Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 12

ROAD RUNNING
That said, it does give Gerda a reason to come
back to Two Oceans and try again. While she is still
finalising her exact 2020 schedule, which will revolve
around the Olympics in Tokyo in August, having come
so close to Frith’s record means Gerda is looking
at it as another potential challenge. “Had I run one
second per kilometre faster, I would have broken the
record. Having come so close, it now starts to look
like something I would consider very seriously. But
everything in 2020 revolves around Tokyo, so it may
not necessarily be next year.”
Chasing Comrades Glory
After her strong Two Oceans win, the goal at
Comrades in June morphed into not just chasing the
win, but also chasing the Up Run record of 6:09:24,
set by Russia’s Elena Nurgalieva in 2006. However,
neither Gerda, nor her coach Nick Bester, were quite
prepared for what turned out to be an incredible
run, as Gerda smashed almost nine minutes off the
previous record when she crossed the line in 5:58:53.
“You don’t say you are going to attempt a record, you
chase it,” said Nick after the race. “After Two Oceans,
Gerda and I sat down and said we would go for the
record, and we planned for it, but this was seriously
incredible.”
She totally dominated the race and her winning
margin was close to 19 minutes over Alexandra
Morozova of Russia, which prompted 2018 Down Run
champion and fourth-place finisher, Ann Ashworth,
to voice her admiration: “Never on my best day could
I have run sub six!” Gerda not only smashed the Up
Run record and posted the fourth-fastest time ever by
a woman in Comrades history, but by dipping under
six hours, she joined a select club of women to have
broken through that barrier, alongside Frith, Elena and
Ann Trason of the USA – but all of them did so on
the Down Run, once again showing how remarkable
Gerda’s run was.
Her 10km splits for the race would have made many
a serious runner proud if they just achieved that in a
10km race, never mind posting nine consecutive splits
at the pace back to back! She also averaged 4:05 per
kilometre going up the notoriously tough Polly Shorts,
last of the ‘Big Five’ hills, which comes late in the race
on tired legs. She even still had the time and energy to
make sure she disposed of her race litter in a dustbin,
instead of dropping in on the road, as she is a staunch
campaigner against litter and in favour of recycling!
Wonder Woman Indeed
Besides her magnificent Two Oceans and Comrades
performances, Gerda’s 2019 has been one of
constant improvements, and she fully deserves all
the accolades lavished on her, including that title of
Wonder Woman. Just six weeks after Comrades, she
took 41 seconds off her half marathon PB when she
clocked 1:11:54 to finish second at the SA Champs in
PE. Then in September she embarked on a string of
10km races to build her speed in preparation for the
New York City Marathon.
She started with a 10km in Middlesbrough in the
UK on 1 September, where she ran 33:05 and took
31 seconds off her previous best mark. Gerda then
went on to run the FNB Joburg 10km CITYRUN (24
September), the Spar Women’s race in Johannesburg
on 6 October, and the FNB Durban 10km
CITYSURFRUN in Durban on 13 October. This was a
very similar schedule to the one she followed in 2018
as she built up to her first New York outing. Of course,
her PB in the UK raised speculation that she could be
in shape to break 33 minutes on the extremely fast
FNB Durban course, but she had to be content with a
33:22 for 10th position.
Elation as she takes the Comrades title
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ISSUE 125 DECEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
On her way to a PB in Middlesbrough, UK
“Durban will be the only ‘disappointment’ for me
in 2019,” says Gerda, making sure to say that the
word disappointment should be in inverted commas.
“Disappointment in that I did not hit the time I was
hoping for. I know I ran better in Durban than in 2018,
but I had expectations. Maybe the lesson here is not
to expect to smash a PB on tired legs. After all, I had
been deep in preparation for New York at that time.”
Fortunately, Gerda had shaken off that tiredness
when she lined up in New York three weeks later,
them, I knew that if I pushed I could break it, but I
was scared of then hitting Comrades on tired legs,
and that and an Olympic qualifier were the real targets
for 2019. Now I look back and think that I could have
done all I achieved in 2019 and also broken Frith’s
record. But hindsight is not an exact science.”