Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 13

and came away with an astounding 2:27:48 to wrap
up an outstanding year of racing with the fastest
time by a South African female marathoner in a
number of years. However, she is still defined in
South African running terms as an ultra specialist,
not a marathoner, but unsurprisingly, after running
her blistering New York performance, many pundits
have speculated that Gerda could well run a 2:23
marathon and many would love to see her focus on
the marathon. However, Gerda believes that at this
point, she can be competitive in both marathon and
ultra worlds. “I have unfinished business in both the
ultras and the marathon, so for now, I am sticking to
what I am doing. My training is marathon-based, and I
fortunately recover quickly.”
Olympic Focus
At the time of writing, Gerda has not yet decided
exactly what her year will look like in 2020, other
than to say that Tokyo is the big goal for the year.
She will have some hard decisions to make in
terms of her racing structure for the year, because
the Comrades is on 14 June, and the Olympic
Marathon takes place on 8 August. Given her
2019 performances, ASA and SASCOC may well
find it difficult to leave out the current fastest
female marathoner in South Africa, but they will
undoubtedly not want Gerda running the Comrades
in 2020. In spite of her proven quick recovery
turn-around time, their obvious worry would be if
she can recover fully in order to be in top marathon
New York City Marathon
racing shape come the Olympics, just under two
months later.
The likely scenario will be that those athletes selected
for the Olympic Marathon will in all probability need
to run the SA Half Marathon Championships in PE
on 25 July as a final fitness tester, which could also
be affected by tired Comrades legs. So, should
she choose to focus on Tokyo and thus forego
the Comrades, it could open the door for that Two
Oceans Marathon course record attempt. Decisions,
decisions, decisions... but whatever Gerda does in
2020, we should expect another exhilarating year from
an athlete who just seems to get better and better
each year.
Comrades Marathon
Spar Women’s 10km Jo’burg
RUN
LONG
VITALIZER
DRYNAMIX FIBRE
keeps feet cool & dry
SEAMLESS TOE
helps prevent blisters
CUSHIONING
strategically placed
LIGHT COMPRESSION
promotes circulation & aids
recovery
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