stress of physical exertion, suppressing pain and boosting your mood. By assisting these feel-good neurotransmitters, DHA increases your pain threshold. If you’re usually floundering halfway through a 5K, this should keep you more in tuna. You might even find the strength for a turbot-charged finish. And that's enough fishy puns.

WO R D S : R I C K P E A R S O N . P H OTO G R A P H : G E T T Y I M AG E S

Fish oil could help you tough it out.

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WO R D S : R I C K P E A R S O N . I L LU S T R AT I O N : R YA N S N O O K . 1. B R O C K U N I V E R S I T Y, U S

The TIPS YOU NEED to GET UP to SPEED

MIND + HEALTH

WO R D S : R I C K P E A R S O N . I L LU S T R AT I O N : R YA N S N O O K . 1. B R O C K U N I V E R S I T Y, U S

WO R D S : R I C K P E A R S O N . P H OTO G R A P H : G E T T Y I M AG E S

HAVE A WORD WITH YOURSELF A study shows that positive self-talk boosts performance in hot weather.

85

Percentage of runners who use self-talk. What are the rest of you doing?

R ACING THIS AUTUMN? It's still hot out there, so here’s one way to improve your performance without breaking a sweat: improve your inner monologue.

A study found the dialogue running through your head as you train or race in heat has significant effects on how well your mind and muscles function.

For the study, 18 cyclists performed a timed ride on stationary bikes in 35°C heat, followed by a series of cognitive tests. Half the group were

FOUR SELF-TALK PHRASES

WARM-UPS

given two weeks of self-talk training, and then all the cyclists repeated the physical and cognitive tests. Those who’d received self-talk training did markedly better in both tests. "Self-talk should be brief and purposeful," says sports psychologist professor Andy Lane (winninglane.com). "It can be instructional, to change some aspect of movement, or motivational.

Importantly, it should be easy to remember – and practised."

Motivational

Instructional

‘YOU’RE FEELING STRONG’

‘RUN TALL AND RELAX YOUR ARMS’

Motivational

Instructional

‘YOU CAN AND YOU WILL’

‘FIND YOUR RHYTHM…1,2,3,4’

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WARM-UPS

NUTRITION

ROC KET IS RICH IN A MINO AC I D S AN D V I TA MIN C.

O IS CAD AV O FOR D O GO G U T. THE

AVO LOAD OF THAT!

Avocado can aid your gut health.

FOR THE PATTIES

DIRECTIONS

3 spring onions Large handful of fresh parsley 500g skinless salmon fillets 100g breadcrumbs 1 tbsp horseradish sauce 1 egg 1 tbsp olive oil

1 / In a food processor, whiz spring onions and parsley (including stalks) until finely chopped. Add the salmon and pulse until well minced, but retaining some texture.

Scrape mixture into a large bowl and stir in breadcrumbs, horseradish, egg and some seasoning.

FOR THE AIOLI

THE ALLIG ATOR PE AR – or avocado, as it's far more sensibly known – is packed with healthy fats; and according to new research, is a friend of the gut.

The study found that eating an avo a day can improve your intestinal health, thanks to the high levels of fibre and unsaturated fatty acids. Combine it with salmon, as in this recipe, for a protein-packed, gut-friendly feast.

4 tbsp mayonnaise 1 garlic clove, crushed ½ lemon, grated zest only TO SERVE

One avocado, sliced Four ciabatta rolls, split Handful of rocket

2 / Shape into 4 patties.

Heat oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over low-medium heat and fry patties for 8 mins

– turning after 4 mins – or until golden and cooked through.

3 / In a small bowl, mix together aioli ingredients with some seasoning.

4 / Serve the burgers in ciabatta rolls, with avocado slices, rocket and aioli.

Makes: 4. Per serving: 2 941kJ; 59g carbs; 40g protein; 33g fat; 4g fibre; 5g saturated fat; 4g sugars

WO R D S : R I C K P E A R S O N . P H OTO G R A P H : G A R E T H M O R G A N S . 1. J O U R N A L O F N U T R I T I O N

S ON I SALM EIN T O A PR GA 3 OME AND USE. O ERH POW

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Refreshed & Ready

Pro recovery secrets for crushing back-to-back runs – and races.

B Y C I N DY K U Z M A

DUTCH RUNNER SIFAN Hassan wowed the world at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she attempted an unprecedented distance triple, competing in the 1 500m, 5 000m and 10 000m races. Between heats and finals, Hassan would cover 24 500 metres in barely an eight-day span, with as little as 12 hours between races.

It was June when she proposed the idea to her coach, Tim Rowberry. He was speechless at first, but soon they began making a plan to help Hassan compete at her highest level in such a short span of time. The feat didn’t have a true road map, though Rowberry knew it would require a careful balance between speed and endurance, along with several swift recoveries. And it worked: Hassan pulled it off – winning two gold medals and a bronze.

Your competition schedule probably isn’t as daunting.

But you might face two or more hard efforts on a tight time line. Perhaps you’re running races on subsequent weekends, completing an overnight relay, or simply want to feel fresh for a long run a few days after a speed workout.

Every runner should have a recovery plan, says Alisa Harvey, a former elite middle-distance runner who now competes as a masters athlete and coaches in Virginia, US. Your body is a remarkable machine, naturally repairing microtears in your muscles, replenishing your energy stores, and clearing out the waste products you produce during hard efforts. But these actions occur during recovery, not during the effort itself. It’s that downtime that allows you to grow stronger and faster, which is why it’s so important.

Actively promoting these processes also reduces your injury risk, builds your confidence, and prepares you to train and race hard again, says Robyn LaLonde, running coach and owner of the EDGE Athlete Lounge in Chicago, US. Every runner has unique needs. But dialling in a few key elements – and practising them throughout training – can help you nail recovery when it really counts.

As a general rule, good recovery means at least a day of rest or easy running between hard and long efforts, LaLonde says.

But if you’re preparing for two races in a tight time frame, such as a 5K and a half marathon in the same weekend, sprinkle simulations into your training schedule. Before the Olympics, Hassan and Rowberry practised elements of the triple in training – for instance, a 1 500m race followed by a tempo run the next day or even that same night, to replicate a 5 000m effort.

Wo Ad ob rd se: Sto Emcilika/Jaco B e n to b n Lu| nScot d t F lat h ou se

Practise tight time lines

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TRAINING Mike Wardian is also a turnaround master. He won the 2017 and 2019 World Marathon Challenge – seven marathons on seven continents in seven days (all under three hours). In 2021 he ran the Chicago Marathon on 10 October and the Boston Marathon the next day – again, both sub-three.

At least three to four weeks before big challenges, Wardian does three 16km runs in one day, each one slightly faster. (You might keep those runs shorter, or do them on subsequent days.)

These back-to-back efforts train you

or cereal with berries. Not hungry?

Hassan wasn’t either, so she focused on milk, fruit, hydration, and protein shakes. “Sifan ate fruit at every meal,” Rowberry says. Anti-inflammatory foods such as berries, chia seeds, walnuts and salmon also enhance recovery, Scaroni says.

One item to skip: alcohol. Research suggests it can hamper muscle repair.

Booze also interferes with sleep and may reduce your heart rate variability, a measure of the gap between heartbeats signalling the recovery of your cardiovascular and nervous systems.

WARM-UPS

rest – which, for most people, is about seven to eight hours – optimises tissue repair, modulates inflammation, and reduces fatigue.

Regular exercise generally promotes restful slumber, but races and their aftermath can interfere. Hassan was up until about 4am the night after winning gold in the 5 000m. Later in the week, the combination of adrenaline, fatigue and stress made sleep challenging, Rowberry says.

Mitigate the effects of racing by creating an evening wind-down routine. Scaroni took her Kindle to

IF YOU KEEP CHUGGING ALONG, EVENTUALLY YOUR NUTRITION HITS, YOU GET IN THE RIGHT ZONE, OR YOU JUST FIND A WAY TO GET YOUR MOJO BACK. to hold a challenging pace on tired legs and force you to be proactive about recovery methods between efforts, Wardian says. For instance, experiment with self-massage tools (foam rollers or massage guns) to ease tension in your legs and other sore spots. This increases bloodflow, which means your muscles get more oxygen and nutrients, and it can help reduce inflammation.

You can also help your body by booking a massage within a day of the next hard effort, LaLonde recommends.

Wo Ad ob rd se: Sto Emcilika/Jaco B e n to b n Lu| nScot d t F lat h ou se

Fuel thoughtfully

Food and hydration replenish fluid and energy and provide raw materials for muscle repair. To jump-start the process, grab a snack with a 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein (such as chocolate milk or a peanut butter & syrup) as soon as you can after a hard effort, says Susannah Scaroni, a postgrad student in nutrition at the University of Illinois and a wheelchair racer who won gold in the 5 000m and bronze in the 800m at the 2020 Paralympics.

Scaroni also raced the 1 500m and the marathon, all within eight days.

Immediately after each, she ate an energy bar or drank a protein shake. She also alternated water with electrolyte beverages to replace the sodium and potassium she would sweat out.

If you have time for a full meal between efforts, make it rich in easily digestible carbs, such as oats

Move a bit, but not too much

Immediately after a long, hard effort, Wardian likes to keep moving – walking or performing leg swings – to increase bloodflow to the legs.

But don’t overdo it. Take a cue from Olympic heptathletes and decathletes, who conserve energy by moving slowly between events, LaLonde says.

If you’re travelling between races, make the journey as stress-free as possible. Harvey spent years using road races as a way to fund her track career; she once made the podium in two races in two days in two US states, in part because she skipped the cooldown after the first one and took the train instead of driving to the second, so she could rest.

Snooze, if you can

Sleep is your No. 1 recovery tool, LaLonde says. Getting a good night’s

Tokyo; 30 minutes before bed, she put down her phone and delved into Harry Potter. You can also front-load your rest, adding extra hours in the days before your race or workout, Harvey suggests. Naps fill in other gaps – in a 2019 study, 30-minute snoozes offset the negative effects of sleep deprivation on performance.

Refresh your mindset

After the first effort, take a moment to reflect on your performance, then put it aside. Be realistic about how fatigue figures into your pacing and performance, but remember that past results don’t dictate your future. In fact, if you start out stiff and sore, you might actually feel better over time. “If you keep chugging along, eventually your nutrition hits, you get in the right zone, or you just find a way to get your mojo back,” Wardian says. “A lot of times, you’ll surprise yourself.”

G I V E YO U R M U S C L E S A S Q U E E Z E Dynamic compression boots,, such as those made by Normatec, use inflatable air pockets to enhance bloodflow. They’re pricey, but sometimes rentable at gyms and recovery studios.

(Sifan Hassan borrowed a pair from Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers during the Olympics.) Compression clothing – socks, tights, calf sleeves – can also help, and costs less.

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Mind Power

Break Through Mental Barriers to Make Longer Efforts Easier.

AFTER TWO DISAPPOINTING races – in the 5 000 and 10 000 metres—at last year’s US Olympic Track and Field Trials, pro runner Erika Kemp had to take a step back in order to move forward with the rest of her season.

She took a week and a half off from running; and her coach, Mark Carroll, issued a challenge that he hoped would reignite Kemp’s spark for competing – a jump up in distance to 20K for her next race.

With a refreshed mindset, Kemp not only took the top honours in the USATF 20K Championships but also placed second at the 25K championships the following month, which was the longest distance she’d ever run or raced. “It was nice because whenever you do a new event, there’s just nothing else to compare it to without a previous benchmark,” Kemp says. Another bonus: it’s an automatic personal best.

Whether you’re eyeing your first 5K, upping your training volume, or making the jump from marathons to ultras, getting

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TRAINING

WARM-UPS

I’M SMILING ON THE OUTSIDE, BECAUSE I’M TRICKING MY BRAIN INTO THINKING THAT THIS IS GREAT... over the mental hurdles of attempting something that’s longer and more physically demanding is just as important as improving your fitness.

Here’s how you can anticipate and overcome those barriers, with the help of top runners and coaches who’ve taken the leap to new distances.

Practise proper pacing, visualise the unknown

While she may have found her sweet spot in racing longer distances, Kemp says she has to mentally break those longer efforts into chunks based on how she typically feels over 3K, 5K or 10K. Pro runner Dakotah Lindwurm, 26, who also coaches recreational runners, shares that sentiment. Longer-than-normal runs shouldn’t hurt if you’re pacing yourself properly, she says.

You’ll probably still enter an unfamiliar pain level when you creep up in distance, though; which is why visualising how you’re going to feel in those later tough parts is important, even in your ordinary runs.

“Everybody’s been dead tired when they’re running, whether they’re a brand new runner or not,” Lindwurm says. “I use visualisation every day while training for my marathons, by thinking about how exhausted I’m going to feel and how I’m going to overcome that mentally.”

This can also be key for figuring out where you usually start to hurt physically or mentally, a process that should begin prior to your longer event, says Lennie Waite, 35, a 2016 Olympian in the 3 000m steeplechase and a sports psychology consultant. Waite says it’s rare to feel amazing for the entire duration of a race; but it’s possible to identify where things usually go south, so you can work on your mental toughness when you need it.

That way you’ll be less shocked if it happens, and less likely to question whether you can finish, Waite says. Then you can shift back more quickly to a positive mindset and focus on the final kays ahead.

Ad ob e Sto c k /Jaco b Lu n d

Test yourself when the pressure is off

Given the lack of racing in 2020, CJ Albertson, 28, threw together an event to attempt to break the world record for a 50K on the track. It was his first attempt at the distance, and while he wouldn’t have had it on his race calendar during a normal year, Albertson managed to break the previous record with a time of 2:42:30. The run also served as a confidence-boosting workout for the Marathon Project race six weeks later,

where he set his current marathon PB of 2:11:18.

Veering from your scheduled plan can be beneficial if you’re in a good spot with training.

For example, running 21.1km several weeks before your first official half marathon can break up your routine and prove you can do the distance.

Albertson says that once he does a trial run in practice – even if he’s unfamiliar with it at first – it allows him to look forward to a race of that length when it fits into his schedule.

Find a distraction

If you happened to watch last year’s Boston Ma rat hon on T V, you probably saw t hat Lindwurm led for much of the first 16K. You may also have noticed the smile on her face while she was doing it.

“Even if I may not be smiling on the inside,” she says, “I’m smiling on the outside, because I’m tricking my brain into thinking that this is great – even when it hurts.”

According to a new study published in the Journal of Motor Learning and Development, tactics that draw your attention away from negative internal thoughts – how much longer you have to run, for instance, or your legs feeling heavy – may help you improve your endurance, performance, and even running economy.

Any type of external distraction could help you get out of a funk in a race. Try looking at the cheering crowd or funny race signs, or chat with the person next to you to take your mind away from tough moments.

Embrace your goals

Waite says it’s easy for recreational runners to minimise goal setting, if they run strictly for pleasure. And she’s found that when this kind of person starts striving to run better at a distance, or reach a new milestone, this mindset can sometimes become a mental roadblock and make it difficult to find success.

If this sounds like you, working with a coach or sports psychologist can help you identify what might be holding you back – mentally or physically – and give your training added purpose.

Because even if you aren’t running for a spot on the podium, the work you put in is still important.

And you can empower yourself by repeating positive affirmations, such as 'This is important to me, I trained for this, and I belong out here', the next time you lace up for a longer run or race that seems daunting.

BUST OUT OF YOUR RUT You can shift your mindset before or during a long, hard workout or race with a mantra or fun mental distraction.

Here, some top runners reveal their favourite fixes.

Dakotah Lindwurm writes 'strong, fast and last' on her hand before a marathon to remind her of her motto: 'I am strong, I am fast, my speed will last.'

CJ Albertson tells himself to run as if he’s looking good, even if it’s not true. He says this helped him after the pack caught up to him at the 2021 Boston Marathon, where he led through 32km.

Before those challenging long runs, Erika Kemp reminds herself that training is hard, but racing is the reward, and sports are supposed to be fun.

Lennie Waite encourages runners to do a quick body scan – from head to toe – to make sure they don’t waste energy by holding any unnecessary tension in their brow, jaw, shoulders or hands.

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CAFFEINE p34 + CRUSHING HILLS p38

MY RUNNING LIFE

MIGHTY MEG

With a big move to the capital of trail in Europe, and a shift in focus to longer races, SA trail star Meg Mackenzie is changing things up to take on the best in the world.

