Running has taken me places, made me friends and opened so many doors and for that I am extremely greatful and very blessed. I started running marathons late in my carreer and have only run a total of 6 standard marathons. My debut into the world of marathon running was in 2014, The PetroSA marathon in Mossel bay. A very tough, hilly course which I absolutely loved and managed to win in a time of 2hr41. Before that my longest race had only been 21km.

In 2015, I ran Prague international marathon in 2hr42 and in 2016 I ran Nagoya womans marathon in Japan. Its the largest womans marathon in the world, it was such an incredible experience and I ran an Olympic Qualifying time of 2.37.19. A very special day.

In 2017, I was priveleged to be part of the South African team at World Athletics Champs in London, I ran the marathon. It was an experience ill cherish forever but a super tough day out on the road, I finished 50th in 2h47.

2018 was a year of injury and a lot of grief as I lost my dad, my cousin and my half brother all within 3 months of each other. So since 2017 I havent raced a fast marathon, I have run two slower ones as part of training and qualifiers for The Two Oceans Ultra. Durban City marathon and The Cape Peninsular and that’s pretty much my lump sum of marathon running.

2019 has been a special year, I dedicated this year to running to my Dad, he was my hero. I ran The Two Oceans ultra and The Comrades marathon and was blessed to get golds in both races, a dream come true and I know my Dad would have been very proud.

Those were my races for the year, I hadnt really planned anything else besides shorter races as I wanted to recover properly. Recently I was offered an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down. I was invited to run Valencia marathon in spain as part of the elite field. Now WHO could turn that down right?

I am so excited and have my own personal goal set for this race but FYI 😉 I am not trying to run an Olympic qualifying time… if it were the old standard of 2.37, possibly but 2.29, YIKES that’s FAAAASSST guys… in all honesty its abit beyond the speed of these old legs of mine and as much as I would give anything to go to the Olympics, I am realistic with my goals and my heart has chosen to follow a different dream now, I have fallen in love with the ultras, you were right Bruce Fordyce, you do know me well.
I feel like I waited along time to be able to run them, I always believed my children needed me as a hands on mum when they were little and I knew that when they were older there would be a right time for the ultras, and that time is NOW.

Thankfully, dreams can change. If we’d all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses.

So this race for me will be as fast as these legs can take me but a personal goal. I’m hoping for an awesome experience and a fun day out doing what I love most in the world. That’s why we run right, BECAUSE WE LOVE IT and so often when things don’t go exactly as we planned them we need to remind ourselves of this. Why we started running in the first place and what excatly success means to us. I am SOOOOOOO excited and cant wait to meet new people, see a new country and run another marathon. Im so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to be in the elite field of another international marathon and am so appreciative to everyone in my life for all they do for me. I feel so blessed and so priveleged to be able to do what I love whilst seeing the world.

“YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO SET ANOTHER GOAL OR DREAM A NEW DREAM”