ROAD RUNNING
The Unlikely
CHAMPION
Prior to the 2018 Comrades Marathon, if you’ d asked the pundits who they thought would win the women’ s race, they’ d likely have gone for either Two Oceans champion Gerda Steyn or the defending Comrades Marathon Down champion, Charne Bosman. Ann Ashworth was tipped for a top five, and just maybe a podium finish, but clearly Ann Ashworth didn’ t read the script … and when you speak to her, you soon realise that she writes her own story. – BY MANFRED SEIDLER
As Ann Ashworth crossed the finish line in Moses Mabhida Stadium to win the 2018 Comrades Marathon and fell into the arms of her coach, John Hamlett, her first words were,“ I didn’ t believe I could win this, only you did.” Now looking back on her magnificent win, she admits,“ I didn’ t expect to be in the lead, and leading from the front just as we left Pinetown was immensely stressful. I had no idea where Gerda was, and kept on expecting her to come back at me, and in those final 10 or so kilometres I was really racing hard and running scared. Only once I crossed the line did I accept I had won, and the relief was monumental.”
NEW TO ALL OF THIS
Actually, 2017 was hard in many other ways, too. In the build-up to Comrades, Ann had comfortably won the 50km Loskop Marathon, and all of sudden she was not merely a contender for a top 10 gold medal, suddenly she was being spoken of in terms of a top 5 or podium placing – and there were even some whispers of a win.“ The pressure was enormous, I was fielding calls from the media, and runners were all asking me if I was chasing the win. It all became too much... Then I picked up an injury leading up to the race, and on race day, with the manic start, my hamstring tore. Dream over.”
An emotional roller coaster ride followed all the way to the win in 2018, and if you go back and look at the expression on Ann’ s face as she crossed the line, you will see elation, but also massive relief. However, what few people realise is that just three weeks prior to the big day, Ann had almost pulled out of Comrades.“ I just broke down on one of the runs while in training camp in Dullstroom. I couldn’ t anymore. I was a wreck. My body had completely broken down and I had become anaemic.”
For the record, Ann won the women’ s title after spending 6:10:04 on the road, coming home more than five minutes ahead of Gerda( 6:15.34). That achievement is still more notable when you remember that the 2018 route was some 900m longer than the previous Down Run, thus Ann’ s time equates to a 6:06 on the old route. And even with almost a kilometre added to the distance, her winning time still places her ninth on the all-time list of fastest women’ s Down Runs.
Training in Dullstroom
Even more impressive is that Ann bounced back to win in 2018 after a disastrous 2017 Comrades, where she stepped off the road within the first kilometre of the race with a hamstring injury.“ It was devastating, because I had put so much work into the race, and a kilometre after the start that was it. Gone. It took me a long time to recover from that, and I have to praise the efforts of my coach, with whom I have an almost father / daughter relationship, and my husband, David, for helping me get back.”
12 ISSUE 109 AUGUST 2018 / www. modernathlete. co. za