Mar z e ll e van d e r M e r we ( th i s p age), Mat h is Du ma s (o pp o s ite)

NEWS, VIEWS, TRENDS and ORDINARY RUNNERS doing EXTRAORDINARY THINGS

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M

Meg Mackenzie’s entire family loves running, so it's been a way of life for her since junior school.

It all started with crosscountry, from when she was really young until the end of high school. She pressed the pause button briefly during her university years; but since then Mackenzie's been one of South Africa’s top women in trail running, with a focus on distances up to the marathon.

In 2019 she claimed an impressive third place on the podium at the tremendously tough Pikes Peak Marathon (Colorado, USA), and last year placed ninth at the CCC [Courmayeur-ChampexChamonix, sometimes referred to as UTMB's ‘Little Sister’ – Ed.], in Chamonix, France. This last illustrates how Mackenzie's shifting to the longer distances in trail running, and she's exhilarated by what she feels she can achieve.

“I've gone from running junior school cross-country to 100km races in 30 years! That's pretty cool,” says Mackenzie from her new home in Chamonix, France.

We asked her what the future holds for her, her running, and the run-coaching business she and a partner have created.

LEFT: Saluting the sun.

Mackenzie is happiest when she's running.

Mar z e ll e van d e r M e r we ( th i s p age), Mat h is Du ma s (o pp o s ite)

THIS PAGE Proud of what she's done already – excited for what's yet to come.

race; and it occurred to me that if I could make it happen, living in my happy place would be a good idea. So here I am – learning French, and navigating my way through this very new lifestyle.

RW This year, you’ve transitioned to longer distances than usual. Is this your new strategy, or an experiment?

MM A little bit of both. I think everything in life is experimental to an extent, and I’m curious about how different distances feel and what lessons these new, longer races can teach me.

I also think it's exciting to switch things up a bit. I did the Golden Trail Series for four years in a row, so it felt like a good time to transition into

something new and refreshing.

RW Two impressive top-10 finishes this year – it seems to be working out. Is it?

MM Ohhh… I'm pretty hard on myself, so I never really feel satisfied with my results. But I think, objectively, it's been a steep learning curve; and I'd like to think I've learnt a lot from each event to apply to future races.

Looking forward, I do believe that my best days are ahead.

RW Who do you train with – coffee with, baguette with, gelato with – in the Alps?

MM There’s such a fun group of people in the valley. I train a lot with the Swedes, Mimmi [Kotka] and Ida [Nilsson] (when she's in town); Fernanda

Runner’s World: You’re now based in the iconic town of Chamonix under the shadow of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. What are your plans from here?

Meg Mackenzie: To keep doing what I love, over here. It's the Mecca of trail running and outdoor sports. Chamonix has everything I could ever want, and I really want to grow as a person and an athlete in this environment. There's so much to learn over here – all the different winter sports, and climbing…

I think the opportunities are endless, and exciting, and I really want to stay present to whatever pops up for me in the future.

Life’s exciting right now.

RW Why did you make the move?

MM Chamonix has been my happy place for a few years now.

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RW How’s it working out being a coach and a racer?

MM It's interesting. I think it's a good combo, and it will be even better when I'm finished with racing as seriously as I am now.

I learn so much from experience, and it's really awesome to be able to share that with the athletes that we coach. I learn so much from the athletes that I coach too, and I often draw on their wisdom and experiences. It works both ways.

mountaineering – Ed.], and will be trying some cross-country skiing too. It would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity to explore these mountains in the snow. They’re so beautiful, and I think it'll be super-good cross-training for trail running.

RW You have a new sponsor this year. Is this something you worked hard on, as a vital part of your success?

Or something that just fortuitously fell into place?

MM I worked hard! Sponsors aren't easy to come by. It's almost a full-time job, keeping up with everything important for getting and keeping a sponsor. Results are just a tiny piece of the puzzle; it takes a lot of time and effort, working with brands.

It definitely helps, having a sponsor; I can take more time for recovery, and get a lot of input from teammates about training, racing and mental preparation.

Results are just a tiny piece of the puzzle...

RW Can you explain your coaching format, as well as your goals and aspirations with the Run Project business?

MM At The Run Project we coach each person in a completely individual way; we don't write general training programmes. Instead, we get to know each athlete: their lifestyles, personalities, time constraints, goals, motivations, etc. And we coach them in the way that’s best suited to them.

We communicate with our athletes every day; so while it's online, it's very hands-on and holistic. I've had a coach since I started in 2012, and recently started with a new one. I think working with the right coach is a game changer.

RW Will you hop from summer to summer, or are you preparing to adapt to running in snow over the winters in the north?

MM I'm definitely planning on learning winter sports. I have skimo aspirations [ski

The North Face is a great team to be part of – because I get a lot of input from my teammates who do other sports, like free skiing, snowboarding, alpinism and climbing.

RW How professional and substantial do you feel trail racing is worldwide, as a sport? Do you feel the growth, from the perspective of your involvement at so many levels?

MM There’s been enormous growth over my career. It's easy to forget about how it was at the beginning; but when I look back, it's mindblowing how much and how fast the sport is growing.

In the Chamonix valley alone it's becoming one of the more popular sports and attractions, which – when you think about the variety here, like skiing and paragliding, to name only a few – is huge.

The variety of sponsors is growing, and the depth of talent is off the charts right now. It's really exciting to be part of it all.

1 / The North Face, from top to toe

FAVE PRODUCTS YOU'RE USING RIGHT NOW

2 / 30 South sunnies 3 / Coros Apex Pro watch 4 / Maurten Nutrition 5 / Moonvalley bars and High5 energy gels.

WIZARD STICKS ARE MAGIC BECAUSE… …they make you look like a space alien when running – especially when used with head torch, full hydration pack and calf socks!

C U R R E N T LY TRAINING FOR

The 2022 season!

BEST RUN OF YO U R L I F E ( S O

FA R )

?

Pikes Peak 2019 ON T HE BUCKE T LI ST

Western States 100

BREAD OR NO BREAD?

HARDEST RUN OF YO U R L I F E ?

CCC 2021

Bread :)

BEST ADVICE

WE ARE ALL STARDUST WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR. NONE OF THIS STUFF – RACING – MATTERS, EXCEPT THE MEMORIES WE MAKE.

YO UR D R EA M RUNNI NG PA RTNER , F RO M A NY TI ME PER I O D ?

Any and all dogs.

Biggest way running needs to change?

Body image and mental health need to be addressed.

Ice bath or celebratory drinks after the race?

First ice bath, then drinks!

Biggest challenge you’ve faced?

Moving to a foreign country in the middle of a pandemic!

Favourite cross-training sport?

Biking and strength work, for now.

Soon, skiing!

A lex Ea rle, Fre e pi k (b ague t te) , sup p lie d (d o gs )

[Maciel], my new The North Face teammate; and a group of super-strong Americans.

I love the different perspectives on training, and I get to learn a lot. Chamonix is such a hub for trail running that there's always someone passing through who wants to go for a run or a coffee, so I get to see loads of friends from the trail community all the time.

It's great.

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SUNDAY, 5 JUNE 2022 l ATKV BUFFELSPOORT, NORTH WEST LONG 24km

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TWO -TIME OLYMPIAN AND 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden drinks three to four cups of coffee each day. “I’m a huge coffee fan,” Linden says (which should come as no surprise, since she and her husband own a coffee company: Linden x Two).

“I have two cups first thing in the morning, and it’s beneficial in getting all systems – mind and body – up and running before I head out the door for my first run,” she adds.

Many of us (elite and non-elite) use caffeine to our benefit, as research has shown that in addition to perking you up, it can also make you faster and help you focus during your workouts.

But as with any other performance food or drink, education is key to achieving maximum benefits; so we tapped experts and the latest research to tell you everything you need to know about your favourite energiser.

THE PERFORMANCE BENEFITS OF CAFFEINE

Forget the coffee-fixated hipster image; science says caffeine can really work for runners.

Unless you have a sensitivity, caffeine can be highly beneficial for most people, according to Todd Buckingham, PhD, exercise physiologist at Mary Free Bed Sports Rehabilitation Performance Lab. “[It’s] shown to increase mental alertness and concentration and improve athletic performance by increasing time to exhaustion, so I often do recommend caffeine to my runner clients, as long as they tolerate it well,” says Angie Asche, sports dietician and owner of Eleat Sports Nutrition.

In fact, a study dating back to the early ’90s found that taking in about 150 to 200 milligrams (mg) of caffeine from coffee one hour before exercise improved 1 500-metre performance in well-trained runners. More recently, another study reported a 24-second (or 1.2 per cent) improvement in an 8K run time by well-trained male runners when ingesting 3mg of caffeine per kilogram of body mass one hour before racing.

The overall favourable results of caffeine for running performance have caused many organisations to advocate its use in sport: the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics states that caffeine reduces perception of fatigue among athletes and allows exercise to be sustained at

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The benefits of caffeine for performance

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optimal intensity for longer periods of time; the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests that ultramarathoners ingest caffeine in the latter stages of endurance exercise to maintain energy levels; and the European Food Safety Authority says single doses of caffeine up to 200mg from all sources are perfectly safe when consumed less than two hours before intense physical exercise.

What’s more, a 2021 position statement published by the International Society of Sports Nutrition states the following: • Small to moderate benefits of caffeine use include, but are not limited to: muscular endurance, movement velocity and muscular strength, sprinting, jumping, and throwing performance, as well as a wide range of aerobic and anaerobic sport-specific actions.

• Aerobic endurance appears to be the form of exercise with the most consistent moderate-to-large benefits from caffeine use.

• Caffeine has consistently been shown to improve exercise performance when consumed in doses of 3mg to 6mg per kg of body mass.

• Caffeine appears to improve physical performance in both trained and untrained individuals.

• The most commonly used timing of caffeine supplementation is 60 minutes pre-exercise. Optimal timing of caffeine ingestion probably depends on the source of caffeine.

All in all, caffeine consumption seems to have positive effects for most people. That said, not everyone needs caffeine or responds well to it. Buckingham notes that caffeine may agitate some people, and that if you’re not already a caffeine user, starting it now may make you feel nervous or jittery.

“Prior to a race, your body is already in a heightened state of arousal, so your epinephrine (or adrenaline) level is already high,” he says. “Consuming caffeine on top of that increases the severity of the stressed state, could overstimulate you, and could cause feelings of anxiousness, fear, panic, and eventually, physical exhaustion.”

In these cases, it’s best to avoid caffeine altogether, or opt for options with less caffeine such as tea.

How much caffeine should you consume?

Typically, the recommendation is to take in 3mg to 6mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight about 60 minutes before exercising, according to Lizzie Kasparek, a registered dietician for ProHealth Care. For a 63kg person, that’s at least 190mg 60 minutes before running. For an 82kg person, that’s 245mg 60 minutes before running.

To put that into perspective, on average a cup of home-brewed coffee has about 100mg of caffeine.

While it’s generally safe to consume up to 400mg of caffeine per day, Asche says the amount of caffeine a person should take in depends on the person, their health status, and whether they are already consuming caffeine regularly.

“If someone is experiencing negative side effects – such as anxiety and jitters, rapid heart rate, digestive issues, or decreased sleep quality – it would be beneficial for them to evaluate how much they’re taking in and what time they’re taking in that caffeine,” Asche says.

In addition, there has been some emerging research hoping to identify genetic variations in how different people handle caffeine.

There are even companies such as InsideTracker that will test your DNA to see how quickly you will metabolise caffeine.

WARM-UPS

Race-day caffeine strategies

Experts agree that there are two things a runner should consider when consuming caffeine before a race: timing, and the source.

“Prior to exercise, caffeine takes about 10 minutes to enter the bloodstream and typically peaks after 45 to 75 minutes post-ingestion,” says Buckingham.

Asche adds that her clients prefer coffee 45 to 60 minutes before a race, followed by gels or gummies. “It’s so important for runners to take the time to test these different sources out during training runs, to really pinpoint what they tolerate best and what they prefer most when it comes to race day,” says Asche.

As for Linden, she sticks with two cups of coffee at some point before events. During the second half of the marathon, she adds in PowerBar PowerGel Hydro with 50mg of caffeine around the 25K mark and beyond, because “it’s that difficult part in the race, and caffeine keeps the mind engaged and aware that there's still fuel in the body to use.”

Even after a race, Linden sips coffee or espresso to get ready for post-race get-togethers with friends and family later in the day.

“I believe it’s important to celebrate completing a race no matter what the results are, and the caffeine keeps me from bailing on my friends because I’m too tired,” she says.

THE BEST SOURCES OF CAFFEINE There are many natural sources of caffeine, as well as sports nutrition products with added caffeine. Finding the source that’s right for you might take some trial and error.

Here, some common caffeine sources to try.

1 / Wild Air Cold Face Beans or ground coffee, R130/250g

2 / Nuun Sport + Caffeine Tablets, R120 for a tube of 10

3 / Lindt 90% Cocoa Chocolate 100g R59.99

4 / Biogen Edge Pure Caffeine 60 Caps, 100mg per capsule, R139.95

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THE SPORTS SCIENTIST TRAINING WITH THE FACTS

BY ROSS TUCKER

UPS AND DOWNS

Hills: we slog up them, we sprint down them, end of story. Right?

Not anymore – science is finding better ways to do both.

RESULT!

So what did the study show? Much of what the researchers found will not surprise those who hit the trails regularly and have learned or evolved a running method to handle the technical variation it throws at them. But we can take some lessons from these findings, and apply them to improving our own trail performance.

First, the best performances came from the most equal effort allocation. When researchers

analysed ‘power output’, they found that overall performance correlated well with how runners ranked on the first climb and last downhill of the route; which means excessively fast starts or finishes didn’t pay off as much as consistent effort, both up and down.

This is a fundamental principle of pacing – you need to ‘spend’ your physiological reserves roughly equally across the whole race.

I suspect many runners leave a bit out there, by going too hard uphill and too slowly downhill.

Running downhill is technically challenging, so it’s often impossible to run it ‘flat out’, which means overall effort will often be slightly lower anyway. Still, the more even you can keep it, the better. Awareness plus experience makes perfect – so practise doing this!

steepest uphill sections, runners were spending an average of 1.3 seconds on the ground for each foostrike. That’s incredibly long, compared to the 0.25 seconds spent on the ground when running on the smooth tar section.

This explains why many very fast road runners don’t make a good transition to trail, and vice versa – when you spend that much time on the ground, you’re no longer benefiting from elastic energy; instead, you’re relying on strength. If you’ve ever tackled a super steep (35% or more) climb, you’ll know that it feels just like doing 500 lunges or squats in the gym. It’s a test of strength, not ‘bounce’, and the study confi rmed this.

What you can take from this is that one of

“Experiment to find your strengths and preferences, and then train according to that.”

G O I N G U P…

Second, ground contact time was shown to be much longer on the uphills; and the steeper the uphill, the longer it got. Ground contact time is important because every time we land, we store energy in our tendons, and the release of that energy like a pogo stick (when we push off ) improves our running efficiency.

But the longer the ground contact time, the less energy is saved; and after a certain point, we lose it entirely. At that point, continuing to move becomes all about how much force the muscles can produce – unaided.

What the study found is that on the

two strategies may help your uphill ability.

One is to keep your ground contact time shorter, by taking shorter, faster steps.

Basically, think ‘high cadence, light on feet, short steps’. The other strategy is the opposite: accept that your ground contact time will be longer – but take longer steps.

Think ‘step longer, reach forward, high force’.

The fi rst strategy will load your calf muscles more, while the second will be more demanding on the glutes and hamstrings.

Experiment to fi nd your strengths and preferences, and then train according to that for improved performance.

A D O B E S TO C K

H

How should you tackle a technical trail run? Do you go easy on the uphills and fly downhill? Or do you work extra hard on the hills, and try to recover on the descents? What if it’s steep and technical – should you change how you run then?

A 2021 study aimed to answer these questions. Researchers from France kitted out 28 runners with three sensors – the trusty heart-rate monitor, a GPS watch (now becoming ubiquitous among runners), and a more novel form of tech that’s worn on the shoe and measures a type of power output and various stride parameters, such as ground contact time, leg stiff ness and vertical oscillation. Using this combination, the researchers were able to get a much better handle on how performance and physiology is affected by how we adjust our effort and running technique on uphills, downhills and technical sections.

