Comrades Supplement Comrades Training and Info Guide, 2017 | Page 40

Inspirational Feature

In the nick
of Time!

L

ike many, Brigitte has had a lifelong dream of completing
Comrades. The mother of two high school boys entered for
the first time in 2014, with a view to making the step up after
doing Ironman that April (she finished in 16:32:15). However,
the Ironman training had taken its toll, both physically and mentally,
so Brigitte put her Comrades dream on hold until 2015. “I was just so
exhausted, I couldn’t keep up with the training” she says. That saw her
start afresh in 2015, this time focusing on Comrades. “I was supereager and my training was really going well. Unfortunately, bursitis in
the hip meant I couldn’t get on the road between January and April,
which effectively ended my Comrades dream for 2015.”

FINDING THAT QUALIFIER
Fast-forward to 2016, and with the bursitis behind her, Brigitte was
determined to make it third time lucky! However, her training did not go
according to plan, and qualifying became an issue. After a series of half
marathons around the 2:30 mark (Dis-Chem 2:31, Johnson Crane 2:23,
Pick n Pay 2:24 and Deloitte 2:41), it was always going to be a tough ask
to qualify. “Nausea and fatigue forced me to bail the Sarens Marathon
at 21km, and again sickness at the 37km mar