This race is a perfect fit to qualify for the elite marathons
THE Legends 68km race from Bhisho to the Orient Beach in East London is one of two qualifying races for the 2018 Comrades and Two Oceans Marathons being run in Buffalo City during the month of September.
There are different schools of thought as to when the best time is to qualify for the big ultra-marathons, but the bulk of newcomers all tend to want to get it done as early as possible.
Their argument being that “we don’t want to leave it until Buffs because what if”.
The other immediate qualifier is the Tony Viljoen Masters Marathon next weekend.
For runners unsure as to whether or not they can kick on from a 42km to either the 56 of Two Oceans or 89 of Comrades, the Legends does offer the opportunity to explore their stamina.
It also means they can rest up for six weeks before tackling the training required for chasing a faster qualifier at Buffs and then a personal best performance at Two Oceans at the end of March or Comrades on the second weekend of June.
Running is not an easy sport, but it is a simple one and trying to complicate preparations is not the way to achieve a goal.
The one advantage that Legends has when taking the 2018 Comrades into account is that it is a downhill course as is the next Comrades Marathon.
With only four weeks to Legends it might well have been, and perhaps is still not too late to strengthen the quads and thus protect the knees from excessive jarring.
Just as is the case with Comrades there are a number of very testing uphills that need to be negotiated and at least one hill session per week would have been far more beneficial than any number of time-trials that today’s runners seem to be so obsessed with.
Any conversation that is held between runners that operated in the golden era of running will inevitably drift towards the declined standards, particularly in the shorter races and a lack of depth in men’s, women’s and especially junior fields.
Ultra-marathons often get the blame, but that is skewed and it might well be that too much racing, too many fast sessions and a lack of focus toward a specific goal are the problem.
That Legends has embraced Africa’s fastest 21.1km course by adding the 60:11 Half-Marathon to the menu and then added a 10 and 5km race as well means they certainly cannot be accused of not wishing to explore every avenue of running.