The test was done on an 8.5km trail loop that included two uphill and two downhill sections with varying technicality (very steep with roots and stones, or more gradual and smoother surface), and a road section in the middle which allowed comparisons between technical terrain and a smooth, tarred surface.

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4 TRAILREADY WORKOUTS CONTINUOUS HILLS Run up and down a single stretch of hill, working uphill and downhill at a controlled-discomfort level (you should be able to speak in bursts of three to four words). Complete 20-30 minutes of effort broken into sets with a short recovery.

CHANGE YOUR STRIDE Simply adjusting your stride can help you run better, both up and down.

TEMPO WITH SURGES Instead of running your tempo runs at a consistent pace, add surges of effort – e.g. a 25-minute run at 10K race effort, but with 15-30 seconds hard every five minutes.

LYDIARD HILL CIRCUITS Find a hilly loop. Run the uphill with a pronounced bounding movement – imagine springing up the hill for about 15-30 seconds, fully straightening your rear leg; jog a flat section of recovery at the top; run back downhill with fast but relaxed strides, focusing on fast cadence.

Then jog back to the uphill again.

A D O B E S TO C K

FARTLEK Fartlek training, in which you incorporate a range of efforts of between 30 seconds and five minutes into a continuous run, is suited to trails, as you can use the terrain to guide you. – Tom Craggs, endurance coach

…AND COMING DOWN

What about downhills? As you might expect, ground contact time was slightly shorter when running downhill, but not by much (0.25s when running on tar, compared to 0.22s on the steep and technical descent, and 0.21 on the smooth and more gradual descent). So the changes aren’t nearly as large as they are for uphills.

Where it gets interesting is that flight time – which is the time we spend in the air – and stride length (the ground we cover between footfalls) changed differently depending on the technical nature of the terrain.

Unsurprisingly, on uphills, both flight time and stride length are way lower than when we run on smooth tar. But on downhills, the change depends on the steepness and the surface.

When steepness is gradual (in this study, that meant -13.3%, which is still very steep to run down!), flight time goes up by 40%, and stride length is 30% longer than on the flat tarred roads. More time in the air, less time on the ground, covering more distance per stride

– all this adds up to much faster speeds.

But when the downhill section is steep and tricky underfoot, what good, experienced trail runners do is cut their stride length and flight time way back (45% and 50% respectively) compared to when they tackle gradual downhills. They end up running in a way that’s very similar to when they’re on flat, tarred roads. But given the terrain, this resembles a ‘pitter-patter’ style rather than normal running. This too can be learned, if you focus on training yourself to take small steps and be light on your feet when it gets really steep and really technical.

In reality, with time and repetition you’d probably do much of this naturally. Evolution filters out the ineffective and inefficient ways to run, leaving behind what the study found in these good trail runners. However, being aware Prof.

Rosspractising Tucker is one of the and then these changes may improve world’s top sports scientists, and your performance in small increments; and the co-host of the Real Science of repeated enough, they will help you to unlock a Sport podcast. great deal potential.

Follow himof ontrail-running @scienceofsport

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INJURY ? MOTIVATION DIP ? OR JUST WANT TO SHAK E THINGS UP ? RESE T TING RUNNING HABIT S CAN RE AP BIG RE WARDS: TRY THIS INJURYPROOFING WORKOU T – AND A BLUEPRINT FOR A PERFECT R ACE.

Your running reset

FO R M I N G N E W R U N N I N G H A B IT S doesn’t have to mean starting all over again. There’s potential in hitting the reset button on your fitness, training and routine. In 2018, I couldn’t run for three months after I suffered stress fractures while in marathon training. The disruption was difficult, but when I came back, it felt like ‘dating running’ again – no high expectations, no pressure of a commitment, just healthy standards. A reset is your chance to ‘date run’ again, too. When you reset, be gentle with your physical and mental health. Physically, you need a firm foundation for strong running, and mentally, you need enthusiasm for low-bar wins. In 2018, my first goal was to be outside for 15 minutes, and I wrote positive mantras in my calendar to recultivate my confidence. Once you’re running consistently, add structure, such as a training plan to manage your volume and prevent burnout. All the while, remember why you’re moving.

Finish lines are great, but the best parts of running are building self-worth and enjoying the ups and downs as they come. A reset can clarify what made running attractive when you first started, all those kays ago. – Jess Movold, Runner’s World coach

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After some injuries, RW coach Jess Movold set an attainable, ‘non-negotiable’ goal to supplement her race goals. It was simple, she says: "Get out the door!"

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Reset... to prevent injury A new running routine can put you at risk of injury. For the first few weeks back, focus on easy efforts and consistent strength training to prepare for tougher workouts, says strength and conditioning coach Janet Hamilton. Injuryprevention training should focus on hip and core strength to protect against common injuries such as shin splints, says

world champion steeplechaser Emma Coburn. "I typically have aches and pains when I’m getting back into my running routine," she notes. Below, Coburn demonstrates four injuryprevention moves. Perform them as a circuit 2 to 3 times a week on rest days or easy running days. Then try Emma’s fitness test (opposite page) to gauge your strength.

FOREARM PL ANK Start on all fours. Drop down to your forearms with your elbows under your shoulders. Engage your core and glutes to step each foot back into a plank. Your body should form a straight line from head to heels. Perform 2 to 3 sets of 10- to 45-second holds.

COBURN ’S PROGRESSION "I like plank reach-outs, where you reach out and touch a point in front of you with alternating hands.

I set my water bottle 30cm or so out from me."

HAMSTRING SLIDE Lie face up with your knees bent and a towel under your heels. Use your glutes to lift into a bridge. Engage your core, slide your feet forward as far as possible while keeping your hips lifted, then slide back to the starting position. Do 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps.

COBURN ’S PROGRESSION "Once you feel strong enough, perform single-leg slides, first eccentric [only sliding out before resetting], followed by out and in."

CALF R AISE AND DROP Stand with both feet on a step, your right heel off the edge. Using your left leg to balance, roll on to the ball of your right foot and on to your toes. Pause, then lower your right heel past the edge of the step. Perform 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps. Switch legs.

COBURN ’S PROGRESSION "I put on a weighted vest, or fill a backpack with books, and do weighted drops. Having strong plantar flexion – going up on your toes – is vital for lower leg health."

HIP BRIDGE Lie face up with your knees bent, feet on the ground, arms at your sides. Drive through your heels and contract your glutes to send your hips upwards. Your body should be straight from your shoulders to knees. Lower back down. Perform 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps.

COBURN ’S PROGRESSION "As I progress, I do single-leg bridges [one leg lifted, with equal reps on both sides]. The next progression is to add weight on to your pelvis."

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RING THE CHANGES

Emma Coburn became the first non African woman to win gold in the steeplechase at the World Championships in London in 2017.

MY RUNNING RESET

"RUNNING GAVE ME A FRESH START AFTER MY BRAIN INJURY." Dr Will Etti, 44

Lightning round with Emma Coburn FAVOURITE EXERCISE /

FAVOURITE POST-

Overhead step-ups. They remind me of being powerful on water jumps.

Holding a weight overhead is a challenge: increased resistance, lack of stability.

WORKOUT MEAL /

FAVOURITE SHOE /

The New Balance 880.

I’ve run tens of thousands of kilometres in them!

THE FITNESS TEST

I love brunch. I have eggs, French toast and sausage.

FAVOURITE PUMP-UP SONG / I love Taylor Swift, but I also love Bloody Valentine by Machine Gun Kelly and You Should Be Sad by Halsey.

HARDEST RUN / The London 2017 World Championships were tough. But with 600m to go, I finally felt pretty good and ended up winning!

IDEAL REST DAY / Easy run and brunch, then see my sister. An evening run with my husband and dinner with my family.

TEST YOURSELF WITH THE SINGLE-LEG SIT-TO-STAND Sit on the edge of a bench, your palms on your thighs. Lift one foot up, then stand using the other leg (no help from your hands). Lower back down. Do 5 to 10 reps, then switch legs. Check your alignment in a mirror: your knee diving inwards while standing shows hip weakness; balance trouble shows weakness in your lower leg. Able to do 10 reps each side with proper form? You’re ready to hit the hills, says Hamilton.

"In 2009, I was hit by a drunk driver.

I suffered traumatic brain damage, post-concussion syndrome, a sprained lumbar spine and post-traumatic stress.

Just being able to move my head and talk without pain took a lot of physical therapy. It took me two and a half years to learn how to walk again.

"Initially, in my recovery, I thought about things I was able to do before my accident, like play football and lift weights. I felt sorry for myself; but something clicked when I saw a double amputee running. It looked difficult, but I recognised I had lost a lot of things, too – maybe I could also focus on the abilities I still had and just make it work.

"Gradually, I started walking and running again. It was an uphill battle. I weighed 127kg – up from 70kg – after the accident. I couldn’t even run 800m because of the weight gain and time spent off my feet. I couldn’t maintain a conversation while running because of my brain injury. I had limitations; but I also had gratitude for being able to run within my limitations.

"Five years after my accident, in 2014, I ran 5:51 in my first marathon. Now, five marathons later, my personal best is 3:57.

"We all run because we get something out of it. For me, running is my time to find clarity and gratitude.

My mantra is ‘kilometre 35’, that place where your body is tired and you have to use your mind to carry you. I always tell myself: keep pushing and don’t give up."

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Reset... to own race day If it’s been some time since your last in-person event, refresh your pre-race prep. It’s the final step in setting your mind and body up for success. Whether you’re running a 5K or a marathon, these countdowns to the

The right kit can make or break your race day. Make sure you’ve tested everything on training runs.

start, featuring tips from veteran runners, will ensure a confident and comfortable re-entry to racing. Heed this advice, but remember: don’t try anything on race day that you didn’t test during training.

THE NIGHT BEFORE YOUR RACE-DAY GEAR CHECKLIST Lay out everything you plan to wear and bring the next day, including:

Race-day clothes and face mask (plus throwaways and extras in case of cold or rain) Shoes and socks Watch Accessories such as sunglasses or headphones Hair ties, including extras.

"I always wear a high bun on top of my head – it won’t come unravelled, no matter what," says Alexi Pappas, a 2016 Olympian in the 10 000m Anti-chafing balm

Imagine conquering the wall / "One of my pre-race rituals is to anticipate the challenging sections, and see myself pushing through them," says Pappas.

Repeat your mantra / Sports psychologist Adrienne Langelier has context-specific race-day mantras. She uses, ‘I have worked hard for this’ before the race, ‘Steady rhythm’ during the race and, ‘This is normal’ – her favourite – when things become difficult.

Don’t worry about sleep / "Consider sleep a bonus. If you don’t [sleep well], the pre-race nerves that kept you up will give you an extra boost once you get running," says pro marathoner Becky Wade.

WO R D S : J E S S M OVO L D ; DA N I E L L E Z I C K L ; E M I L I A B E N TO N . P H OTO G R A P H Y: J O N A H

Race number and pins. "Pin it on your vest the night before, so you don’t forget," says Shawanna White, a 2:45 marathoner

R O S E N B E R G ; A R I C VA N H A L E N ; L A KOTA G A M B I L L ; G A L LO I M AG E S ; C O U R T E SY D R W I L L E T T I

Gels or other mid-race fuel (for longer races)

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RING THE CHANGES

MY RUNNING RESET

T HE BIG D AY FOR 5K AND 10K RUNNERS

FOR HALF AND MARATHON RUNNERS

T—3 H O U R S U N T IL T H E S TA R T /

T—4 H O U R S / Wake up, fuel Drink your coffee immediately. Three and a half hours before the gun, Wade eats something filling and easy to digest.

Her favourite: a bagel (any kind except wholewheat, because the fibre makes it harder to digest) with a tablespoon of peanut butter on each side, a sliced banana on top and a drizzle of honey. Hydrate according to the 7ml rule (see left). Worry about your bladder later, says Pappas.

Wake up, drink the coffee Have your coffee when you wake up. It can help move your bowels and prevent a mid-race emergency. Emily Infeld, a 2016 10 000m Olympian, says she drinks her coffee at least two hours before a race.

T—2 H O U R S / Keep breakfast boring

Infeld eats something plain and easy to digest, with simple carbs, two to three hours before her race: a bagel, some porridge, toast or an energy bar.

For fluids, aim to drink an additional 7ml per kilogram of body weight before a race. And "if you sweat more, drink more", says Starla Garcia, a registered dietician and 2020 US Olympic marathon trials qualifier. "Keep heat and humidity in mind, as well as personal history of dehydration."

R O S E N B E R G ; A R I C VA N H A L E N ; L A KOTA G A M B I L L ; G A L LO I M AG E S ; C O U R T E SY D R W I L L E T T I

WO R D S : J E S S M OVO L D ; DA N I E L L E Z I C K L ; E M I L I A B E N TO N . P H OTO G R A P H Y: J O N A H

T—1 H O U R / Arrive and warm up Ensure you give yourself ample time if you’re driving through traffic or using public transport. After you’ve dropped off your gear, warm up for 15 minutes.

Infeld recommends easy jogging, light stretching and strides 30 minutes before your race starts. That will give you time for a final toilet stop.

R AC E S TA R T !

T—2 H O U R S / Anticipate speed bumps

For larger races, allow 20 to 30 extra minutes for traffic and parking, says Lauren Ross, a 2:45 marathoner. She advises having multiple parking options.

"If you’re running a new-to-you race, find a recap online," she says. "They often mention logistical hurdles like walking to the start, gear check and toilet queues."

T—9 0 M IN U T E S / Toilet, fuel again Join the toilet queue as you arrive, Ross says. "A long queue at a bank of portaloos will move faster than a smaller one at a single portaloo," she says. If the queues are long, have your snack – some fruit gummies or a granola bar – while waiting. Ross has an easy-to-digest carbohydrate with extra electrolytes, such as fruit chews.

T—4 5 M IN U T E S / Light warm-up Pro marathoner Sara Hall warms up 45 minutes before a marathon with 10 minutes of light drills and strides. For a half marathon, Wade warms up at an easy pace for 3km. "With the longer stuff [like a marathon], you’ll warm up in the first kay or three. Conserve your energy for the final kilometres," Wade says.

T—3 0 M IN U T E S / Time to focus Once in the start pen, repeat your mantras and stay relaxed. Olympic marathoner Jared Ward does active stretching, reties his shoes and sits down to get off his feet and go over his race plan. "Focus on what you can do now – relieve any fear and anxiety about your race," he says.

R AC E S TA R T !

"TAKING A BREAK FROM RUNNING LED TO MY BEST-EVER YEAR OF TRAINING." Molly Huddle, 37 (5 000m and 10 000m Olympian) "Going into the 2017 World Championships in London, I was feeling run down from a small calf injury, and there was a lot of scrambling to fix it. I felt unprepared and unsure – it was a stressful two weeks – and ultimately, I was disappointed in how I raced.

"Afterwards, I wanted one more race to try and fix the year, but it wasn’t happening. I was tired. At the end of the summer, my husband and I booked a trip to Santorini, Greece. It was unusual for me to recognise that I needed to switch off rather than keep ploughing through events. I could have done that every week until December.

"We didn’t have an itinerary when we were in Greece. We were lazy. We went on a winery tour, hiked the coastline and ate some delicious food. So much of my life revolves around my running – it affects how I eat, sleep and fill my day – but in Santorini, it was good to experience everything else and not have to worry about how my runs felt.

"I took three weeks off in total before I started my training again. The fitness came back a lot faster than I thought it would: by my third workout, I felt almost back to normal. Sometimes you catastrophise taking time off, but my break launched the best year of training of my life. It was a really good lesson to stop gripping things so tightly, so that I could reset, recover and mentally rejuvenate."

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Coach Parry’s

Rules of Half-Marathon Running

I L LU S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K

11

Training for your first (or best) half marathon requires commitment – and a plan. The first bit is up to you; but we’ve asked Pretoria-based running coach Lindsey Parry – aka Coach Parry – to lay down the plan.

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1

2

Set the Right Goal

Almost half the job is ensuring you set the correct target to train for.

This should be based on something you’ve achieved in the recent past – be it a 5km parkrun, or a 10K, a 15, a half marathon or a marathon.

