Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 120, July 2019 | Page 17

ROAD RUNNING
W
inning the Comrades Marathon is
considered the pinnacle of achievement
in South African road running, and adding
that title to your name opens the door to fame, media
attention, sponsorships, endorsements and more.
However, the way that Edward Mothibi and Gerda
Steyn won their maiden Comrades titles in 2019 went a
step further, and their performances in the Up Run from
Durban to Pietermaritzburg will long live in the memory. Run winner Ann Ashworth, who was on pace to run a
6:03 and smash the record, but it was Gerda who took
control of the race just before the 30km mark, then
flew up Botha’s Hill and further extending her lead to
just under two minutes over Ashworth by the halfway
mark in Drummond. For the rest of the race she
serenely extended her lead, never looking troubled,
and reached the finish smiling, waving and even doing
a jig on the line.
Without a doubt, the standout performance of the
day was Gerda winning the women’s race in an
Up course record time of 5:58.53, in the process
possibly changing the face of women’s running at the
Comrades Marathon. Gerda shattered the previous
Up record – 6:09:24, run by Elena Nurgalieva in 2006 –
by over 10 minutes, becoming only the fourth woman
to break six hours in the race’s history, and the first
to do so on the Up Run. She finished 17th overall,
and her time and position put her performance close
to, if not better than Frith van der Merwe’s legendary
1989 Down Run record of 5:54:43, when she finished
15th overall. Trailing in a distant second by nearly
19 minutes came Alexandra Morozova of Russia
(6:17:40), who was also second in 2017 and third last
year. Third place went to debutant Caitriona Jennings
of Ireland in 6:24:12, with 2018 Down Run champion
Ann Ashworth fourth in 6:27:15. Just seven weeks before Comrades, Gerda had won
the Two Oceans Marathon for a second time, only
just missing Frith’s course record by 53 seconds
after deciding not to push too hard and thus save her
legs for the Comrades. It didn’t look like the 56km
Cape ultra had any adverse effect on her Comrades
performance, however, as she obliterated the Up
record. That was always the target, but who would
have thought the record would be destroyed so
dramatically? “You don’t say you will try and break
a record, you say you will do it, and that is what we
planned,” says her coach, Nick Bester, who is also a
former Comrades winner and Gerda’s Nedbank Club
team manager. “So the record was going, but we were
thinking 6:07, maybe 6:05. But sub-6? No, none of us
were even thinking along those lines!”
Meanwhile, two-time defending men’s champion
Bongmusa Mthembu went after a third consecutive
win (and fourth overall) by throwing everything he
had at Up Run ‘novice’ Edward Mothibi, who was
running only his second Comrades, and his first Up
Run (he finished fourth last year). However, Edward
outgunned the champ on the gruelling Polly Shortts
climb, opening a lead of 20 seconds and going on
to take the win in 5:31:33. Although it was only the
11th-fastest Up Run winning time, the incredible tussle
between the two, which saw them exchange the lead
a couple of times, will go down as one of the most
awe-inspiring races in the history of the Comrades.
Bongmusa eventually finished 25 seconds adrift in
5:31:58, with World 100km record holder Nao Kazami
of Japan taking third in 5:39:16 in his debut Comrades.
Nick explains that he told Gerda, “The first half is
hard, hard climbing, where the second half is flatter
and easier, so you run within yourself in that first half
and attack the second half.” Clearly the strategy
worked. Gerda’s slowest 10km, according to her
splits, was 44:15 between 20 and 30km, which
includes the climb up Fields Hill from Pinetown to
Hillcrest. The second half saw her flying along at sub-
four minutes per kilometre pace between the 50km
and 70km marks, clocking 39:08 from 50-60km, and
38:54 (60-70km) on the stretch from the Harrison Flats
to Umlaas Road. Gerda averaged 4:08/km for the
entire race, which equates to a 41:20 time for 10km.
Steyn’s performance earned her a cool R1.2 million in
prize money – R500,000 for first place, and incentives
of R500,000 for a new course record and R200,000
as first South African finisher. Her winning time is the
fourth-fastest ever run by a woman in the Comrades
(although the three faster times were all on the Down
Run), and she is just the fourth woman ever to win the
Two Oceans and Comrades in the same year, after
Van der Merwe (1989), Elena Nurgalieva (2004 and
2012) and Caroline Wöstmann (2015). After the race,
Steyn said, “It is a dream come true! Many years of
hard work came together today. It’s a real blessing…
it’s the biggest achievement I can ask for.”
Majestic Gerda
As Comrades Coach, Lindsey Parry, puts it, “Gerda
ran the near perfect race.” She ran easy in the first
half and then opened the throttles in the second half.
The early leader in the women’s race was 2018 Down
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