Mark Armstrong: The fear is real – but so is the excitement
It's all starting to feel uncomfortably close now.
Four weeks from Sunday, I'll be standing on the start line in Pietermaritzburg, about to take on the Comrades Marathon. Just saying that makes my stomach flip.
It's a scary thought - but perhaps not quite as scary as it was 10 days ago.
That's when I decided to take my training up a notch, spurred on by the perhaps unwise decision to properly look at the elevation profile for the so-called 'down run.'
I say 'so-called' because I've grown a bit weary of the reactions I get when people ask if I'm doing the up or the down run - and then look mildly disappointed when I say down, as if it's some kind of cop-out.
For those unfamiliar with Comrades, the route alternates each year between an 'up' run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg and a 'down' run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. While the down run might sound easier, it still packs in nearly 4,000ft of ascent - just with more quad-shattering descents along the way.
It may be downhill overall, but this is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done from a running perspective.
That course profile scared me. Then I thought about how my weekly mileage hadn't yet matched what I'm expecting my body to handle within a single 12-hour stretch. Cue a few 3 a.m. wakeups where I found myself staring at the ceiling thinking, 'why on earth have I signed up to this?'
But fear can be a good thing. It was the jolt I needed.
Since then, the mileage has ticked up, the hills have become part of the routine (yes, that Trowse hill is getting plenty of attention), and so far, the body is holding up.
I've come to realise that this part of the build is all about treading a fine line - learning just enough about the race to inform my training, but not so much that I start overthinking every single detail. At the end of the day, endurance running demands you think on your feet. You have to respond to what your body's telling you in the moment. That's part of the skill.
I'm also being realistic. There will be walking - and quite a bit of it. That's part of the strategy, not a sign of failure. With that in mind, I decided to see what my natural walking pace is. So I bribed my kids with ice cream at the local café and walked there while they biked beside me. It was semi-successful - I got a feel for my pace, though I spent most of the time making sure no one cycled into oncoming traffic. Still, it was useful, and got the kids out and away from screens.
As I write this, I'm gearing up for my longest run of the training block - and weirdly, I'm looking forward to it. It's reminded me of the way I felt training for my very first marathon in Edinburgh back in 2017. Back then, every long run was an adventure into the unknown. I didn't know how my body would respond. I didn't know if my mind would hold up, but that was part of the magic.
That same feeling is creeping in now.
There's no guarantee of success. No spreadsheet can predict how I'll feel at kilometre 78. But I'm doing everything I can to prepare. The hard part now is trusting that the work will be enough - and not letting fear write the story for me.
How will my mind and body cope over the next month?
I've no idea, but I'm strangely excited to find out.
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