If you set the right target, you keep the training stimulus manageable, minimise injury risk, and – most importantly – give yourself every chance to improve over the six to eight weeks. Check out Prof Ross Tucker’s pace calculator at runnersworld.co.za/ pacecalculator to get a better idea of what your expectations should be.

It’s critical that you’re clear about your expected race pace, since the entire training plan is based on that pace.

Train at the Right Pace

Whether it’s an interval session like hill repeats, threeminute intervals, an easy run or a long run, each running session should be designed with a particular outcome in mind. By basing these workouts on the ultimate achievable goal, you will constantly improve your physiology and physical requirements for achieving your goal.

In the early weeks of our eight-week training plan, the interval sessions may be slightly out of reach.

What’s important is that you can maintain your pace from the first rep to the last. If you’re slowing as the set progresses, start next week a little more conservatively.

If you’re hitting the paces in the final weeks, you know you’re on track.

3 Consistency Performing well on race day is about preparing well. What you do day to day and week to week will have a bigger impact than anything else on how your race day goes. This includes training at the right pace, doing the right workouts, and achieving the goal outcomes of these workouts.

You can only be disciplined and consistent if you allow your body to absorb the training, and recover well. That’s a why I like the four-day running week so much: if each workout is done well, you will improve immensely while you rest or recover on off days.

4 Hills are Important I L LU S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K

In my view, this is one of the most critical training blocks.

We can use hills to lay the strength foundation for speed work to come, and importantly, to work on running form.

Also, when we run uphill, we have a natural tendency to lean forward slightly and use our arms to build momentum. These are cornerstones of great running technique; and simply by adding in a focus to remain tall and not hunch over when you get tired, you take care of three very important components of good running form.

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Elroy Galant, winning the Two Oceans Half in 2019.

5

Develop a Winning Mindset

G A L LO I M AG E S / I M AG E S A

You’ve set your goal, and have a plan to follow. Time to bury the excuses and look for reasons why you can, rather than why you can’t.

The elites may be looking for ways to win, but the reality is that we’re no different; just like them, we can only do the best we can do on race day. A ‘winning’ mindset is making sure you can take care of what you can control: training, nutrition, recovery, goal setting, session execution, and race plan and execution.

It’s not about being perfect all the time – that’s not your job. It’s about, for a few weeks, mostly getting it right. Building confidence through your actions, and walking the talk in training.

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TRAINING PACES

Coach Parry’s

R ACE PACE (R P): Half-marathon pace E ASY: RP + 45-90sec

8-Week Training Plan Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

REST

10min easy; 5×2min hills, easy down; 10min easy

REST

45min easy run

REST

1hr easy run

1hr30 long run

2

REST

10min easy; 5×2min hills, easy down; 10min easy

REST

50min easy run

REST

1hr05 easy run

1hr45 long run

3

REST

10min easy; 5×2min hills, easy down; 10min easy

REST

55min easy run

REST

1hr10 easy run

2hr long run

4

REST

10-15min easy; 5×90sec RP, 1min easy; 5min easy

REST

45min easy run

REST

5km Parkrun for time

1hr15 easy run

5

REST

10min easy; 5×3min with 1min rest; 10min easy

REST

1hr easy run

REST

1hr15 easy run

90min easy run + 30min at planned race pace

6

REST

10min easy; 5×3min with 1min rest; 10min easy

REST

1hr easy run

REST

1hr15 easy run

90min easy run + 30min at planned race pace

REST

10min easy; 5×3min with 1min rest; 10min easy

REST

50min easy run

REST

45min easy run

1hr easy run

REST

10-15min easy; 5×90sec RP, 1min easy; 5min easy

REST

10min easy; 5×60sec RP, 30sec easy; 5min easy

RACE DAY Warm-up: 5min easy; 5×30sec RP, 30sec easy; 2min easy

1

7 G A L LO I M AG E S / I M AG E S A

LONG: RP + 50-100sec R ECOV ERY: RP + 1:40-2:00min H I LLS: RP – 15-30sec 3M I N: RP – 30-45sec

8

REST

35min easy run

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In general, most of the field will not have enough stored energy to get through a hard half marathon. On top of that, it’s not wise to rely entirely on what’s on the water tables during the race.

A common mistake runners make is to practise all their nutrition on long runs. This is great for fuelling long runs, and for finding products that you like. However, drinking water and/or taking in fuel from gels and jellies and so on is vastly different at easy run pace vs race pace.

At race pace you’re breathing deeply, and a missed breath while swallowing can take you by surprise.

Often a gel that you love in training suddenly becomes

7 Get There Early This should fall under planning, but it’s such an important element of getting it right on the day that it needs its own special mention. You’ll be nervous enough on race day without stressing about – or worse, being late for – the start.

Make sure your car’s parked at least an hour before the start. When the nerves kick in, you’ll need a loo; and because you’re not a unique physiological specimen, you’ll note that you’re not alone.

In turn, getting ablutions done early will leave you with time to limber up and do a short warm-up. Warming up is important no matter what your time goal is, so that you can get on pace quickly. When we’re cold and tight, it’s much harder to ‘feel’ the right pace – often leading us to struggle to get into the groove from the get-go.

If you get into the start chute with time to spare, you can also spend your time thinking through the process, focusing on what your pace and effort will be through certain sections. Seeing the race unfold helps you get through it the way you’ve planned and imagined.

very hard to get down in a race.

You have two opportunities to try your nutrition, during the race-pace finish sessions. I also like to get runners to try taking in nutrition during their intervals, so that they’re used to it on race day.

Fortunately, for a half marathon you don’t need loads of consistent nutrition; often, just a few sips of the energy drink on offer at the water tables, or a gel, will be enough. However, you do need to practise with the available products.

Hydration is the same: while you don’t need to take in fluids at every stop, on a hot day you may want to aim for 50-100ml every 20-30min.

8

Smile!

Your face is connected to your neck, your neck to your shoulders and back. It’s hard to tense your shoulders when you’re smiling. Tension in the shoulders and back causes you to hunch, which rolls your arms forward and shortens your stride. So there’s a real, biomechanical reason to smile!

Smiling relaxes the neck, which helps us be more upright. A relaxed neck helps keep the shoulders relaxed, allowing your arms to swing forward and back. Since your right arm works in tandem with your left leg – and vice versa – being upright, open and relaxed leads to larger and more powerful strides, at lower energy cost.

I L L U S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K | G A L LO I M AG E S / I M AG E S A

6

Work on your Nutrition + Hydration

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The madding crowd: you won’t feel alone on Two Oceans day.

Setting Up 9 Your Race Plan As you move into the final weeks, it’s important to take your race goal a step further, and turn it into a race plan. You don’t want to spend weeks preparing for a race, and then end up winging it on race day. This will almost certainly ensure you start out too fast. Your race plan must cover your pace; when and what nutrition you will take; and how you will execute.

I L L U S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K | G A L LO I M AG E S / I M AG E S A

PACI NG PL A N

It’s important to find out what the route profile of the race is – how many turns, how many hills and how steep, and where they all are.

In a race, you want to maintain as even an effort as possible; and on a hilly route, that won’t allow for an even pace.

Depending on gradient and length, you’ll look to go 20-45secs/km slower on the ups, and 15-30 secs/km faster on the downs.

This is ultimately why hilly routes tend to be slower than flat routes; you can’t really make up all the lost time from hills. And if you try too hard to minimise lost time – and/or catch it up – you’ll be left with tired legs in the last third.

This is exactly why we always aim to start strong, but finish stronger. If you plan the pacing right and respect the hills, you’ll finish very strong. Often a strong finish makes you feel as if you’ve left time on the road; but in reality, it probably means you got your pacing spot on.

Defending when you’re too tired is much harder than chasing when you feel good.

A DJ UST FOR A FAST STA RT

Start at – or close to – the required pace for your goal, especially if it’s a flattish start.

You’ll be too fast through the first kilometre; to finish strong, it’s critical that you adjust and avoid doing another one too fast.

This will help you set the tone for effort,

and help you to adjust for pace on the climbs and the downs.

N U TR ITION

Don’t forget to plan your race-day nutrition. Not just what you’re going to use on the route (and when), but what you’ll take before your race (and when). If you do this well, you can sometimes plan on having no nutrition during the race.

We all respond differently to eating during a race. Some are too nervous to eat, some just can’t stomach food early, etc etc. Figure out what you can take, and how much. And then experiment during training with different foods, and go with the one that’s easiest to digest.

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10

Know Success

11

This Is The Last Race

If a race is important, I convince myself that no other performance will ever matter again. It’s only about today. If I’m unable to compete again because of this effort, so be it; but today, I am giving everything of myself that I can, mentally and physically.

I L L U S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K | S U P P L I E D

Running hard for 21.1km is mentally taxing; and often, failure on race day is linked to an inability to just keep pushing through the discomfort.

I like to have at least two good reasons – that I can read, on my hands or forearms – about why I’m doing this. It could be your kids, for positive role modelling; showing work colleagues what’s possible; a burning, lifelong goal to break a barrier over 21.1km; an inspirational quote; or all of Liverpool’s six Champions League trophies.

Anything that really puffs your chest, makes you determined, and helps you push to the line.

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Dom-inate!

US-based South African Dom Scott-Efurd not only ran the second-fastest-ever half marathon by a South African, she also established a new 20km SA record (in only her second half-marathon attempt!).

This is what she learnt – and how it can help you in your next 21.1.

BY MIKE FINCH

I L L U S T R AT I O N S : A D O B E S TO C K | S U P P L I E D

Dom Scott is no stranger to the pain cave.

She famously collapsed during the World Cross-Country Championships a few years ago, and has been competing in the cauldron of Olympic and world-class 10 000m events for years.

But few would have predicted how well she would do in only her second half marathon.

On a chilly Houston morning in January, Scott-Efurd ran an incredible 67 minutes 32 seconds on her way to third place at the Houston Half Marathon. Only Elana Meyer has ever run faster, with her 66:44 from 1999.

But how did she manage to pull off such a great result, in only her second competitive 21.1km?

FOCUS IS EV ERYTHI NG “When I ran my first half marathon at the Great North Run, it was at the end of the track season, and was just for a little fun.

But this event… I really trained for it. You realise how important mileage and aerobic workouts are when you run the longer distances,” Scott-Efurd says.

In the build-up to the race, both Scott-Efurd and her coach Joe Boshard began to realise – based on her training workouts – that she was capable of a competitive time.

THE LONG RU N The key to any distance race is to ensure you do the long run, to get your body used to the distance. Traditional training plans encourage a long run once a week; but Scott-Efurd often does her long run only every 10 days.

“In the half marathon, you don’t need to be as fast as for the shorter distances. But

you need to be strong,” she says. “The long runs were all about time on my feet at a steady pace, and distances from 10 to 18km.”

Training at high altitude at home in Boulder, Colorado, Scott-Efurd always ran her long runs at slower than her goal pace.

TR AI N TO R ACE – DON’ T R ACE TO TR AI N It’s an old training adage that still rings true, whether you’re a pro athlete or a first-timer: leave the racing for the race.

“The key is, don’t run the same pace and the same distance in training as for your goal event. You can do the distance slower, and the race pace over shorter distances,” she says.

RELA X – J UST DO IT Having had a competitive career on the track, Scott-Efurd understands the value of not wasting energy on nerves and tension.

“Staying relaxed and engaged is the key to a good race,” she says. “But you have to practise that during your training, so that it becomes second nature during a race.

Now that I’m a little more experienced, I think it comes more naturally; but I still have cues that I remind myself of while I’m running.

“I think a lot about how I’m carrying my arms. Like for instance, are my fists rubbing the waistband of my shorts, rather than my sports bra.”

EV ERY SECOND DOESN’ T COU NT For Scott-Efurd, moving up to the half marathon distance from her traditional 5 000m and 10 000m events brought with it a fresh mindset.

“Running 21.1km was almost a comforting thought. In the 5 and 10K,

every second is important – but with the longer distance, it isn’t so critical. You have to respect the distance, for sure; so pacing is important.”

REMEMBER , IT’S A R ACE Scott-Efurd’s coach advised his charge to bear two things in mind during her Houston Half Marathon: run a set pace of 3:12min/km, but always remember that the event is a race.

After a slow start, the pace in the lead bunch picked up significantly at 5km, way faster than Scott-Efurd had planned to run.

“I eventually stopped looking at my watch, and just decided to race.”

CELEBR ATE YOU R ACHIEV EMENT “When I went into the race, I said I’d be happy if I broke 68 minutes – so the final result was a big surprise. It went better than planned.

“And it was just one of those days that you need to enjoy, as a pro athlete, because it doesn’t happen very often!”

SET YOU RSELF NEW GOALS On the cupboard in her bathroom, written on Post-It notes, Scott-Efurd has the best SA times for the 5K, 10K and marathon, as a reminder of her future goals.

Although she plans to continue racing the 10 000m at this year’s World Athletics Championships and at the Commonwealth Games, it’s clear her future lies with road events.

“I’m definitely excited about the marathon, and I even thought about doing one this year. But World Champs and the Commonwealth Games make it too difficult to get that 12-week marathon training block in. But maybe next year…”

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WO R D S : R E B E C CA CO L L I N S . P H OTO G R A P H : P I X E L E Y E S

Can you breathe yourself fitter?

Research suggests changing how we inhale and exhale could improve our running performance. Breathtaking development, or a load of hot air?

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W WHEN YOU spot a fellow runner pounding along with their mouth clamped shut, hoovering oxygen through their nose, or even holding their breath for strides at a time, you may be catching a fascinating glimpse into the slightly weird world of breath optimisation.

With solid science replacing airy claims of efficacy, breath work is floating out of the yoga studio; and the latest techniques promise to do more than soothe your mind after a tense Teams call. Change the way you breathe, so the theory goes, and you can optimise your fitness by improving your oxygen efficiency, boosting circulation and delaying muscle fatigue.

While techniques such as nasal breathing and hypoxic (altitude) training have been around for decades, they’ve largely been the preserve of elite athletes. But a growing body of research into the influence of breathing – not just on athletic performance, but on everything from your concentration to your sleep – is raising interesting questions. So, can something as simple as the way you breathe really help you to a PB? And, for the average amateur runner, is it really worth it?

WO R D S : R E B E C CA CO L L I N S . P H OTO G R A P H : P I X E L E Y E S

IN THE NOSE

Among those hoping to bring such techniques to everyday athletes is Harrogate, UK-based personal trainer Georgie Lawlor. She was struggling with shoulder and neck pain during her runs; but after picking up a copy of The Oxygen Advantage, by hypoxictraining pioneer Patrick McKeown, she began to suspect her breathing patterns might be to blame. It was a realisation that changed her approach to exercise entirely. "It made me see that the way I was breathing before – taking these big gasps of air – was dysfunctional," she says. "I was really working against my body." She started

breathing nasally during her runs and she’s since taken her training one step further, by adding breath-hold exercises to her routine. She credits both techniques with slashing five minutes off her 5K time; and she now has her sights set on a triathlon. "It’s like my body, mind and breath are working as a team," she adds.

So, how do nasal breathing and breath-holding work? Breath-holding stems from the same school of thought as hypoxic training, whereby oxygen is limited to mimic high-altitude conditions. "Hypoxic training is carried out in an environment relatively low in oxygen, meaning that less is available to both the lungs and working muscles," explains Professor John Dickinson, a respiratory physiologist who helps athletes with dysfunctional breathing.

"This stresses the production of red blood cells, as well as the aerobic enzymes and mitochondria in the working muscles."

‘‘It’s like my body, mind and breath are working as a team.’’

The result? "Athletes have higher red blood cell mass, which allows them to transport more oxygen from the lungs to the muscles; and therefore, produce more energy." The same is said to apply to breath-holding.

Nasal breathing, meanwhile, is about the flow rate. "It promotes a slower filling of the lungs," says Dickinson.

"This enables athletes to better activate their diaphragm, deliver oxygen to the blood and achieve an efficient deep breath. In turn, taking fewer breaths frees up energy for the rest of your body to use during exercise."

That’s the theory, and there’s some promising data on both techniques.

