Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 133, September 2020 | Page 15

ROAD RUNNING

“ I knew it would be really hard , but a fantastic journey and incredible challenge .”

5am , and run for almost 24 hours straight , other than a few rest breaks , in order to finish the run in the early hours of the next morning . And the weather was not only the problem in that final stretch …
“ After about 40km I picked up a problem in my quad , so I walked the next 20km , because I couldn ’ t lift my leg properly . I took a 45-minute , but still couldn ’ t run , so I just had to power-walk the last 60km , as the rain and wind picked up still more . By 10pm I was freezing , so I wrapped myself in a space blanket , and that warmed me up . At midnight I stopped for a 30-minute nap in the car , then carried on in my wet kit . At 2am I was falling asleep while walking , so stopped for a five-minute nap , but woke up after just 45 seconds , with my sister telling me to calm down . The wind was picking up more and more all the time , and it felt like I was being pushed back to Land End !” the University of Cardiff , and she subsequently added qualifications in coaching , training , yoga and sports massage . With close family still living in SA , she returned to visit the country often through the years , and that saw her retain an interest in the SA running scene .
That , in turn , led to her combining family visits to SA in 2016 and 2017 with her first two Comrades Marathon runs . In 2016 , she finished in 7:23:06 on the Down Run , earning a silver medal and taking 23rd overall in the women ’ s race . The following year she was 27th women home in 7:55:05 , earning a first Bill Rowan medal , but even with two good runs under her belt , she had no idea what was coming in 2018 .
“ I came back to SA that year as part of a multinational group of six runners whose aim was to run from Cape Town to the Comrades Marathon . It was Dave Chamberlain ’ s idea , as he was busy doing a run around the world at that time , and decided to take a ‘ bit of a break ’ from that with a new challenge , to run a Comrades a day for 19 days and finish with the actual Comrades on the 20th day . The other runners that signed up for this were Mike Sewell , Koot Steenkamp , Roger Cameron and I , as well as Alex Tucker from the US ,” says Carla .
“ By day six all of us were injured in one way or another , and after that we just tried to cover as much of the distance each day as we could . We were all forced to change our goals – mine was just to get to Comrades start line , but I still wanted to run each day , so I did 30 to 40km a day , then in the last week stepped it down 60 , 50 , 40 , 20 , 10 for a taper week . I ended up with 900km in 19 days , and while I didn ’ t achieve the goal I had set out with , it was still an incredible experience . I had done a few multi-day events before in Europe , mostly four to seven days , but those were fast-packing , carrying everything in a backpack , so a lot slower . This was the first real big distance I had done back to back .”
Massive Surprise
Given that the Cape Town to Comrades run had not gone at all to plan , Carla started that 2018 Comrades unsure how her body was going to hold up to another 90km run . She says she had only been able to run around 6:30 to seven minutes a kay during the challenge , but once the race began , she suddenly found herself running 4:30 a kay . Not that she knew at the time just how fast her pace was , but she did know her position in the race .
“ I actually never looked at my watch during the race , but knew I was in contention thanks to people shouting at me from next to the road . I kept hearing that I was lying seventh , until about 80km when Devon Yanko of the US passed me . Then another American , Sarah Bard , caught me at 87km , and I thought to myself , please don ’ t anybody else catch me ! Running into the finish and seeing the clock with the time of 6:50:31 , I just thought , how did I do that ? Finishing ninth was all so completely unexpected !” she says .
Out of the six runners in the Cape Town to Comrades Challenge , Dave was the only one who didn ’ t start Comrades , and in spite of all the injury problems during the challenge , it went unbelievably well for all of them . “ Ironically , we all had good runs , in spite of the niggles in preceding weeks . That ’ s why I think our bodies are amazing , because of the way they sort themselves out ,” says Carla .
Thankfully , Carla kept going , and 12 Days 30 Minutes 14 Seconds after starting out from Land ’ s End , she touched the pole at John o ’ Groats . “ I took about 10 and a half hours off the record , and I should have finished even earlier , if not for the wind . If I had stopped for a night ’ s sleep , it would have been much closer . I think it ’ s an absolute honour to have my name as a record-holder now alongside some great athletes , but if I ever do this journey again , it will be at a slower pace . We are normally in such a rush to get anywhere , so to slow down and take your time to take in your surroundings is really special . And doing it fast was a bit painful !”
Taking a Step Back
Carla was born in Johannesburg , but the family left for the UK when she was 10 years old . After school she went on to earn a degree in sport science from
Ready to tackle the 2018 Comrades after a long , hard journey to Maritzburg
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