Ultra-Marathons at 21, Looking Back at 30
Running will always be one of our first loves; something that sharpened our focus in our twenties, grounded us, helped us through many life challenges and reality checks, and kept us dreaming big and aiming high in all areas of our lives.
It gave us a freedom that we otherwise wouldn’t know.
It taught us that big strides often seem to happen in public, but the real joys are in the everyday process.
It all started when we were in our postgraduate years at university. At that time, us four girls were (particularly social and casual) members of the university athletics club, having excelled to the level of running some decent half marathons, but mostly chatty 5km’s around town.
On one particular night out over (a few) drinks, my good friends, Kate and Nicola, had a discussion about Comrades (an iconic South African ultra-marathon of 89km’s), initiating the idea that we should all sign up. Being big dreamers and go-getters, their attitude was very much “why not?!”
Relaying the idea on to me a short while later, my attitude was a little more hesitant, pointing out that we had only run up to half marathons, and the oldest of us was only 21 years old. Of course, for Kate and Nicola, this didn’t seem to matter. I agreed that I would train with them and decide along the way, seeing as we still had about five months before the big day.
In the following months, I grew to love the longer distances; we all did. Somewhere along the way, our very good friend Robyn also joined us, and together we were a great support base for each other, juggling running and studying (all working in different faculties).
We planned our own long runs around town, given that the university club generally didn’t cater to the super long distances. We roped our other friends into seconding these routes with water bottles and cheers.
In this time, I grew into myself and gained a great deal of emotional confidence, both in relation to running and in relation to my life in general.
In our naïve preparation, we signed up for and completed only two big official races (outside of our self-made long training runs), one 42km, and one 50km.
Then, with the support of our families, we booked our flights and went to Comrades. We all loved every moment of it and all finished well within the cut-off.
In the years that followed us four girls went on to run many more races, both on road and trail, and across many countries and continents.
I went on to do four more Comrades, some years on, some off, depending on what my other personal and professional interests and priorities were. I also tackled some stage race trails, placing in some of these.
Kate, Nicola, and Robyn went on to do similar, bagging many more Comrades and other major events. Kate became extremely fast, inspiringly so. Nicola aced many triathlons and stayed impressively fit, active and strong whilst starting a family. Robyn travelled abroad and continued to explore new spaces through running.
In my opinion, we were all better off for getting together and running. It gave us a freedom that we otherwise wouldn’t know. It taught us that big strides often seem to happen in public, but the real joys are in the everyday process.
At the time of writing, we are now all into our thirties, a decade or so on from the start of our running adventures, and we all have amazing professional careers that we love — in economics, law, accounting, and IT. We all have children and partners, and full lives.
But running will always be one of our first loves; something that sharpened our focus in our twenties, grounded us, helped us through many life challenges and reality checks, and kept us dreaming big and aiming high in all areas of our lives.
To my friends, who ultimately inspired me to start, I will always be grateful.
And to the running and generally active community, I will always be a fan.
Thank you.