A 2018 study on runners, by Colorado State University Pueblo, US, found a 22 per cent decrease in breath

AIR AND A SPARE frequency when they were breathing nasally, compared with when they were breathing through their mouths – a decrease that had no bearing on their oxygen consumption. This means their breathing was just as effective, while requiring less effort. Similarly, a 2020 review from the same university analysed studies on nasal breathing in moderate exercise and concluded that the technique puts less strain on – and could even strengthen – respiratory systems. As for breath-holding, a 2019 study on cyclists found the technique could increase the heart’s bloodpumping abilities, suggesting this type of training could lead to cardiac improvements.

Where hypoxic training is concerned, some athletes have embraced it, but it isn’t that widely practised by elite teams.

Dickinson says the data isn’t strong enough to warrant incorporating the techniques into his own work, either.

"Limiting oxygen supply by breathholding may indeed provide short-term hypoxia and provide acute simulation of altitude," he says, adding that the method remains experimental and any lasting benefits would require daily exposure to a low-oxygen environment for several weeks. And, he points out that – as with all altitude training, be it simulated in your body or taking place 2 000m above sea level – not everyone responds in the same way.

A technique Dickinson is more optimistic about is called respiratory muscle training (RMT). "It’s like strength training for your breathing muscles," says Northumbria University PhD researcher James Manifield. In the same way that adding weight to a curl will build your biceps, adding resistance to a breath will help to strengthen your diaphragm. A portable device that looks a bit like an inhaler is used to force the inward breath through an adjustable orifice. This pressure calls on the diaphragm to maintain a regular breathing pattern. "By breathing through resistance, you can increase the thickness of your diaphragm and make it stronger, and this can translate into improvements in exercise performance," says Manifield.

Indeed, one study found that runners who engaged in respiratory conditioning alongside their training saw greater improvements in their speed and endurance than those who didn’t receive RMT. Earlier studies have found RMT increases exercise capacity by up to 23 per cent in healthy adults; another saw improvements of up to five per cent in cyclists’ timed

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BAD BREATH

Beyond adopting a new technique, runners of all abilities could see an improvement by brushing up on the breathing basics. Studies show that many of us are shallow breathers, over-breathers or mouth-breathers, all of which could restrict movement of the ribcage and create a build-up of tension in the upper body and tightness in the chest. And while this may not hinder you when you’re sitting at your desk, it’s a different story when you begin to run.

The biggest mistake that Dickinson sees is when athletes want to maintain – or pick up – speed. "When you’re working harder, you don’t tell your heart to beat faster. It just knows that it needs to," he says, adding that the same is true of your breathing. He explains that your body is wired with neurons called chemoreceptors, which tell your muscles

‘‘Breathing efficiently leaves you with more energy.’’ when they need to breathe more. What if you tried to override that by, say, taking some big mouth breaths when you’re about to run up a hill? "That’s going to limit where your ribcage can move, so your breathing becomes more effortful," says Dickinson.

Over-breathing can also trigger your respiratory metaboreflex, which is a survival mechanism that monitors how well your breathing muscles are working. If the muscles around your chest – your diaphragm, abdominal and intercostal muscles – start to fatigue, your cells will send an involuntary signal for your body to redirect blood flow from your other muscles to this

BREATH WORKOUTS

BREATH-PATTERN TRAINING What is it? "A combination of exercises that focus on the coordination of your diaphragm and ribcage to promote deeper breaths and reduce the number taken," says Professor Dickinson.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to increase their training intensity.

How does it work? Breathing efficiently will leave you with more energy for your muscles to use during exercise.

BUTEYKO BREATHING What is it? A fusion of nasal breathing and breath-holding.

Air is filtered via your nostrils, and nasal breathing enhances diaphragm engagement and ribcage expansion. Plus, holding your inhales composes your breathing.

Who’s it for? Anyone in need of a do-anywhere anxiety antidote.

How does it work? You breathe through your nose only, then hold until you feel the urge to breathe again.

RESPIRATORY-MUSCLE TRAINING What is it? "A form of inspiratory breath work that strengthens the breathing muscles by incorporating resistance," says researcher James Manifield.

Who’s it for? Those who want to boost their fitness.

How does it work? A device that looks like an inhaler is used to provide resistance as you breathe in for one to two seconds.

area, to keep your lungs pumping. One result: jelly legs.

So how should you be breathing during an intense workout? "If you’re in an interval session and you’ve got that 30 seconds’ or a minute’s rest, that’s the time to focus on getting those deeper nasal breaths," says Dickinson, which will encourage your natural breathing pattern. To master this, he recommends a technique he uses with his athletes – initiating a breath with a sideways movement, using a resistance band around their lower chests. "As you breathe in, hold a good posture and initiate the breath by moving your ribcage into the band," he says. "If you focus on a sideways movement and just keep expanding, you’ll promote the initiation of the breath from the lower ribcage – rather than with a shoulder movement, or jerking the chest upwards." You can then incorporate this method into warm-up stretches, yoga poses, and eventually, gentle exercise, until your body becomes fluent in its new breathing pattern.

For a simple exercise, it can deliver significant results – and it’s a firm favourite among some UK athletes. Jane Carré, athlete health lead and sports physiotherapist for British Swimming, describes the improvements it can have on athletes’ performance as ‘dramatic’.

"Their efforts remain consistent from start to finish of their training sessions," she says. "That translates into races, so the end of their race becomes the strongest part of the event. Now, athletes who didn’t previously cope well with high-intensity training can compete at the highest level."

As for those of us with more humble athletic ambitions? Both Manifield and Dickinson recommend basic breathpattern mastery before moving on to respiratory muscle training. "Some people accept that the breathlessness they experience when exercising is just their norm, and that they’ve reached the limit they can push themselves to in their workouts," says Dickinson.

But committing to these techniques, he explains, could improve your performance. However, those who are pregnant, or have cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure, should check with their GP before getting to work on their breath. "In some cases, it could be that you’re only breathing at 80 per cent of your capacity, so increasing that percentage by practising breathing exercises can have an enormous impact on your performance," says Dickinson. The results might take your breath away.

I C O N S : K A R I N A AT N O U N P R O J E C T

performances. All of which could amount to seconds shaved off your PB.

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AIR AND A SPARE

I C O N S : K A R I N A AT N O U N P R O J E C T

THE RIGHT PUFF More efficient breathing will boost performance

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POWER TUNES

The Marathon Record In need of some audio inspo? Turn up the volume on the world’s first marathon concept album, created by RW’s Rick Pearson.

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Track 1:

The History Of The Marathon or the past six months, I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time in my wife’s wardrobe. There’s often been a mattress propped up behind me and a duvet over my head. Have I lost my mind? Quite possibly. I’ve also been recording an album – the world’s first long-player about the marathon.

I should admit to having some experience in this area. As the co-host of the Runner’s World podcast, I wrote a handful of running jingles. Before that, I served time in a wedding band.

Combining my two main loves – music and running – over a longer-distance project was, I’m afraid, inevitable.

Recording such an album on a limited budget during a global lockdown required some ingenuity.

Hence the whole wardrobe-and-duvet thing: I was creating a DIY vocal booth (clothing dampens the sound). If the recording set-up was lo-fi, I wanted the songs – about famous marathoners but also concepts such as ‘the wall’ – to be as big and propulsive as the race itself. To this end, I teamed up with one-man rhythm section Jules Jackson, who plays drums and bass on all the tracks, plus keyboard wizard Mick Parker.

I also convinced my wife, Georgie, to not only lend me her wardrobe but to sing backing vocals as well.

Together, we became The Hamstrings.

(I had toyed with The Iliotibial Band, but decided it was a little too knowing.)

The LP, Revolution Of The Feet, was to be a celebration of the race and its colourful history. My elevator pitch was: 'Like Horrible Histories, with less blood and more Lycra'. Which is to say, light-hearted and irreverent, with an underlying tenderness for its subject matter.

And what a subject the marathon is.

Drama is written into its DNA – from Pheidippides’ incredible journey in 490BC to the everyday heroes who pack the streets of every famous city marathon. The distance pushes you to the limit, bringing out the full gamut of human emotion – from despair to elation. And if that doesn’t make you want to sing, nothing will.

Where else to start but with Pheidippides, the legendary Greek foot messenger whose remarkable run gave birth to the modern marathon? His journey – more like an astonishing 480km than 42.2 –deserves an album in its own right.

I’d been listening to a lot of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and used their template of funky backing and tongue-twisting vocals as the musical reference point. Wikipedia should probably claim a co-writing credit on this number as there were a few aspects of Pheidippides’ journey with which, I confess, I was unfamiliar. As the song says: 'It happened a long time ago so no one really knows / But this is how my favourite version goes.'

Track 2:

U Started 2 Fast We’ve all been there: haring off at the start of a marathon only to come unstuck later on. Putting some pacing advice to music, therefore, seemed like a smart idea. But I wanted this to feel fun and cheerful, rather than dreary doom-mongering, so musically it’s funky and upbeat. Hopefully, it will function as a reminder to marathoners everywhere: pace thyself or suffer the consequences. (PS – please forgive the over-stylised spelling of this track: I was trying to be Prince.)

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POWER TUNES

Track 3:

Barefoot Bikila Among the many heroic images of marathoners throughout history, that of Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila running (and winning) the 1960 Olympic marathon in his bare feet ranks highly.

He was the first African athlete to win the Olympic marathon, Ethiopia’s first gold medal winner, and he helped to usher in an era of East African dominance over the distance. He is a running god. Despite this, his name isn’t as widely known as it should be, but no history of the marathon would be complete without a tribute to Bikila and his remarkable victory in Rome.

This is old-school rock ’n’ roll – a genre becoming popular around the time of Bikila’s victory – complete with not one, but two key changes. I may have been a little overexcited.

Track 4:

Super Duper Kathrine Switzer

Press play and celebrate the highs and lows of running 42.2km.

Back in 1967, women were routinely told that if they tried to run a marathon they would probably die in the process. Kathrine Switzer’s legendary run in Boston that year instantly threw a spotlight on the idiocy of that belief, and she still fights for equality inside and outside running today. I wanted this song to feel as celebratory as possible, as there are few moments in our sport that have had such a lasting, positive impact as Switzer’s rebel run. When she contacted me to say she liked the song (see 'Hitting the high notes', next spread), all the hours spent in the wardrobe were worth it.

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Track 5:

Running Boom

Track 6:

Runner’s High The great phenomenon, the runner’s high, is custommade for an uplifting pop song. If you’re lucky enough to have experienced this chemical rush, you know how thrilling it can be – but I wanted to explore the idea that someone you love can give you the runner’s high.

So this is a duet between two runners who get that buzz from being together.

Track 7:

The Wall ‘Hitting the wall’, one of the great dramatic moments in the marathon, lends itself so readily to song that I’m surprised no one’s written about it before. The Wall symbolises the moment – in a marathon or a relationship – where you are blindsided and suddenly feel unable to continue. We’ve all been there – it’s a moment of real crisis, filled with drama and pain. Musically, I wanted the verse to be full of major chords and feel optimistic, like the early kays of a marathon, before the minor chords of the chorus come crashing in.

Track 8:

Strava Probably the album’s silliest moment, this song is a reference to the growing role of running tech. Most regular runners are now in possession of a running watch and a Strava account that they monitor closely, so it felt like an area of running that was ripe for parody. Vocally, I’m trying to be Ian Dury again, as I feel the great man would have done a wonderful job of lampooning Strava obsessives. It’s a bit of a throwaway number, in truth, although I am proud of the couplet: ‘Ooh gosh / A stranger just gave me some kudos.’

Track 9:

Eliud Kipchoge When you think of the major marathon moments, Kipchoge’s historic sub-two certainly makes the shortlist. Pioneers such as Kipchoge not only need incredible physical gifts but a mentality that maintains, even in the face of doubt and scepticism, that the seemingly impossible is possible. It’s a quality I tried to capture in the lines: ‘They said it was impossible till Eliud achieved it / To do something incredible, at first you must believe it.’

Kipchoge’s ‘no human is limited’ quote says much the same – and through his remarkable example, he has inspired countless other marathoners to push beyond their own perceived limits. Warning: I’d purchased a wah-wah pedal just before recording this song and wasn’t afraid to use it.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: G E T T Y I M AG E S ; B L K M A R K E T

Having paid attention to the marathon’s historical figures, I felt that I also needed to explore the race’s development. From being something that was once the preserve of super-fit males, running blossomed in the 1970s, attracting people of all shapes, sizes, genders and ethnicities.

This song celebrates that, mirroring the varied things that the marathon means to different people. This is my attempt at Graceland-era Paul Simon. Alas, Ladysmith Black Mambazo couldn’t all fit inside the wardrobe.

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POWER TUNES Time to update your playlist?

Hitting the high notes A super-duper endorsement for Revolution Of The Feet from the legendary Kathrine Switzer.

Track 10:

P H OTO G R A P H Y: G E T T Y I M AG E S ; B L K M A R K E T

Finish Line As the ultimate destination for all marathoners, the finish line surely deserves its own song. The verses have a minor feel to reflect the purgatory of the final kays of the marathon, when the finish line can feel as if it will never arrive. The chorus, by contrast, is an explosion of happiness and relief. And I was happy to be able to bring the album full circle in the song’s final lines: ‘Fall down to your knees like the old Pheidippides / Because the marathon lives on through you and me.’ Heroes such as Pheidippides, Bikila, Switzer and Kipchoge have all moved the marathon forward, but it's ultimately the extraordinary efforts of everyday people that keep its spirit alive. And this record is dedicated to them.

Revolution Of The Feet by The Hamstrings is available to listen to on Spotify and all other major listening platforms

"For all the millions of playlists and earphones; for all the thousands of bands, choirs and thumping PA systems that urge the millions of runners through the streets of the marathons around the world, we’ve never had our own running music… until now.

"Rick Pearson and his band, appropriately named The Hamstrings, have created the world’s first album about the marathon, Revolution Of The Feet.

Catchy, witty, at times soulful and always runnable (and danceable), the music captures our fascinating – but tricky to confirm – ancient history (The History Of The Marathon). The Wall is about more than the marathon wall; it’s about lost love, bad luck and bad decisions that get us in dark places: ‘Have I travelled all this way to come up one mile short?’ And we are buoyed by The Finish Line: ‘When it comes, it’s like the rising of the sun.’ (It is, too.)

Then we’re inspired by our greatest heroes, including Abebe Bikila, winning the 1960 Rome Olympics running barefoot over the rough cobblestones, and introducing the world to African runners. This lively song, Barefoot Bikila, will have you dancing in the streets. And, of course, the icon of our time, Eliud Kipchoge, the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, whose song is really about who makes history: those who don’t see

barriers, only possibility.

"It was a huge surprise to me to find my own story among these songs, and I have to admit that I was downright thrilled to hear it, especially the last verse.

As a person who will always be best known for the bizarre incident of being attacked in the 1967 Boston Marathon by the race director because I was a girl who had the audacity to register for and run the race (it was considered a men’s-only event at that time, but that ‘rule’ was never printed anywhere), it was heartening to hear those final few lines, which tell how a social revolution can come simply from putting one foot in front of the other: ‘You can change it in the courtroom, Read about it in the news, But for change at speed Sometimes what you need Is a pair of running shoes.’

"Millions of women now run and it has transformed all our lives for the better.

Running’s inclusive and diverse community has changed us all and changed the world. And now we have the music to celebrate it."

Kathrine Switzer, first woman to officially register for and run the Boston Marathon; winner of the 1974 New York City Marathon; leader in the drive to make the women’s marathon an official Olympic event (1984); and board chair of 261 Fearless, a non-profit women’s running organisation, 261fearless.org

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BY WUFEI YU AND WILL FORD

172 RUNNERS S TA R T E D T H I S U LT R A M A R AT H O N – 21 OF THEM NEVER CAME BACK

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Racers started their 100K through the stark and steep landscape of the Yellow River Stone Forest in China’s Gansu Province.

CHECKPOINT 4 CHECKPOINT 5

CHECKPOINT 3

SUPPLY POINT

CHECKPOINT 6

ARE A WHERE RUNNERS ENCOUNTERED THE STORM

CHECKPOINT 2

YELLOW RIVER STONE FOREST 100K TRAIL RUN J I N G TA I C O U N T Y, G A N S U , C H I N A

CHECKPOINT 7

CHECKPOINT 8

CHECKPOINT 1 CHECKPOINT 9

FINISH

START

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YA N DA I X I A N G S Q U I N T E D T H R O U G H DENSE, FREEZING FOG AS SHE STRUGGLED TO MAKE OUT HER SURROUNDINGS.

