The question today comes from Vincent Nortier, he’s a Ironman triathlete and he’s making the switch – he wants to run the Comrades Marathon next year. Vince wants to know how would an Ironman marathon (3:42 in 2013 & 3:49 in 2014) would translate to firstly to a qualifying time, and then secondly pace wise, how would it translate just on an out and out marathon for Comrades.

He also wanted to know what a realistic time and pace would be in relation to an up run strategy. Would a negative split strategy be applicable if at all possible?

Brad Brown: The question today comes from Vincent Nortier, he’s a Ironman triathlete and he’s making the switch – he wants to run the Comrades Marathon next year. Vince wants to know how would an Ironman marathon (3:42 in 2013 & 3:49 in 2014) would translate to firstly to a qualifying time, and then secondly pace wise, how would it translate just on an out and out marathon for Comrades.

He also wanted to know what a realistic time and pace would be in relation to an up run strategy. Would a negative split strategy be applicable if at all possible?

Vince obviously is a pretty decent athlete and I know he has some really good Ironman times, but he’s a half decent runner too, isn’t he Coach?

Lindsey Parry: To say that he’s a pretty solid runner is an understated – that’s a very good Ironman Marathon. So I would suspect that he would at least be able to go 3:15 / 3:20 and with a little bit of marathon specific training probably a bit quicker than that.

A sub 3:10 is most likely possible for him, which starts putting him into the potential silver medal category. On the Comrades Marathon up run though, it’s a lot harder to get a silver on the up run for a start, so he’s a very solid Bill Rowan. Probably a sub 8:00 Bill Rowan candidate.

Can you run negative splits at Comrades if you have a good Ironman Marathon?

Look the Comrades Marathon up run is a bit harder to run negative splits, because the first 30km’s are just so hard that even if we do run very conservative and do lots of walking, there is some payback that has to be made. On the up run I always say that if you are about 5 minutes slower – you’ve had an excellent run. 10 minutes slower you’re probably at the pass mark, and then from 15 minutes slower in the second half (and upwards) you probably ran a poor race.

Look, he is a good endurance athlete, good runner; silver is not impossible, but it would take a lot of specific training to get even from a 3:42 down to a 3:00 marathon. He is going to enjoy the Comrades up run, and just to qualify my answer a little bit: on the Comrades Marathon down run, it’s not that the down run is so much easier. When you’re hurting you have the ability to “vasbyt” on all those down hills that come in the last 19kms. You can still run at pace is what I mean, and as long as you’re not cramping or completely toast you can still hang on and get a silver and that’s why more people get silver on the down than on the up.

The question today comes from Vincent Nortier, he’s a Ironman triathlete and he’s making the switch – he wants to run the Comrades Marathon next year. Vince wants to know how would an Ironman marathon (3:42 in 2013 & 3:49 in 2014) would translate to firstly to a qualifying time, and then secondly pace wise, how would it translate just on an out and out marathon for Comrades.
He also wanted to know what a realistic time and pace would be in relation to an up run strategy. Would a negative split strategy be applicable if at all possible?

Brad Brown: The question today comes from Vincent Nortier, he’s a Ironman triathlete and he’s making the switch – he wants to run the Comrades Marathon next year. Vince wants to know how would an Ironman marathon (3:42 in 2013 & 3:49 in 2014) would translate to firstly to a qualifying time, and then secondly pace wise, how would it translate just on an out and out marathon for Comrades.

He also wanted to know what a realistic time and pace would be in relation to an up run strategy. Would a negative split strategy be applicable if at all possible?

Vince obviously is a pretty decent athlete and I know he has some really good Ironman times, but he’s a half decent runner too, isn’t he Coach?

Lindsey Parry: To say that he’s a pretty solid runner is an understated – that’s a very good Ironman Marathon. So I would suspect that he would at least be able to go 3:15 / 3:20 and with a little bit of marathon specific training probably a bit quicker than that.

A sub 3:10 is most likely possible for him, which starts putting him into the potential silver medal category. On the Comrades Marathon up run though, it’s a lot harder to get a silver on the up run for a start, so he’s a very solid Bill Rowan. Probably a sub 8:00 Bill Rowan candidate.

Can you run negative splits at Comrades if you have a good Ironman Marathon?

Look the Comrades Marathon up run is a bit harder to run negative splits, because the first 30km’s are just so hard that even if we do run very conservative and do lots of walking, there is some payback that has to be made. On the up run I always say that if you are about 5 minutes slower – you’ve had an excellent run. 10 minutes slower you’re probably at the pass mark, and then from 15 minutes slower in the second half (and upwards) you probably ran a poor race.

Look, he is a good endurance athlete, good runner; silver is not impossible, but it would take a lot of specific training to get even from a 3:42 down to a 3:00 marathon. He is going to enjoy the Comrades up run, and just to qualify my answer a little bit: on the Comrades Marathon down run, it’s not that the down run is so much easier. When you’re hurting you have the ability to “vasbyt” on all those down hills that come in the last 19kms. You can still run at pace is what I mean, and as long as you’re not cramping or completely toast you can still hang on and get a silver and that’s why more people get silver on the down than on the up.