Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 109, Aug 2018 | Page 13

ROAD RUNNING
All smiles for the winning team
“David had started working and was going, ‘Yay, now
we are getting somewhere,’ and I’m ‘Babes, uhm…’
And he responded with, ‘Oh no, we’re still broke.’ I had
to borrow money from my mom, quickly registered for
studies as an advocate, and accept that for three years I
wouldn’t be earning an income, because John had said
to me he wanted three years.”
Fortunately, the Ashworth’s were given a breather
when Ann’s former boss, Anton Roets, loaned them
the money for their bond for a year, but there were still
bills to pay. “Anton is my guardian angel, and his loan
has made a big difference, but it was a really difficult
choice to make, putting it all on the line. But my
attitude is that I don’t want to look back on life with
regrets, so I had to give it a go.”
GETTING SERIOUS
And so the journey with John commenced in
September 2016. “He looked at my training programme
and actually laughed. He couldn’t believe I had run
7:07 on so little training. So he eased me into it and in
November, after six weeks of being on his programme,
I ran a massive PB at the Kaapsehoop Marathon and
was astounded. I thought, if this is what I can do off
six weeks’ training, then what can I do if I prepare
properly? Then came the Loskop win, and although
it was an easy training run, the expectations and
questions took their toll as 2017 ended in disaster.”
The problem was that Ann had developed a gluten
intolerance, meaning all her carbs have to come
from gluten-free products. “You don’t find those in
Dullstroom, so for weeks on end I had not been able
to take in enough carbohydrates and my body just
shut down. I was in tears sitting beside the road, and
my dream seemed to be over, so I hobbled back to
camp, packed, climbed into my car and drove
home. I thought that was it.”
Upon returning home, everything was
done to get Ann’s body back to where
she could race on 10 June, but instead
it got worse, and two weeks before
race day, she picked up a horrific
stomach bug that saw her running to
the bathroom more than she was able
to actually run on the road. That left her
body severely dehydrated, and she says never mind
the physical trauma, the psychological trauma was
devastating. “With one week left, I got my stomach
bug under control, but I had lost so much weight,
and I felt completely drained. I was pumping my
body full of electrolytes just so that I could be on
the start line.” In hindsight, though, those three
weeks ‘off’ running paid off. “John doesn’t do a
taper, so despite a depleted body, those three
weeks off probably allowed me to recover, and
were the perfect taper.”
10-YEAR JOURNEY
Looking further back, Ann’s Comrades story began in
2008 when she finished her first in a very commendable
8:01:01, placing 22nd in the women’s field. However, at
one of the race after-parties she met Bruce Fordyce, and
he didn’t seem too impressed with her time. “He was
like, who runs 8:01? Why not 7:59, or silver? I was quite
taken aback, I thought 8:01 was a pretty good time –
and I was the first female novice, too!”
Ann then missed the 2009 race, because she was
“completely undercooked,” to quote her own words. “I
hadn’t trained enough and opted out of running the race.
But I did want that silver,” so she approached Bruce
and challenged him to coach her if he thought she could
run silver. He accepted, and her first race was the 2009
Cape Town Marathon, where she ran a personal best,
and in 2010 she duly earned her Comrades silver with a
7:13:06, finishing 15th in the women’s race.
Three more Bill Rowans followed in the next four
years, but Ann was now working as a lawyer, and in
After that, Ann took the decision not to race hard at all
in her build-up to the 2018 Comrades – she insists her
fourth-place finish at this year’s Two Oceans Marathon
was just a hard training run, not a race. Meanwhile,
the running gods seemed to be smiling on her as she
prepared for the big race… until that day three weeks
before the race when she broke down. “I was devastated,
because everything had been going so well until then. I
cried and cried and cried.” However, as we’ve seen, that
breakdown was perhaps a blessing in disguise.
Bruce Fordyce seconded
Ann on the day
late 2013 she had helped start the Born 2 Run club as
well, so with all that on her plate, running Comrades
was more about running within herself. That all
changed in 2016 though. “I had picked up a muscle
tear in late 2015, so felt I had not trained enough for
the 2016 Comrades, but a friend and I decided to
run the AfricanX Trailrun in March, as I had started
training again, and we finished third in one stage,
and fourth team overall. So I thought maybe I can do
the Comrades after all, but I had just 10 weeks left
to train, and I couldn’t even finish my last long run. I
almost decided not to run, but Dave convinced me to
just start and see how I went. Well, I crossed the line
laughing in 7:07:27!”
The reason Ann was laughing as she took 13th place
was because with 30km to go, a spectator had told her
she was in ninth position, but of course there was no
top 10 rose when she entered the stadium. “I thought
that all very amusing, but it did make me realise that
I could challenge for a gold. So a few weeks after
Comrades, I contacted John, but it was quite a shock
when he told me that I if I wanted gold, then I couldn’t
work, that I needed to be a full-time athlete.”
MONEY MATTERS
That was a big decision, because Ann had been carrying
the household income while husband David had been
finishing his studies. Now, just as they thought they had
a bit of a breather, things were about to change again.
Unsurprisingly, Ann is already being asked about
2019, and whether she thinks she can win it again.
“Getting over the start line will be a victory in itself,
given what happened in 2017, but of course I want to
win the Up Run. However, women’s ultra running is in
such a com petitive space that it won’t be easy.” Then
again, Ann Ashworth seems to thrive on “not easy,”
and she has proven that she is up for the challenge.
Ann with hubby David
Ed’s Note
Some controversy broke out after this year’s
Comrades Marathon, when Ann turned down
selection for the South African team for the World
100km Champs later this year. Modern Athlete
decided to focus on her incredible Comrades win
here, and leave that story for another day.
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