Runners were scattered everywhere – off the trail, in ravines, on the other side of the mountain – dotting the hillside in brightly coloured athletic gear. It was hard to tell loose clothing and people apart. People trudged in every direction, struggling against freezing wind and rain. Others huddled around bushes or boulders.

Some runners passed Yan, heading back down the mountain. They’d tried to reach the race’s third checkpoint at kilometre 27, but failed. They were retreating now, back to the second checkpoint, to drop out.

“It’s way too cold on the top at the third checkpoint,” one cautioned Yan. The temperature had been dropping consistently since the rain had started. It would get colder the higher she climbed.

Yan was still going up.

Most of the runners were wearing shorts and T-shirts. Racers had been encouraged to stow their warm clothes in a drop bag, which they could pick up at kilometre 63, at the sixth checkpoint.

But few had expected they would need extra layers: the Yellow River Stone Forest 100K took place in a desert, and in previous years runners had battled heatstroke, not hypothermia. The bags, if they had anything warm in them, were over 30km away.

Yan was lucky; she had brought warmer clothes with her. She donned long pants and a jacket, and decided to keep moving.

There was close on 2km left to climb before the next checkpoint. Around her, more dots of neon colour covered the mountainside – crawling, lying on the ground, standing but barely moving. Yan approached an elderly man whose eye was bleeding. He insisted he was fine.

Yan was ascending the race’s most dangerous section: an 880m climb, which would bring her up to 2 225m. The trail led up a mountainside past steep cliffs; the rock and sand of the path had grown slippery now, pounded by wind and rain.

There was little vegetation beyond desert scrub in which to find shelter. Looking ahead, Yan couldn’t find the trail – the wind had blown the markers away, and fog had shrouded the route. To find her way, she followed a vague pattern among the dispersed runners, like a trend line through a scatter plot.

The path was growing steeper now.

Yan bumped into at least three more people, all in shorts. She called out, but her shouts travelled nowhere. She was walking now. The temperature, Yan guessed, was no more than 7 or 8 degrees Celcius. Apart from her chin and forehead, she had covered her entire body. Yan still felt she was freezing.

The third checkpoint seemed unreachable, but now the second was even further behind her. Terror and dread began rushing in.

She was pinned.

YAN, 43, HAD arrived in China’s Jingtai county a day before the race, on 21 May, to sunshine and blue skies. She was excited; she had driven 10 hours from her home in the south-western city Chengdu, and this was her first time visiting the Gansu Province’s deserts. The landscape was beautiful, in a stark, wild way – sheer cliffs rose like sails above the desert floor – and the race, the Yellow River Stone Forest 100K, would be her longest since China had lifted its Covid lockdown.

She’d been running for four years now, starting in 2017, a few years after developing pneumonia. When she returned to work as a nurse at one of China’s largest hospitals after her illness, she found herself weak, freezing, and prone to exhaustion during her shifts.

Running helped her get stronger.

She’d begun slowly around Chengdu, but eventually 10Ks and half marathons came easy. Soon, Yan was racing all over China.

Between 2017 and 2019, Yan estimated she’d run one 100K ultramarathon each year, three 60K ultras, four marathons, and dozens of halfs. Running also made her a better nurse. She stopped tiring over shifts, and her medical training came in handy during races. Yan monitored herself closely while running, and she often worked as a medical volunteer at competitions.

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When lockdown ended in China, in April 2020, Yan returned to running. By autumn, races were being held again, and Yan set off for marathons around the country. A friend recommended the Yellow River Stone Forest 100K, just off the Tibetan Plateau near the Gobi Desert.

The region where the race was held consisted of vast expanses of desert, with rocky sections of mountains and dry washes. Heading into its fourth year, the race climbed rugged hills and mountains above China’s Yellow River, named for its brownish, earthen colour. Yan had never seen the Yellow River in such a stark landscape, and the novelty was exciting.

On WeChat, at 8:12pm on the night before the race, Yan posted eight photos – seven of the desert landscape, and one of her race supplies. “Conquer the Yellow River, chase the Stone Forest throne,” she wrote. “My goal is to finish the race safely!”

The morning of the race, Yan woke at 6am to blue skies. Temperatures were in the early teens. She threw on long pants, gloves and arm warmers, and then packed her bag with fuel – electrolyte tablets, energy gels, Snickers bars, and a litre of water. By 7am the sun was still shining, and wisps of stratus clouds hung in the sky. The temperature was hovering at just over 15 degrees. For sun protection, she wore a bandana around her neck and a sun hat, its large brim and side flaps protecting her cheeks.

On the shuttle to the starting line, at about 1 500m, Yan snapped more desert photos. The sky was still clear. But by the time she arrived in the park, wind gusts had grown strong enough to blow over signs and race flags. But she lined up for the start, alongside 171 other runners.

cap grasped tightly in his right hand, he charged ahead, following the race leaders.

One of China’s best ultrarunners, Zhang was competing that day against some other stars in the country’s racing scene – most notably Liang Jing, who had won the 400K Ultra Gobi desert race in 2018 and held the Chinese national 24-hour record.

“When we started at 9am there were still really big winds, and a lot of people’s hats were blown off,” Zhang wrote later about the race. “But the first 20K were still okay – the situation was relatively normal.”

Zhang had grown up farming in central China’s Henan Province, where he was raised herding goats and harvesting corn by hand. Dashing up and down low, rolling hills of farmland had prepared him well for distance running.

By 2014 he was competing in at least 20 marathons a year, bagging top-10

finishes, and sending most of the money he won back to his family. In April, two days after the registration was opened, he signed up for the Yellow River Stone Forest 100K. He was excited. Of all China’s landscapes, the dry, open desert of north-west China was his favourite.

In April, to prepare for what he expected to be scalding desert temperatures, he ran during early afternoons, for up to two hours, until he felt hints of heatstroke. By the time the race rolled around, he felt prepared for heat, and he was hoping to finish with prize money. The night before the race, as the wind banged at his hotel room windows, he thought little of it. At the race briefing a few hours earlier, the organising committee had cautioned racers about nothing more than heatstroke and sunburn.

THE MAYOR OF Baiyin, the nearest town, fired the starting pistol at 9am. The course began down a stone road, then bent around a 90-degree turn into a valley.

There, runners were hit by an enormous gust of wind. Hats and sunglasses flew everywhere. Yan’s visor flew off, and her hat’s flaps whipped around violently.

She chased down her shades and hat and adjusted, and then kept going.

At the front of the race, Zhang Xiaotao grinned as he hit the turn. He liked cooler weather for running. With his

Yan’s photo of her gear, laid out before the race.

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“Storms and chills were the last things to cross my mind,” Zhang says.

ZHANG PASSED THROUGH the second checkpoint, 24km in, well ahead of Yan. A few kays behind him even before the climb, she was beginning to feel the storm’s power. Gusts of wind whipped sand into her mouth. Hard rain began falling. She slowed down. She stopped to rest for a moment at CP2. She’d heard that the next checkpoint wouldn’t have any food – just two volunteers punching race cards. Yan decided to fuel up, eating cherry tomatoes, water and bread.

Ahead of her lay the third checkpoint, 8km up the 880m climb, the race’s most challenging ascent.

The rain was drenching now; and far below her, the river was raging a deep brown-yellow. Along its banks, the loess soil was loose and thick. Yan took out her jacket. Her other layers were soaked through, and sand and gravel had filled her shoes. More runners passed. At least half were now ahead of her, starting the climb. Ten minutes later, around 12 noon, she set out, head down against the gale.

Meanwhile, the lead runners were barely moving. Wind and freezing rain were pummelling them, slowing their progress to a shuffle. About halfway

up to CP3, hail began to mix with the raindrops, slamming into Zhang, numbing his face and blurring his vision.

Zhang had just come across two racers in trouble. One was shaking and trembling, apparently on the verge of hypothermia. Zhang tried helping him forward, wrapping his arms around the runner and walking together. But the trail was too slippery, and not wide enough for two people hanging on to each other side by side. The wind gusted so hard that they kept falling. Eventually they decided to separate. Zhang tried to scramble up the mountain ahead of him.

Keep your head, get over the mountain, everything will be fine, he thought.

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Shepherd Zhu Keming shows the cave where he sheltered six runners.

He didn’t make it far. Wrestling the wind, Zhang fell at least 10 more times.

With the two runners he’d tried to help behind him, Zhang was sitting in fourth place – higher and further into the course than almost anyone. His felt his limbs growing stiff, and hypothermia began settling in as the fog thickened.

Soon, he lost control of his body. He fell once more and couldn’t get up. In his last moments of consciousness, he managed to pull out a space blanket and wrap it around his body, and send out an SOS signal on his GPS.

ON 20 MAY, two days before the race, an enormous cold front had pushed down from Siberia to the west of Gansu, where temperatures plummeted close to freezing. The polar vortex was moving south-east, and weather stations in the area began alerting the public. On 21 May, the night before the race – when the race briefing was held – the county’s Meteorological Administration issued a warning that over the next 24 hours, sustained winds between 45 and 50km/h and large temperature drops were possible all across the province.

That afternoon however, temperatures in Jingtai county where the race was being held reached almost 27 degrees.

By race start, the edge of the cold front was just starting to descend on the course – perfectly timed to meet the runners head-on as they climbed to CP3. Heat and pressure differentials across the front’s edge were causing strong winds; by 8am, gusts reachied 40km/h. Temperatures began dropping steadily. But these changes had only just begun at higher elevations; their extremes hadn’t yet moved down into the lower parts of the Yellow River Valley, where the race began.

By 10:30am, an hour and a half after the race had started, thick clouds had begun forming as warm, high-pressure air from the desert floor rushed into the sky and cold, low-pressure air from the vortex plummeted down the mountainsides.

The winds and rain grew strongest between CP2 and CP3, as runners climbed higher, into the descending cold front. At this point, as the lead runners were climbing to CP3, temperatures were dropping as much as close on 4 degrees Celcius per hour. In Jingtai county’s lower elevations – around 1 600m above sea level – temperatures reached around 6 or 7 degrees. But at the race’s higher altitudes, during the climb to CP3, which reached 2 195m, the temperatures approached freezing. As warm and cold air rushed across the most dramatic pressure and temperature gradients, winds probably reached between 65 and 90km/h. The resulting wind chill made the air temperature at higher elevations feel more like minus-9 or minus-10.

Together, the temperature, wind, and rain were enough to cause hypothermia, with most runners wearing little more than shorts and a T-shirt.

It’s not clear whether the race organisers had followed the polar vortex, or were aware of the alert, and most forecasts didn’t reflect the severity of the front headed toward Jingtai county. The night before the race, Yan had seen forecasts predicting colderthan-usual temperatures, but nothing especially alarming: in the morning, a light drizzle and wind around 20 to 30km/h, with temperatures ranging from 5 to 20 degrees.

Colder temperatures had never impacted the competition, and most athletes ignored the late change to the forecast, if they even saw it. Yan was one of only a few runners to pack warmer clothes. Most had opted to leave their extra layers at home.

YAN’S CHEEKS WERE becoming numb.

She was still ascending to the third checkpoint, and rain was lashing the trail, buffeted by gusts of wind. The rock trail was slick as ice, and led perilously close to sheer cliff edges. Visibility was only 4 or 5 metres, rendering trail markings invisible, and signs of people had mostly vanished. So when Yan bumped into a runner nicknamed Ke Le, they teamed up, and decided to try to head down the mountain.

“We were just circling ourselves without any sense of direction,” Yan says. Whenever they paused, she could feel her heart racing. Her breathing sped up. She started to lose feeling in her feet and hands. She was certain that she was about to freeze to death.

As Yan and Ke Le were trying to descend, they spotted a cave dwelling.

The discovery was a deep relief. Among many groups stranded between the second and third checkpoints, there had been rumours circling of caves near CP3.

A shepherd from a nearby village, Zhu Keming, was standing in front of its entrance, beckoning them inside. He was already sheltering another runner, wrapped in blankets and lying on a kang, a bed made of packed earth. Trembling, Yan sat on the kang and took off her socks and shoes. They were soaked through. “I was like, I’m almost done. I was just too cold,” says Yan. She tucked her feet under the first runner’s hips for warmth and wrapped a dusty space blanket around herself. She asked Zhu to call for help; he already had, but none had arrived. She was sitting close to the other two on the kang, but still trembling.

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H E F E LT H I S L I M B S G R O W I N G S T I F F. H Y P O T H E R M I A B E G A N SETTLING IN AS THE FOG THICKENED. “I’m not going to make it,” Yan told Zhu. “Is there any chance you can set up a fire?”

Zhu ventured out. About 20 minutes later he returned with kindling, and started a fire next to the kang in the cave. Yan threw her wet clothes close to the flames. Slowly, she began to recover.

Two more runners showed up at around 2:30pm, 45 minutes after Yan, and reported that athletes were lying on the ground all over the course. “Almost all of the runners are either in hiding or dropped out,” one of them told Yan. They’d checked some for pulses, often without finding any. Another runner they passed was cramping on the ground, but they couldn’t carry him over.

Zhu went out to look for him. At around 3pm, he came back and reported that he’d found the cramping runner, as well as three others who appeared to be dead. The survivor was mumbling, “I’m in fourth place.”

It was Zhang Xiaotao. By then, he’d been lying on the ground for more than two hours. His distress signal had gone unanswered by rescuers.

Zhang could barely move, and Zhu

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called Ke Le to help carry him inside. To keep the smoke away, they placed him just inside the entrance. Zhang was still dizzy, fixated on the competition.

“I’m in fourth place,” he repeated. “I fell seven or eight times. I want to race.”

With the others’ help, Yan removed Zhang’s wet clothes and placed them near the fire.

She ordered others not to put his hands and feet too close to the flames, or to massage his limbs. Yan worried that cold blood might circulate to his heart and kill him. She pulled out water, an unopened Snickers bar, and some energy gels. Slowly, Zhang began eating. He couldn’t extend the fingerts on his left hand, which were going numb, but he insisted on rejoining the race.

“Mentally, I was still just carrying on in the race,” Zhang recalls of recovering in the cave. Eventually the other runners calmed him down, and convinced him to drop out. “Then I realised it was a matter of life or death. I was so muddled.”

At around 5pm, local villagers arrived at the cave with quilts, thermos bottles and paper cups, but Yan sent them back outside to search for runners on the

hillsides. Half an hour later the group wrapped towels from the villagers around themselves, and decided to head down the mountain before nightfall.

The storm had died down. Thick clouds remained, but it felt much warmer, and descending wouldn’t be so dangerous.

Zhu, the shepherd, led them down a shortcut off the hillsides, a goat trail.

The trek downhill took over an hour. Along the way they saw villagers carrying more quilts and hot water uphill. A group of doctors and nurses passed with first-aid kits. A bulldozer followed, clearing a route to deliver medical supplies up the mountain, with all-wheel-drive vehicles behind it.

Yan arrived back at her hotel after 8pm, and went to dinner with other runners who had made it back. The meal was sombre, filled with speculation about who had survived. Liang Jing, the top ultrarunner, hadn’t been found yet.

Others were missing as well.

By the next morning, 18 were confirmed dead. Three were missing.

Headlines were spreading worldwide.

OF THE 172 runners who had set off, 21 died and eight were seriously injured.

Most if not all the deaths were from hypothermia. In the lead group of six, only Zhang had survived. Liang Jing’s death was especially unnerving. He was no stranger to extreme races – his win at the Ultra Gobi 400K took place in another corner of the Gansu Desert with

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extreme temperature fluctuations.

In the post-mortem, the race was deconstructed endlessly. Was the weather a freak event? Should the organisers have been more cautious and prepared? Whose fault was this? That the organisers hadn’t followed or had dismissed the cold front was negligent at best. Still, many pointed out that there were contingencies in place.

Runners had to have GPS and other bells and whistles one could expect an ultra to require, and a way to send distress signals. But many runners, Zhang and Yan included, called for help and never received it. The signals had reached rescue teams, but they arrived too late.

Discretion and weather awareness – skills that come with experience – were perhaps what were in shortest supply.

Many wondered why the race committee hadn’t held the racers at the second checkpoint, as by then the weather had already turned bad.

