Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 98, September 2017 | Page 19

Ramsamy, Sheshika’s daughter, who is a chiro and did
fantastic work to help fix me. She always makes time
for me, no matter how busy she is, even after hours
at home.”
RETURNING STRONGER
She got me an appointment with a physio, who told me I
can’t run Comrades… but you know us runners, we never
listen, and I decided to start and then bail if necessary.
It took me a long, long time to finish – 11:37:55 – and
I will never advise anybody to run Comrades if you feel
pain. I already had to sit down at 10km due to pain, and
didn’t think I could do another 79km, but there was no
ambulance or bus there, and I was getting cold, so I
decided to jog a bit more. When I eventually crossed the
line, I thought I would never run again.”
“I was lucky that Beth then worked so hard for me.
She made time to drive me to the physio, and told
me, ‘Maria, you can’t give up without a fight!’ I was
still sure I did not want to run again, but I didn’t
want to disappoint her, and I am the runner I am
today because of her. Also, I was helped by Neerashi
Due to the injury and 18-month recovery, Maria
missed the 2013 Comrades, but in 2014 she was back
with a proverbial bang, clocking 5:42:50 at Oceans
and 8:56:27 at Comrades to finally break the nine-
hour mark. “Soon as I finished, I phoned Neerashi
to share the news that I had done it.” Then in 2015,
having won the Vaal Marathon and Colgate 32km, she
went event faster, blitzing 4:34:28 at Oceans and then
8:05:44 at Comrades, and the plan was to break eight
hours in 2016, but in early May, while out running
with training partner Vusi Ludiki, Maria was hit by a
taxi and injured her shoulder. That meant she couldn’t
train for the rest of that month leading up to the race
on 29 May, but she still ran 8:51:49.
In 2017 it all came together as she broke through
eight hours and into the top 20. “I can’t explain this
year’s race, I don’t know what happened. But I also
can’t take the credit for myself – I had two ladies who
helped me, Lee and Muriel of the Fitness From Africa
(FFA) club, who invited me to join their track training
group under coach Marcel Viljoen last November.
The speed work really helped, but I still didn’t expect
to be selected for the provincial team to run the SA
Marathon Champs in Durban.”
The problem was that the Champs were just a week
before the Two Oceans, and Marcel told me I can’t
race both, so I will have to choose. Since I had never
been selected for SA Champs before, I decided to race
that, so he gave me pacing instructions to race hard
for a 3:10 finish, but I never told him I was still going
to save a little bit for the next week’s Two Oceans. As
you have already seen, I am very stubborn... Anyway,
I found 3:10 quite easy and finished sixth overall and
second veteran, then I took the week off, drove to
Cape Town and ran my best Oceans time by nearly
two minutes, 4:32:35.”
SILVER GOAL
For Comrades, Marcel gave Maria pacing instructions
for a 7:41 finish, and that’s exactly what she ran. “He
told me he believed I can run a silver if I pace myself
correctly right from start, with a 5:10 first kilometre,
but I ran 4:30. I think that’s why I didn’t run 7:30
for that silver. Another lesson learnt.” Two weeks
after Comrades, Maria ran 85 minutes at the SA Half
Marathon Champs to finish second veteran, once
again showing her remarkable powers of recovery,
and she says the big goal now is sub-7:30 finish for a
Comrades silver. “That’s what I will be chasing in 2018,
but let’s see what the coach says.”
“in 2017 it all came together
as she broke through eight
hours and into the top 20”
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