Comrades #5 Polly Shorts Bottom Traditional Cache
Comrades #5 Polly Shorts Bottom
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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The Big Five hills on the route of the Comrades Marathon, on the up
run appear in the following order: Cowies Hill, Field's Hill,
Botha's Hill, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts.
The Cache will bring you to the bottom of Polly Shorts. Polly
Shorts occurs at 80km on the Comrades ‘up’ run, it is
neither the toughest or the steepest hill, just the most
sadistically positioned. With 9km to go.
Polly Shorts was named after a gentleman called Polly Shorts who
ran an eating and lodging establishment at the top of the hill in
the old ox-wagon days. This point marked the first overnight
stopping place after leaving Pietermaritzburg for Durban, and the
last stopping place on the reverse journey. Originally called Polly
Shorts Place, the name was eventually shortened to "Polly
Shorts".
Polly Shorts is a tough hill to run in a marathon. It is about 2½km
long, is very steep and has a number of deceptive bends, each
beguilingly promising the summit and then crushing the hopes of the
broken runner. It is, however, far from being the toughest hill in
the "Up" Comrades and there is some compensation for runners in
that they only have to battle Polly Shorts every alternate
year.
In the "Up" run, Field's Hill is the monster, and Botha's Hill,
Ashburten (Little Polly's) and Inchanga are the monster's
offspring. All of these hills are longer, steeper, and far worse
than Polly Shorts. It is, however, the sadistic positioning of
Polly Shorts that makes it so tough. Give or take a few hundred
metres, Polly Shorts is positioned at 80km or 50 miles and the
running spirit is very low when arriving at the hill.
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