The Chinese government’s response to the tragedy lacked nuance. Almost immediately the government banned ultra races, as well as a vague range of other ‘high-risk’ outdoor adventure sports. The Chinese Communist Party’s disciplinary organ – which among other things, punishes and investigates officials for corruption – was tasked with looking into the disaster. In the weeks following the race, Jingtai county’s party secretary, Li Zuobi, committed suicide by jumping off a building. He appears to have known what was coming; soon after, a harsh judgment came down from the government’s Party provincial committee, naming almost everyone connected to the race – organisers, sponsors, or others connected to them – as potentially liable.

Around China, race organisers were dismayed. So far, 27 officials have been punished or charged, with sentences not yet rendered, while the magistrate of Jingtai county was fired. Other organisers are watching closely, some leaving the industry altogether.

MONTHS LATER, THE runners are still working through the trauma and injuries from the storm. Zhang’s left index finger is still numb from nerve damage, preventing him helping his family with the harvest. He prefers not to talk much about the race’s psychological aftermath.

After he published an account of the competition, commenters harassed him on social media, and Zhang suspended his account. Since then he’s mostly shut the

world out, taking time to heal.

For Yan, the experience has haunted her dreams for months. She has trouble sleeping – flashbacks to the race woke her almost every night, in the first weeks afterwards – but has kept in touch with Zhang and other survivors, for mental support, as well as with Zhu Keming, the shepherd. One day, she hopes, the cavedwelling crew will reunite at the site of the race, to thank Zhu in person.

After the race, Yan and Zhang both took a break from running. But eventually returned. About a month after the tragedy, on a cloudy, cool morning with a gentle breeze, Yan set out on a 13km jog in a wetland reserve. The break from exercise made her pace slower than usual, but speed was not on her mind.

The reserve was her favourite place to run in Chengdu, and soon the happiness

the sport brought her came flooding back. And partly, she explained, she was running for the spirits of the deceased.

“They are no longer running in this world. So no matter what, I’ll keep running, for them and for myself,” Yan says. “I’d dwelled on little details in the past. But eventually, you feel that just being alive is good. Really good.”

Back in his hometown, Zhang took even less time off. Just 10 days after returning from Gansu, with the blessing of his doctor, he ran again. On a bright 29-degree evening, he donned a longsleeved white hoodie, and set out running through the countryside. Five kays later, his life was feeling intact again.

“I’ll carry on, keep running, love everyone beside me, and shoulder their unrealised dreams,” Zhang says. “Ahead, there’s a long, long way to run.”

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RAC E- DAY G E AR With a proud ultra road-running tradition, great marathon and shorter-distance events, excellent weather and a love of sport in general, South Africans are as hungry as ever to test themselves in races. We’ve assembled a collection of 45 winning race-day gear items, to get you in the mood for the last and best days of summer: race season.

COM PI LED BY RYAN SCOTT

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SHOES Asics Metaspeed Sky / R5 000

The MetaSpeed Sky is one of Asics’ top-tier racing shoes, and it’s designed for a propulsive, cushioned ride that can handle marathon distances.

The Sky features the company’s latest tech.

It’s made with a new nylon-based foam midsole (FlyteFoam Blast Turbo) that’s soft and springy for maximum energy return, and it includes a full-length carbon-fibre plate that – combined with a curved rocker sole – helps you roll forward through your stride.

In certain flatter sections of your race-day course, there will be opportunities to shave time off your normal pace by striding out a little more than normal. This is when the Metaspeed Sky is technically designed to come into its own – when picking up the pace means increasing stride length significantly, but increasing cadence proportionally less.

207g, asics.com

Asics uses the prefix ‘Meta’ for their premium shoes: MetaRide, MetaRacer & MetaSpeed.

Extra cushioning, for a cruisy marathon pace.

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MISC. BEST DEBUT

Puma Deviate Nitro Elite Racer / R4 799

Puma have put in a lot of hard work recently to ensure they’re relevant in the running-specific shoe space, and have succeeded impressively; with the Deviate Nitro Elite Racer, as the name suggests, being completely up to the task on race day.

The speediest of the Deviate collection includes that elusive component that is often missing from lightweight performance shoes: the aspect of comfort. The softness and firmness of the Deviate midsole combine effectively with a carbon plate for a very nimble racer. The upper is minimalist and thin, quite firm in the forefoot and sides of the shoe but with a more plush suede-type fabric around the heel and collar inner.

The shoe does not include a heel counter, as the lockdown works well with the existing structural design of the upper.

220g , puma.co.za

Salomon Speedbob Hat R699 What began as a request from some of Salomon’s sponsored athletes has now become a best-seller to beat the heat. The technology in this hat captures and releases moisture vapour, enabling you to maintain an ideal core temperature – not just to protect against heat, but in the wind and rain too.

salomonsports.co.za

BEST PRICE

New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080 / R3 099

Supremely soft but without the mushy feel of other maximalist shoes, the 1080 is a great pick for runners looking for something plush to keep them going through those longer road-race challenges.

Version 10 was a major update, and the changes on version 11 are relatively minor in comparison: a revised upper offers a more forgiving fit, especially for wider feet.

If your feet swell in the heat, we have no better suggestion than this midsole upper which accommodates the extra volume with sympathetic lateral stretch and includes maximum ventilation through a section of perforations. The Fresh Foam midsole is tuned for soft cushioning, but of fers a lively feel t hat doesn’t sacrifice energy return.

With such a large volume of the popular Fresh Foam X to carry you over the course, the feel underfoot is extremely consistent throughout the run.

264g , newbalance.co.za

Beeswax Sunscreen With Fynbos Propolis Sunblock R217

Natural sunscreen filled with the goodness of honey and fynbos propolis; but it’s as much about what this lotion doesn’t have as what it does. It’s free of synthetic colourants, sulphates, chemicals, palm oils and parabens. Your skin gets the benefit of protection without being exposed to unnatural substances. simplybee.co.za

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SHOES

Built for those with good running biomechanics.

Salomon S/LAB Phantasm / R3 299

S/ L a b i s Sa lomon’s ‘ Ta s t e The Difference’ range – and the Phantasm is its 2021 incarnation.

Phantasm is a barely-there road shoe that feels even lighter than its stated weight of 199g; the whole aim of this shoe is to provide just enough of what you need, while mostly staying out of the way. The upper is virtually seamless, and made from a single layer of mesh – partially see-through – with an almost non-existent heel counter.

Salomon has also introduced what it ’s ca lling a Reverse Camber, known elsewhere as a rocker – essentially a curved shape to the mid- and outsole, to help pop you up onto your toes more quickly.

It’s less pronounced than those on the likes of, say, a Hoka shoe; but our testers definitely noticed it, especially when running on the flat and picking up the pace, as you would on race day.

199g, salomonsports.co.za

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HOKA ONE ONE Rocket X / R3 499 This shoe mixes speed with control, and replaces the discontinued Evo Carbon Rocket. It’s the lightest shoe in the Hoka range, and it’s low-slung, snug and features a slim carbon-fibre plate.

Team RW are big fans: “This is a seriously fast shoe. The rocker and carbon plate combine to create springy, snappy ground contact which feels like it’s giving you a propulsive push every time your foot hits the floor.”

The overwhelming feeling here is of a shoe where all the elements have come together perfectly. The durometer (how firmly/softly a midsole foam is tuned) hits Goldilocks levels of just right. The 5mm drop on the shoe is low enough to feel rapid, but there’s enough there to make it more versatile than just a race-day option.

A fast shoe, which still feels stable – not like you’re perched on the high stack height of a Nike Vaporfly – and this gives you a feeling of confidence to really push the pace.

210g The Sweat Shop

New Balance Running Stash Cap R400

Five panels, lightweight, and with a zipper pocket for the cap to be stashed into itself for easy packing.

Once ready for action, the pocket can be used to store your keys, ID, or cash for easy access. newbalance.co.za

The North Face Bag Base Camp Duffel Medium R2 499

The tubular design of the iconic North Face bag lends itself to allowing you to chuck all your used gear into the 71-litre capacity bag after the race, with a zippered end-cap compartment to keep wet clothes, dirty shoes or extra gear separate without sacrificing volume.

Made from heavy-duty ballistic nylon material that’s easily cleaned and keeps its shape to provide some protection for contents, this bag packs snugly into a car boot – it’s the perfect carry-all for a weekend running event.

Cape Union Mart

Nail Clippers R60

Sharp corners on a nail on any toe can wreak havoc in a race, and you won’t realise until the damage is done. It’s always worth packing a pair of clippers on race day in case you (or a friend) need a little lastminute surgery. cascadebeauty.co.za

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SHOES A world recordbreaker, with a time of 57.42 for the Valencia Half Marathon.

adidas Adizero Adios PRO2 / R4 499

In terms of race days, the Adizero Adios Pro2 has already notched up what is fast becoming a legacy of broken records – including the feats of Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir, who broke the existing women-only half-marathon world record twice; not to mention Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie’s world best over the same distance, taking 29 seconds off the previous record.

The current model is only a colourway update, which mea ns t here wa s no tinkering with the recipe for speed. You can see the signature carbon-infused Energ yRods t hrough t he t wo-layer Lightstrike Pro midsole, which is designed to be lightweight and stiff for a more anatomically driven transition and to limit energy loss.

The Celermesh 2.0 upper gives good flexibility, breathability and support, and Continental rubber on the outsole extends to a toe tip, creating a traction zone to support faster acceleration.

215g, adidas.co.za

Under Armour Flow Velocity Wind Prizm / R3 499

One feature that almost everyone mentioned was the upper. The feedback was that it’s light but robust, and cradles the foot nicely, while stretching and moving well in key areas. This is thanks to the supporting tapes (essentially overlays) which stiffen into tension when needed and relax when not in play, instead of simply compressing the foot consistently.

The cushioning has also been praised, over more than a year of testing. The one-piece midsole and outsole was a novelty when introduced, but has now built up testers’ trust. They know they’ll be cushioned enough for long runs, but that the weight is impressively low thanks to weight saved by doing away with the extra layer of rubber outsole.

Overall this is by far the best-performing running shoe in the Under Armour range, and it performs equally well in training and racing.

241g, underarmour.co.za

Every shoe pairs automatically to UA’s MapMyRun running app, with no extra tech required.

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Puma Cloudspun Marathon Tank / R700 The lightest of strapping caresses your neck with two wide perforated strips that cross at the shoulder blades, while the perforations continue for the full surface area of t h is eleg a nt t a n k top. The unrestricted chest and slightly flared waist allow you to layer items underneath.

Totalsports

TOPS

Asics Cushioning Socks / R175 (two-pair pack)

Thin, zero seams, supported arch (and heel and toe), and with just enough height on the ankle to avoid slippage, this pair is race-day ready.

Sportsmans Warehouse

Oakley CMDN Sunglasses / R2 100

The unisex one-piece-shield Prizm lens takes inspiration from Oakley heritage: the iconic Razor Blade Shield lenses, but with the addition of a new jagged O-Matter frame design helping to keep these sunnies firmly in place. The Prizm lens technology takes stress off your eyes during races by enhancing colour and contrast, so you can see more detail in your surroundings.

Sunglass Hut

Black Diamond Flare Headlamp / R549

Asics Ventilate Actibreeze Tank R1 000 Created for comfort and cool on warmer days. If the forecast says it’s going to be a hot one, this tank in combination with a sports bra could be your best bet. The singlet’s strategic body-mapped fabric provides advanced ventilation in key heat zones, and slits in the sides for increased air flow – the faster you run, the more ventilation you get!

Asics Stores

Getting ready for a race in the dark is no fun, and cellphone torches need hands to hold them. This perfectly packable waterproof 27-gram headlamp sheds 40 lumens of light on your early-morning gear check – no excuse now for a backto-front race vest, or pinning your number on upside down. rammountain.co.za

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TOPS

2

1

New Balance Women’s Impact Run Short-Sleeve / R700

1 | Under Armour Rush Auxetic Bra R1 199 It’s not a lot of fabric. But what there is specifically targets certain areas for strategic support, using interior auxetic (look it up – we had to) jacquard moulds for customised fit and support next to your body. The crossback strap design features bonded free-cut fabric instead of stitching, which is smooth to the touch on your skin. underarmour.co.za S TA F F C A L L O U T

Some of our testers – even on a hot summer’s race day – prefer not to run with exposed stomach and shoulders.

That’s the same mindset behind the design of this T-shirt, which translates to impressive cooling. New Balance combi nes ICEx tech nolog y a nd breathable fabric to dry quickly, with the assistance of a modern high arm and waist cut, and ventilation strips on the back of the shoulder to keep it all light and minimalist-looking. newbalance.co.za

2 | Salomon Elevate Move On Bra R599

Seamless construction means a lightweight bra (just 89 grams) which won’t chafe or pinch your skin. The stretch fabric fits most body types and moves with you while you run; and Salomon have even borrowed from the fashion industry, with removable padded cups to give more shape and modesty, at your own discretion. salomonsports.co.za

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adidas Men’s Fast Top / R799

Sleek hemmed sleeves and neckline, together with a cut contoured to give you full freedom of movement, and AeroReady fabric technology to wick moisture away and keep you cool, turn a simple T-shirt into a worthy cornerstone of your race-day outfit. adidas.co.za

Life Systems Echo Whistle R79 and Life Systems Light and Dry Nano First Aid Kit / R585

The items we hope we’ll never have to use; but safety preparation is always a good idea. A lightweight whistle is supremely effective at alerting those close by that assistance is needed – and carrying a first-aid pack in your car or pack should be standard practice in case there’s a need to help out a friend, a stranger, or yourself. traversegear.co.za

The Fast Top has an active cut to ensure freedom of movement

M O S T V E R S AT I L E

adidas Own The Run Long-Sleeve Top R799 If you know it’s going to be cooler out , a nd you need some extra upperbody cover, thumbholes are a must. Not only do they prevent long sleeves from creeping upwards, t hey a nchor t he whole top a nd a llow f reedom of movement. And if you do catch a little rain, the AeroReady fabric dries quickly. adidas.co.za

Black Diamond 500ml Soft Flask / R299

Easy to use – in a running-vest pocket, or handheld – for any run, because an extra 500ml of water at the right time can make all the difference between success and failure on race day. The welded seams and minimalist design make it easy to tuck into your waist band when empty, ready for a quick refill at the next aid station. blackdiamondequipment.co.za

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BOTTO M SHORTEST SHORTS

Under Armour Speedpocket Perf Women’s Shorts / R699

Shorts offer a loose, light fit that allows legs to feel unhindered.

Going fast on the clock often begins with feeling fast at the start line. Every bit of excess fabric has been discarded here, leaving behind an arched silhouette on the leg, laser perforations for added ventilation, and tight-fitting stretch-woven fabric for totally unrestricted movement through 360 degrees. Built-in briefs are included for coverage & support without requiring underwear, and a front pouch with extra stretch allows you to carry a phone or other items securely. underarmour.co.za

Salomon Sense Women’s Shorts / R749 With shorts this skimpy, the four-way stretch fabric comes into its own, creating a great feel between the movement of your body and the shorts. The Aerotech mesh stretch hugs the skin and doesn’t resist motion as you move through your stride. One of the most useful items in this gear guide is a clever nutrition belt – but you won’t need one with these. Tiny as they are, these shorts even encourage you to take items along, with a 360-degree elastic waistband, mesh pockets and a secure zipped back pocket. salomonsports.co.za

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O MS New Balance Accelerate Women’s 5-inch Shorts / R550 Life Systems Echo Whistle R79 and Life Systems Light and Dry Nano First Aid Kit R585

An exposed elastic waistband and drawcord keep these speedy shorts securely in place, while a close-to-the-body cut is designed with a split leg to prevent scrunching up. NB DRY technology deals with moisture management, and they have a snug, confident fit overall. newbalance.co.za

The items we hope we’ll never have to use; but safety preparation is always a good 2XU Nutrition idea. A lightweight Belt / R199 whistle is supremely No more voodoo-doll-like effective at alerting pins to those the close by chest, once thatyou assistance have a dedicated is needed – and carrying belt with atoggles first-aidfor pack deftly in your attaching car or pack race your should number. be standard Stretchy practice loops on in casesides the there’s of the a need beltto will help hold out your a friend, a stranger, energy gelsorfor yourself. easy access. traversegear.co.za 2xu.co.za

Black Diamond 500ml Soft Flask / R299

Easy to use – in a running-vest pocket, or handheld – for any run, because an extra 500ml of water at the right time can make all the difference between success and failure on race day. The welded seams and minimalist design make it easy to tuck into your waist band when empty, ready for a quick refill at the next aid station. blackdiamondequipment.co.za

2XU Nutrition Belt / R199 Body Glide Anti-Chafe Balm / R 199 No more voodoo-doll-like pins to the Under Armour Auxetic Rush Best Women’s Tights / R1 949 Not traditional race attire, but then women’s at hleisure t ights have become the most versatile item of clothing since daytime TV boosted all-day pyjama wear. They're highwaisted and cover you right down to the ankle, with a flat hem and smooth touch to the skin. With a side drop-in pocket for carrying your cellphone to record your race-day experience, these tights are fast becoming a favourite for all running conditions.

