Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 11

Gerda in action in New York
H
aving run a PB 2:31:04 in the Big Apple in
2018, Gerda was invited back to New York this
year for another bite at the apple. The official
word out of her camp was that she was chasing the
2:29:30 set by ASA as the official Olympic Games
qualifier, but as race day approached, whispers were
emerging that she had a more ambitious target in
mind. Apparently, Gerda wanted to run 2:27.
She went through the halfway mark in 1:13:44, nearly
three minutes faster than the 1:16:35 she clocked
at this point the previous year, then covered the
second half of the marathon in 1:14:04, which was 25
seconds faster than 2018. According to statistician
Riel Hauman, “her 5km splits were remarkably even,
considering the tough course: 17:20, 17:29, 17:29,
17:28, 18:17, 17:09, 17:28 and 17:31, which got her to
the 40km mark in 2:20:11. The last 2.195 km took her
7:37, just 18 seconds slower than winner Joyciline
Jepkosgei, and 11 seconds faster than second-placed
Mary Keitany.”
Shooting Up the Rankings
The question now is just how much
faster can she go? Elana’s best over
the marathon is 2:25:25 on the aided
Boston Marathon course, which means
it cannot count as an official record,
and her best ‘legal’ time is 2:27:17 in
Chicago. Gerda is only 31 seconds
off that. Thus Colleen holds the official
SA Record for the marathon at 2:26:36,
which she ran in Berlin. Frith ran 2:27:36
in Port Elizabeth. If Gerda focuses on the
marathon, she could potentially break the
SA Record and possibly even Elana’s best SA
time. That is a scary prospect indeed, especially
when one takes into account the relatively short
time it has taken Gerda to rise to the top of South
African distance running.
Gerda moved to Dubai in 2014 with dreams of
becoming a successful quality surveyor in the
construction industry. Dubai was the perfect place
to chase that dream as construction was booming.
Then everything changed. She discovered running
and discovered she was actually pretty good at it.
“If you had asked me five years ago that I would
have been exposed to so many parts of the world,
met so many people and done so incredibly well in
a sport which I had not even started yet when I went
to Dubai, I would have laughed at you. I have been
truly fortunate. I now stand on the brink of running for
my country in the Olympics. No, I never would have
thought this possible!”
Setting Goals for 2019
After an incredible 2018, where she won the Two
Oceans, finished second at Comrades and ran
2:31.04 in New York, Gerda was confident that 2019
could be an even better year for her, but even she did
not foresee what was to come. “The boxes to tick in
2019 were defend my Oceans title, win Comrades and
qualify for Tokyo. That was it,” she says. However,
come April and she took the Two Oceans by the scruff
of the neck, destroying her opposition as she serenely
cruised to a scintillating win in 3:31:29.
She only missed beating Frith’s long-standing 3:30:36
course record from 1989 by a mere 53 seconds,
and had she not been holding back slightly due to
thoughts of saving something in her legs to chase
the win at Comrades, she undoubtedly would have
broken the record, because she looked as fresh as a
daisy when she broke the tape on the lawns of UCT
sporting her trademark broad smile. When asked after
the race why she had not chased the record, when it
was so obviously within her grasp, Gerda answered
in her normal brutally honest fashion. “I had two
objectives here today. The one was to defend my title
and the second was to make sure I did not leave my
Comrades on the road at Oceans.”
Well, she achieved both goals, but looking back now,
Gerda admits that sometimes she does think she
should have given the record a go. “In all honesty
I only realised in the last 8km that if I pushed, I
could break Frith’s record. Up to that point it was all
about making sure I would win. Irvette (van Zyl) and
Mamorola (Tjoka) looked so strong, so I could not
take any risks. Once I had broken away from
“This brilliant run saw Gerda finish 11th in 2:27:48
and move past René Kalmer (2:29:27) and Mapaseka
Makhanya (2:31:02) into fourth on the SA all-time
list. Only Elana Meyer (2:25:15), Colleen de Reuck
(2:26:35) and Frith van der Merwe (2:27:36) are still
ahead of her. Steyn’s time is the 11th-fastest ever by a
South African woman – Meyer alone ran under 2:28:00
six times – and she easily beat the Olympic qualifying
time,” says Riel.
Naturally, Gerda was ecstatic after her performance.
“New York was incredible. Last year I realised I had
raced too conservatively, so this year I was a bit more
aggressive. I needed to approach New York as a race
and not with the mentality of a time I am looking at,
but I am still learning the marathon, and I think I could
have gone even faster at the start.”
Winning the Two Oceans Marathon
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