Harrison sees chances of Comrades gold fade away

It was dark when the 12,977 runners from 60 different countries set out at 5.30am from outside the City Hall in Durban.

In front of them were many challenges, both physical and mental, in the 87k (55 miles) of the race called ‘the Ultimate Human Race’.

The first was nine miles of uphill running, including Cowies Hill.

But by the halfway point, Harrison was lying in eighth place in the women’s race, having run 3hr 18min 23sec for a distance of just over a marathon, mostly uphill.

At the head of the race were the Russian Nurgalieva twins, Elena and Olesya, winners of six of the previous seven races between them.

With ten miles remaining, earlier niggles in Harrison’s thighs turned to heavy pain and it was a huge effort just to keep moving forwards.

With coveted gold medals awarded to the top ten finishers, the 39-year-old gamely tried to hang on to her eighth position.

However, the final of the ‘big five’ hills, Polly Shortts, caused even more stress to her tired limbs, with descents even worse than the ascents.

Slowly slipping back through the field, Harrison never once thought of stopping or giving up.

“In 25 years of racing I’ve never once failed to finish a race,” said Harrison “and I certainly wasn’t going to give up having already run 50 miles”.

As she entered the finishing arena at The Oval cricket ground in Pietermaritzburg, Harrison was clearly in distress.

“The huge crowd gave me such support they literally carried me over the last 300m,” said Harrison, who crossed the line as the 13th lady in 7:11:45 to collect a silver medal for finishing inside the 7hr 30 standard.

Her overall position was 245th out of the 11,075 runners who completed inside the 12-hour cut-off time.

“A brilliant experience, as well as a super event, the Comrades lives up to its title of The Ultimate Human Race” said Harrison.

“I came to do my best and I feel that I did, although I was disappointed as I was desperately trying for a top-ten place and a gold medal.

“The last 10k was the longest of my life and it seemed to last for ever.

“I have been asked if will I come back next year as the organisers say I haven’t completed the job until I have run the downhill course from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

“At this stage my body is hurting so much I’m not even thinking about tomorrow let alone next year.”

Zimbabwean Stephen Muzhingi recorded his third consecutive victory in the men’s race in 5:32:45, while Russian twins Elana (6:24:11) and Olesya (6:24:35) Nurgalieva took first and second in the women’s race, just holding off a fast-finishing Kami Semick (6:26:24) from the USA.

Harrison’s coach Les Barnett was understandably proud of his charge’s performance.

“This was an outstanding performance by Sue - her longest race before today was 50k.

“All of the athletes who finished in front of her had either completed the Comrades before or had had success over 100k and beyond.

“She wore her England vest with pride and was a credit to her supporters.”