The Athlete’s Foot

chest, once you have a dedicated The stick format makes it easy to belt with toggles deftly your apply on any for part of theattaching body. The race number. on the sides balm is water Stretchy resistant,loops so it stays of the belt will you’re hold your energy gels for on even when perspiring; easy access. it protects the targeted area by 2xu.co.zaa dry, invisible barrier creating between your skin and the rubbing.

Tip for application: put it on before you get dressed! driftersshop.co.za

2XU Performance Visor / R299

If you can wear them for coffee dates and to the dentist, you can race in them too!

Moisture-wicking forehead sweatband and semi-curved brim assist in reducing the effects of the sun. But the standout feature is the ease of use enabled by the thick elastic headband.

2xu.co.za

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BOTTOMS

Puma Run Ultraweave S 3-inch Split Shorts / R949 Men’s extra-short shorts just three inches long for minimal leg coverage, to allow a completely free stride. The slight side-split up the seam encourages higher leg lift, for speedy runners. Puma Stores

EXTRA LENGTH

adidas Designed 4 Running Shorts / R899 The p er for at e d side s and lower back section above the leg create extra ventilation, for already very lightweight fabric.

The slight extension at the back will give peace of mind to those concerned about creepage. adidas.co.za

Puma Run Marathon Tight Shorts 6-inch / R799 Ultraform is a fabric specifically made for the serious athlete looking for smooth and supportive fit. Ultra athletes will nod in approval at the clever, easy-access mesh pockets on the side of the leg and the small of the back. A small snack or gel will easily fit in to help you meet your race nutrition goals.

Totalsports

S P O T I F Y F R I E N D LY

Garmin 945 / R10 999 The Garmin Forerunner 945 is the most featurepacked Forerunner yet. It tracks your every step on the run, and your heartbeat as you sleep, so you can even check how your sleep before a race might differ compared with a normal night’s sleep. The newest model supports music playback – it stores up to 1 000 songs, whether they’re your own MP3s or synced from a music service such as Spotify. The colour maps, previously exclusive to the Fenix watch series, are another handy feature. You can even generate roundtrip courses on the fly – no computer required – so you can revisit your race course to have a second bash at it another time. garmin.com

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Polar Vantage M2 / R5 499 T ra i n i ng, race day a nd recovery are all covered by this lightweight package.

Monitor your performance in real time, with insights about your current condition and readiness, and suggestions for what training to do based on your recovery status. With GPS and heart-rate measuring activated, the battery time is st ill 40 hours, which should cover even the most arduous ultra; and to assist i n m a n a g i n g t h a t lon g race-day out there is the FuelWise virtual assistant, which helps you plan your refuelling and keep it on track during your event. polar.com

Apple Watch Series 7 / R9 499 Tha n ks to a one-m illimet re size increase for the new model, combined with thinner borders and a rounded edge, it’s now easier to read data when on the move. Runners will appreciate the always-on display, so you don’t have to exaggeratedly lift your arm to peek at your pace. A useful race-day plus is the increased-speed charging time: from zero to 80 per cent in just 45 minutes, in case you wake up to a flat battery on the morning of your event.

Incredible Connection

The items we hope we’ll never have to use; but safety preparation is always a good idea. A lightweight whistle is supremely effective at alerting those close by that assistance is needed – and carrying a first-aid pack in your car or pack should be standard practice in case there’s a need to help out a friend, a stranger, or yourself. traversegear.co.za

Infantino Reusable Pouches / R599 for 50 pouches Black Diamond 500ml When testing race-day gear, RW Soft Flask / R299

WA WATCHES TO U C H S C R E E N R E A DY

FitBit Charge 4 / R2 900

The new Charge still logs all the 24-hour activity and sleep-tracking features previous generations of the watch have been known for. But the GPS is surprisingly accurate, and the touch screen is responsive even when your hands are sweaty, as is often the case when you’re giving it your all in a race! The simpler band design ensures it will never be confused with a high-powered running watch, but if all you want to do is get reliable pace readings on the course, the Charge delivers.

The battery is touted to last up to seven days; but having the GPS on will drain it in just a few hours.

Totalsports

Keep it simple with just the basics.

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Life Systems Echo Whistle R79 and Life Systems Light and Dry Nano First Aid Kit R585

staffer (and new mom) Alana came Easy to use – in a running-vest pocket, up with this simple running hack or handheld – for any run, because an to create her own nutrition supply, extra 500ml of water at the right time using these nifty reusable baby-food can make all the difference between pouches. With this DIY trick, the success and failure on race day. The sky's the limit for choosing nutrition welded seams and minimalist design you can take with you to the make it easy to tuck into your waist start line. band when empty, ready for a quick Makro Stores refill at the next aid station. blackdiamondequipment.co.za

2XU Nutrition Belt / R199

No more voodoo-doll-like pins to the chest, once you have a dedicated belt with toggles for deftly attaching your race number. Stretchy loops on the sides of the belt will hold your energy gels for easy access.

2xu.co.za

Kalenji Running Folding Cup X-light / R79

We predict that 2022 will be the last year of plastic sachets and styrofoam cups at races. Singleuse and environmentally unfriendly is just not acceptable anymore.

Thankfully, there’s a foldable, reusable cup – the perfect solution at the hydration station (or stream, if you’re on the trails). decathlon.co.za

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POST- RACE COOL DOWN IN ST YLE

Under Armour Recover Woven Shine Jacket / R1 399 After the finish line you can start recovery right away, even as your body cools down.

The pattern in this mineral-infused fabric returns infrared energy to your body to restore your muscles faster. Body temperature changes quickly when you’re warming down, so testers appreciated the wide collar and bungee adjustment options around the neck and waist, to easily constrict or allow more air flow. underarmour.co.za

adidas Own The Run Tracksuit Pants / R1 499

Stretchy, water-absorbent fabric is just the right fit we’re looking for after the run. A drawcord elastic waistband tops a tapered silhouette, which finishes with ankle zips that make it easy to add or drop a layer without removing your shoes. adidas.co.za

THE CHAMPION LOOK

Ray-Ban Bill Sunglasses / R2 800

Launched in 1985 as a rev ision of t he icon ic Aviators, and now back in 2022 for some feelgood retro throwback vibes with loads of attitude.

If you don’t ma ke t he p o d iu m , t h e s e h e a dturners will still get the crowds taking a chance with a second glance.

Sunglass Hut

Salomon Reelax Break 5.0 Sandals / R1 399 A long time ago, Salomon recognised the need to complement great running shoes with a sandal that helps reduce muscle fatigue and guarantees post-race support and comfort.

The EndoFit sleeve wraps and holds your foot in place to biomechanically limit the forces applied to your muscles, which means they can take a break after the exertion of the race. salomonsports.co.za

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What We Wear WOOL

AVOID THE STANK WITH MERINO’S ANTI-BACTERIAL PROPERTIES.

Why Runners Should Wear Wool AROUND 80 PER CENT of our heat dissipation while exercising comes not from sweating, but from sweat evaporating off the skin. Clothing, especially thicker layering, is a barrier that traps heat, air, and moisture, creating what textile researchers call a ‘microclimate’ between the skin and the inner face of the fabric. As heat and moisture build, humidity rises, hindering evaporation, and therefore the skin’s ability to cool the body. One functional fabric works with the body’s efforts to thermoregulate in the cold – and yes, also in the heat: wool.

Research in performance apparel has shown that wool fibres pull moisture from that microclimate. This lowers humidity, allows sweat to evaporate faster, and cools skin temperature – which is what we sense when we’re feeling intensely hot during exercise. Dr Raechel Laing, professor emeritus at the University of Otago in New Zealand, found while researching wool as a performance fabric that polyester shirts induced slightly higher skin temperatures, earlier sweating, more feelings of wetness, and higher heart rates, and led subjects to report greater perceived effort. “Wearing garments made in wool single jersey seems to lead to a generally lesser physiological demand during exercise in both hot and cold conditions,” Laing concludes.

– John Tyler Alle

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What to Wear WOOL

Nature’s Wonder Fibre

CORE MERINO WOMEN’S UNDERWEAR SET R920 85% merino wool / 11% nylon Ultra-fine (17.5 microns), soft merino wool. Does not itch.

B R E AT H A B I L I T Y 7 M O I S T U R E M A N AG E M E N T 9 H E AT D I S S I PAT I O N 8 M AT E R I A L

FA B R I C W E I G H T

coremerino.com

J o h n Ty l e r A l l e n

LI M ITI N G WO O L TO winter use is an old idea. Since the mid-1900s, wool’s reputation has been st ubbornly knitted to the stifling acupuncture of the old wool jersey. But wool is different now: research and breeding continue to refine the fibres.

“These f ine f ibres, t w isted tightly, can be knitted into very fine fabric structures that are used in sportswear,” says Laing. Decades of being mislabelled and misunderstood have curbed wool’s adoption into the world of performance fabrics; but now, ‘nature’s wonder fibre’, as it’s been called, is gaining acceptance in the form of lightweight merino.

The case for wool is rooted in the unique architecture of its fibres: a hydrophilic (water-attracting) core is covered by hydrophobic (waterrepelling) scales like shingles on a house. Small gaps between the scales allow the hydrophilic core to draw in water vapour, while the hydrophobic exterior causes water droplets to bead and run off. This structure gives wool fibres their famous ability to absorb 35% of their weight in water vapour while remaining dry to the touch. The chemical process driving absorption also generates a whisper of heat that can prevent chilling drops in skin temperature, and the fibres’ natural crimp prevents them from interlacing uniformly, which creates insulating air pockets when they’re spun into yarn.

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OUR TOP WOOL PERFORMERS

CORE MERINO LONG-SLEEVE CREW T-SHIRT (WOMEN’S) / R1 250 / Soft yet durable merino wool with a slightly deeper crew cut around the neck, and designed so it can be layered; use it as a base layer, or as a normal long-sleeve top. The Nuyarn fabric is 85% merino and 15% nylon, and 125gsm (grams per square metre). coremerino.com

THE RW WOOL TEST

J o h n Ty l e r A l l e n

Even though wool’s absorption capacity is so regularly cited as its advantage over other fabrics, few sound studies exist comparing it or wool’s other moisture-management properties to those of other performance fabrics. To get an idea of how much sweat different shirts could hold relative to each other, we tested them in the high-tech RW lab (i.e. the kitchen).

L AB : Our experiment tested short-sleeve wool shirts alongside tops made from polyester, nylon and cotton. We fully submerged the shirts in a basin of water for 30 minutes, removed them from the basin, allowed excess water to run off for five minutes, weighed them to establish the maximum amount of water held in and between the fibres, and then weighed them at 30-minute intervals until at least one reached its original

dry weight. The wool shirts held 30 to 40% more water by weight than two of the three synthetics. Interestingly though, they all dried at the same rate.

ROAD, Sea Point Promenade: (5 to 10km, 25-plus degrees) A pattern emerged as we tested the wool shirts. A radiant heat would build and then subside during the first three kays. We’d feel dry two or three kays longer than when wearing the synthetics, and we finished our runs feeling drier, because while still wet, the wool never stuck to our skin. The blended fabrics proved more breathable than 100% wool. But after a month, our unwashed wool still smelled clean (the scaled surface on wool fibres discourages bacterial growth). Wool’s other reputation is for its prickle; but this was barely registered at all. – Test Team

FORCLAZ TREK 500 SHORT-SLEEVE MERINO T-SHIRT (MEN’S) / R699 / The ultra-fine merino wool is soft, and non-itchy.

The natural breathability makes it suitable for winter and summer, and the natural fabric helps with unrestricted movement and odour control for perspiration. decathlon.co.za

ICEBREAKER WOMENS MERINO TECH LITE T-SHIRT / R1 199 / The Tech Lite II Short-Sleeve Tee provides stretch, comfort, breathability and odour-resistance for just about any adventure you can think of. It’s 100% merino – soft fibres that regulate body temperature in all weather conditions, and resist odours. goneoutdoor.com

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BACKMARKER

WELCOME BACK, PARKRUN, MY SATURDAY SEROTONIN SURGE

OVERHEARD

N

ormality is returning – glorious, unpredictable, never-to-betaken-for-granted-again normality. We're starting to be able to do 'normal' (i.e. non-Covid) things. So, a glut of new ‘old’ experiences: a trip to the movies, a meal, gigs. I’m in a busy Italian restaurant and people are chatting. The theatre of the night. Vibrant, intoxicating… and that’s not just the house red.

Everyone’s taking it at their own pace, of course, but there’s a collective surge out into the world. Lots to let go of, and some things we’ve learned to take with us. I’m letting go of everything Covid-related: the arguing, the judgement, the theories. I’ve had it. Let’s never speak of it again.

I’m taking with me the simple joy of running, at any pace. That’s been my saving grace. And there was one particular thing that helped me through all this: the idea of being able to do a parkrun again. That low-pressure run-not-race that drags you out of bed on a Saturday morning and sends you grinning into the weekend. Like most things pandemical, the return was postponed. So it was only a month or so ago that the good news was finally posted – it really was happening!

I got an early night, set the alarm and made my way there with a mug of coffee. Part of the parkrun course overlaps my usual neighbourhood loop, and it was great to return to a place I’d lapped regularly during the pandemic, when a palpable fear had settled over its lush verges, sending us zigzagging away from each other, every normality abandoned to the cold wind and ever-lengthening restrictions. This morning, cars are looking for parking, the flags are set up, a crowd is gathering. Volunteers in high-vis jackets cajole us to the new start, an apt metaphor for the times. Gather thee, oh, happy warriors!

Runners keep a respectable distance from each other during the pre-race announcements, but there’s much less tension now; it’s an atmosphere of barely restrained glee. I’m tempted to start cheering, and jump up and down on the

1/ I woke up in my running kit. I really love drunk me and her ambitions.

– Sapna Maheshwari 2/ Do people who run at 6am know about not running at 6am?

– Chelsea Nachman 3/ I actually just went for a run. I can't tell if the taste in my mouth is victory or blood from my lungs, but I'll savour it.

– Daniel Howell

spot. I’m so happy to stand here in a misty drizzle before the gun (okay, the whistle). I’ve dreamed of this. There were dark moments when we wondered if it would ever come back – but here we are. There are a lot of new runners, and during the clap for volunteers the noise builds, and the sound morphs into a celebration of everything and everyone there.

We set off. My idea is to keep it steady, and then, if I can, push the pace a bit in the second half. I’m just not ready to compete – barely back from a root canal drama, nowhere near fit. I just want to feel smooth and in control and not trash myself.

Amazingly, this is exactly what happens. I run a controlled race-notrace – fading a bit near the end, but nothing too embarrassing. The course is a bit different and I prefer it, it’s greener; finishing with a lap round the field, like the old cross-country course when I was a kid. I love the whole thing, and run it hard enough that it hurts. I’m looking forward to finishing, speeding up a bit to choke off the hopes of the young guy who's building up a head of steam behind me. I’m not competing; but I’m contemplating the idea of competing.

That’s enough for now. It’s all enough. Just to be back doing it, chatting to the volunteers, greeting other regulars. To feel that giddy deep cleanse of a 5K tempo run before 9am, a Saturday morning serotonin surge.

I knew things were really back the way they used to be on the way to my car, when a runner walked past looking a bit disgruntled, muttering that the new course was slower than the old one.

We’re moaning again! Hallelujah!

I L LU S T R AT I O N : P I E TA R I P O S T I

BY PAU L T O N K I N S O N

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