Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 134, October 2020 Issue 134, October 2020 | Page 15

ROAD RUNNING

“ Just a few weeks ago we were still talking about Comrades possibly moving to late September , which meant I could have run the Olympic Marathon on 7 August and still run the Comrades as well . That would have been beautiful ,” says Gerda . “ I have not made any final decisions yet , because I find it too stressful to worry about next year now ... I know things will work out , and in the meantime , I know what I need to do , so I am just focusing on that for now . I may be setting one or more of the ultras aside next year , in order to focus on the Olympics , but I will always come back to them , as they are a central part of my career . As a South African , it is really special to go after the win at Two Oceans and Comrades , but I would still want to run them even if I was not racing for the win .”

Training with husband Duncan in France

In terms of her preparation for Tokyo , Gerda will likely do much of her training in the heat of Dubai , in the United Arab Emirates , and at altitude in France , where she and Duncan have a second home in the French Alps near Chamonix . “ Our house is at 1600m above sea level , the same as Joburg , but there is a mountain right opposite the house that reaches 3800m , so I can do some great altitude training there . The weather can be a challenge , though – it snowed recently at our house , but when we drove 20km to town , they had bright sunny skies there !”

When asked if she thinks that her tremendous run in London can be attributed to not running any ultras this year , and thus having fresher legs , Gerda says that is possible , but she thinks there is more to it than just that . “ As I said , I could see the difference in my training and fitness , and I felt in better shape than last year before New York . But I don ’ t think it was because I wasn ’ t running ultras , rather because

I was not racing at all . But as I said to Duncan the other day , I think this running thing is a trick … And I ’ m not sure if I will ever walk away from a race feeling it was 100 % perfect . And because of that , I am just grateful for everything that has happened this year .”

To date , South African female marathoners have run 18 sub-2:30 times , with Colleen De Reuck ( 7 ) and Elana Meyer ( 6 ) owning the majority of those times . Until fairly recently , the only other South African woman to go faster than 2:30 was Frith van der Merwe , also in the 1990s , and it was only in 2011 that a fourth South African , René Kalmer , joined this exclusive club . In 2019 Gerda Steyn became just the fifth South African woman to break 2:30 , and this year in London she jumped to third on this list of all-time performances , but second on the list of record-legal courses .

The non-legal times are denoted below with ( a ), which stands for aided . The Boston Marathon is point-to-point and has a large overall drop in altitude , and is thus considered a downhill course overall , in spite of featuring some very challenging climbs . The New York marathon is also point-to-point , so while it is a much flatter course , it is not considered record-legal according to the criteria set by World Athletics . For this reason , Colleen ’ s 2:26:35 is recognised as the SA Record , not Elana ’ s 2:25:15 ( a ), and thus Gerda ’ s 2:26:51 from the recent London Marathon is now the second-fastest all-time legal time .

Gerda in action in the New York Marathon

Time Athlete Venue Year 1 2:25:15 ( a ) Elana Meyer Boston 1994

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