If you think running a negative split at Comrades is tough you should have tried to achieve this feat at the 2022 Down run when the second “half” (from the Drummond timing mat) was 2.2km longer than the first. In fact, there was just one person who finished under 7h30 and managed this accomplishment – Lindt De La Port.
What is even more impressive is that, weighing in at 90 kilograms and bearing a Afrikaner-Portuguese hybrid physique that resembles fortified (rather than fine) wine, de la Port is the heaviest person to achieve a Silver medal that I know of (if there is a heavier Silver medallist out there please let me know).
But it’s one thing to earn a Silver on the Down run when you’ve got gravity on your side – what about carrying all that cargo up to Pietermaritzburg? In my 2022 stats report I called Lindt the ‘prince of pacing’ but could de la Port upgrade to ‘crown prince’ status at the 2024 Up run?
When you’ve got your eyes on a Silver medal but go through Drummond in 3:55:41, that’s game over for most people – but this was all part of the plan for de la Port. I’ve seen the plan (and have included it at the end of the article). The Comrades route was quite literally broken down kilometre by kilometre into different zones based on elevation. As a “rock up and run” type guy, most of it went straight over my head but I did note that there was even time worked in for a few “possible walk zones” and two definite walk zones (a section on Field’s Hill and Inchanga).
Lindt is a disciple of the 80/20 training method (80% low intensity / 20% high intensity) but suffered an injury in March which hindered his training plans. His fastest marathon time over the calendar year preceding Comrades 2024 was a 3h24 (and his all-time PB is a 3h02 ‘cheat marathon’ at Elands in 2022) but he ran a solid 3h53 at the BNAC 48k ultra to secure a B seeding.
He knew that everything needed to go perfectly on race day and it did – Lindt cruised home in 7:29:50 with 10 seconds to spare. According to his running friends, “Lindt is a sucker for quotes” so I guess this run could be summed up as, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Speaking of A-Teams, de la Port runs for Die Vuilhonde (that’s ‘The Dirty Dogs’ not ‘Die Dirty Dogs’ in case any animal rights activists are reading). The club grew out of a social running group that bonded during the Covid period and decided to make it official by registering as a running club in Gauteng North.
Whilst some clubs are famous for what happens after their runs (a case in point is Westville where I was kindly asked not to include anecdotes relayed to me of various post-race shenanigans from their annual Christmas run when I wrote my race report), the Dirty Dogs moniker is a literal derivation from the dust and grime that they would return home with after a long trail run.
The club has around 100 members, a large proportion of whom run Comrades each year and they normally return home with a 100% ‘matric pass’ rate. Their average time from the 2024 Comrades was a speedy 8h55. As for the Top Dog at the club, that’s undoubtedly Lindt’s running partner Yolande Maclean who claimed club honours in 2024 with a 6:54:57 and added a third Isavel Roche-Kelly medal to her impressive medal collection that includes 9 Golds (the second highest for a South African lady after Farwa Mentoor).
To put this achievement into perspective, going through Drummond in 3:55:40 (as Lindt did) requires a 21m41s negative split. Has anyone else come close? Not as far as I know. I couldn’t find anyone else who’d gone through Drummond over 3h50 and earned a silver medal. Lindt’s negative split performance for a Silver is as big a statistical outlier as one can get.
So how does one celebrate after achieving what is probably the biggest negative split of all time at Comrades to earn a Silver medal? To my question, “Did you do anything special to celebrate your Silver this year (or in 2022)?” The simple answer (which I cannot fault as I would do the same thing) was, “Not really, just drank a lot.”
I did enquire whether de la Port actually drinks Port and this seems to be a hard no, “Only if all the other alcohol is finished.” Now, I expect many people who have read this article are wondering whether our protagonist’s parents had a particular fondness for Swiss chocolate but his first name originates from his mother’s maiden name ‘Lindhout’. He does however work in the sugar industry but, when he’s not drinking beer or tequila and tonic, he saves the sugar for his clients and keeps his weight in check with a Coke Zero.
With results like these, I guess you could say that whilst every dog might have his day, Die Vuilhonde have their day once a year in June. Or perhaps the conventional wisdom that ‘If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas’ should be changed to ‘If you train with the Vuilhonde, you’ll end up with PBs’?
The good news is that Lindt has shared his detailed race plan and provided some meticulous analysis about how to run a Silver Comrades which is included below. According to another bearded bloke that liked to run, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” However, if you follow Lindt’s advice you can plan your next Comrades quest down to the second.
Afterword: Lindt’s Detailed Breakdown
Below is a spreadsheet containing a detailed kilometre by kilometre breakdown of the Comrades route as well as Lindt’s own account of his approach and race.
You can follow Lindt on Strava here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/1231775?oq=lindt
You can follow Die Vuilhonde here https://www.facebook.com/dievuilhonde and https://www.instagram.com/die_vuilhonde
All photos supplied.
Note: I originally published this article on Facebook after Comrades 2024 and have reworked it slightly for this blog article.
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I enjoyed reading this. Very logical approach. It will really inform my plans for a borderline Bill Rowan.