It’s confirmed, Gerda Steyn will run Comrades, but is she racing too much?

Taking advantage of her spectacular form, Gerda Steyn has confirmed rumours that she will defend her Comrades Marathon title next month, just two months before the Olympic Games.

It’s a gutsy decision which could either strengthen her status as a road running legend or blow up in her face.

Steyn is undoubtedly one of SA’s all-time ultra-marathon greats and her credentials cannot be questioned.

She won the Two Oceans 56km race in Cape Town last month, becoming the first athlete to secure five victories and shattering her own record in the process.

When she lines up at Comrades on 9 June, she will be the firm favourite to secure her third win. And with the race distance having been shortened to 85.91km, she will also be tipped to break her ‘up’ run record of 5:58:53 which she set in 2019.

Where’s her limit?

But all athletes are human and all humans are mortal, and as good as she is, Steyn is not a machine. At some point she must reach her limit.

Already this year, aside from Two Oceans, she has broken the records at the Om Die Dam 50km race in Hartbeespoort and the 42.2km Vaal Marathon (where she did admittedly run within herself).

After Comrades, she will turn out at the Olympic marathon in Paris in August, having already run three ultras in the previous five months, which is a packed schedule for an elite athlete.

Risky decision

When she finished 15th at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Steyn did not have to make a choice between her preferred races because Comrades and Two Oceans were cancelled due to Covid. This year, however, she seems determined to do it all.

If she can win Comrades, Two Oceans and Om Die Dam in the same year, and still compete at her best in Paris, it will be an incredible string of achievements for the SA marathon record holder. But if she bombs at the Olympics, which is being held on a course perfectly suited to her, we could be left asking what might have been.

If anyone can do it, Steyn can. The question is: Can anyone do it?