Race day: 15°C Durban → 21°C PMB · dry · cool→mildSweat est 0.6→0.9 L/hrPlan tracks your ~8:50 finish
The Plan — locked
Two flasks. Carb flask = Maurten 320. Electrolyte flask = water + REVIVE (hydration + salt) — 3 REVIVE sachets dissolve across your water for the day (~1 g Na/L). Gels + salt caps from the pocket. Feed by the km column, not the clock — run slower and the clock drifts, the km holds.
Full-Day Total
Everything you get through over 86 km. The Seconding tab splits this into what you carry vs what's handed up at each point.
Spare in the bag: 2 GU (Salted Caramel, Choc Outrage) · 1 Roctane (Sea Salt) · 2 Maurten plain · 2 Maurten CAF · 1× 320. You're fully bought — these are backup.
The Fuel Clock — tick as you go
Each row is the fuel for that ~45-min block. Sip both flasks across the block, take the gel/cap near its km. The running total is what you'll have in you by then — a rhythm to hit, not a hard deadline (±10 min is fine).
Levers
Hot / salty sweater → add a 4th REVIVE (Na → ~5.5 g); not more for magnesium. Gut heavy → drop a Maurten gel (→ ~57 g/hr). Polly caffeine too much → swap the Maurten CAF 100 for a plain Maurten (caf 225 → 125 mg).
Pre-race · 05:00 gun
Wake ~02:45. Breakfast 03:00: ~120 g carb — oats + banana + honey, white toast, no fibre. 500 ml weak REVIVE. Final 200 ml + 1 spare GU 15 min before the gun. Empty the bladder before the start.
On-course · aid ~every 1.5-2 km
Tables carry water, Coke, Energade, oranges, potatoes. Use Coke from ~km60 for fast carbs + a lift. Refill the electrolyte flask with water to chase gels. Walk through tables to actually drink.
Products — your actual kit
Maurten 320 = 80 g / 500 ml · Maurten GEL 100 = 25 g (CAF 100 = +100 mg) · GU Energy = 22 g (caf 20 mg) · GU Roctane = 22 g (caf 35-70 mg + amino acids). REVIVE RAW = 1000 mg Na, 100 mg Mg, 0 carb / sachet — cap at 3 (magnesium). GU Roctane salt cap = 140 mg Na + ginger (anti-nausea).
No mobile seconding — supporters stay stationary, in an official seconding zone. DQ if they pace you or hand up roadside.Be in place 45+ min before ETA — pace drifts later, never earlier.
Two seconding points
Hillcrest (km31) and Cato Ridge (km61) split the race into 3 legs. Each card below is exactly what your crew hands up — it covers everything until the next contact. Confirm both have a legal seconding zone on the 2026 route.
Give your supporters
A printed copy of these three cards · your race number (live tracking on the Comrades app) · your kit colours so they spot you · backups of everything in the car (spare gels, caps, a REVIVE) · sponge, vaseline, sunscreen, a dry top for the finish. Have them arrive early, phones charged. Stationary handoff only — they hand up as you pass, never walk or run with you.
Enter your actual time as you pass each checkpoint — it re-projects every future split + finish from your pace so far. Saves as you go.
Rest-of-race effort
0% = hold your current pace to the finish. Minus = you plan to push, plus = expecting to fade. Only affects checkpoints ahead of you.
Runner: enter your PIN once to log splits live as you race. Anyone watching: no PIN needed — this page auto-shows the runner's splits; hit Refresh (or wait ~1 min) for the latest.
Checkpoints — fill Actual as you pass
Checkpoint
km
Planh:mm
Actualh:mm · elapsed
Projectedh:mm
Clockhh:mm
vs plan± m:ss
Enter times as h:mm (e.g. Drummond at 4h32m → 4:32). The highlighted row is your latest split — everything below it is projected.
Live tracking + race-week reminders. Set it all up before Sunday — test, don't debut.
Garmin LiveTrack — Fenix
Garmin Connect app → menu → LiveTrack.
Turn on Auto-Start LiveTrack — it fires when you start any run.
Add recipients (your seconds' email / number) — they auto-get the live link at the gun. Or Share a link.
Enable Include HR / pace / auto-extend so they see live pace, HR and distance.
Optional: link Strava Beacon as a backup feed.
The catch — carry your phone
LiveTrack runs watch → phone → Garmin, so your phone must be on you with cellular data the whole race.
Phone in a vest pocket — not the tog bag, not with your second.
Charge to 100%, close apps, Bluetooth on, no battery-saver (it kills the BT link).
Rural stretches (Harrison Flats ~km50-60) may drop signal — the track pauses, then resumes. Normal.
Fenix battery is fine for 9h; the phone is the weak link.
Comrades official tracker — for your seconds
They install the official Comrades Marathon app (or use the comrades.com tracker).
Follow you by race number — give it to them after registration / expo.
Mat-based: updates each timing mat (~every 10-20 km) with splits + projected finish — that's what tells them when to be at Hillcrest / Cato Ridge.
Run both: LiveTrack = live dot + pace, Comrades app = official splits + ETA.
This week — test, don't debut
Test LiveTrack on one run — confirm a recipient gets the link and sees you move.
Give your seconds your race number + both apps installed.
Rehearse the exact fuelling on a long run — no new gels / mix race day.
Taper: fresh legs > fit legs. Carb-load Fri/Sat (low fibre Sat). Bank sleep Thu/Fri.
Coach model: grade-adjusted running (Minetti cost-of-transport) inflated by your fatigue ramp to the finish, downhill capped at 4:30/km. Power-hikes are imposed by hand on the five real climbs (Fields km20-21.8, Botha's pinch, Inchanga km44.3-45.5, Little Pollys, Polly) — the GPX elevation is too smoothed to register their true steepness, so a grade threshold alone misses them. Everything else is run. Realistic finish ~8:58 — a genuine Bill Rowan bubble (~90 sec), not a cushion: every extra km walked ≈ +3 min. Distance fixed to the official 85.777 km. Treat the finish as ±10-15 min; the back third past 60 km is the real unknown on a 51 km longest run.