SA Marathon Championships, 20th March

My weekend started on a high note as I received great news on the
Friday from my team manager. He called to tell me that he managed to
help Cycling South Africa realize their mistake regarding the medal
presentation at Cross country Championships and the SA medals will go
to South African Athletes as in previous years.

Therefore the final results for the Elite woman at the Cross Country
National Championships is as follow:

1st Yolande Speedy (Team MTN/Qhubeka)

2nd Samantha Saanders (Mankele)

3rd Yolandi du Toit (Team Bizhub)

On Sunday I participated in the SA Marathon Championships race which
was held at Inanda dam, just outside Hillcrest in Kwazulu-Natal.

The event was truly exceptional as there were trails especially built
for this occasion and on top of that the venue offered breath taking
scenery as the route was laid out in the valley of a thousand hills
taking you all around the dam.

The supporters on route were also plenty as the local community joined
in to motivate us along the entire 83km route.
As this was the South African Marathon Championships everyone who
lined up for the start was ready to battle it out on route in order to
win the coveted National Jersey.

The steep undulating climbs throughout the course caused our group to
split up early into the race.
Three leaders formed up front consisting of Yolande Speedy
(MTN/Qhubeka), Candice Neetling (Team Bizhub) and Cherise Taylor (Team
USN). The three of them were shortly followed by Catherine Williamson
(Bizhub) then a few seconds behind her was Karien van Jaarsveld (Team
USN) with myself and team mate Caitlin de Wet (Team Bizhub) hot on
their wheels.

I remember Caitlin was still with me on the first fairly long climb
around 20km into the race, but as I reached the bottom of the ensuing
descent she wasn’t with me anymore and I had to continue on my own in
pursuit of the leaders. (I only found out at the finish line that
Caitlin dehydrated towards the end and was taken back to the
start/finish venue in a helicopter in order to get her on a drip as
soon as possible. She has luckily recovered 100 %).

I was lying in 6th place for most of the race until reaching the 2nd
water point. Here I found out that I suddenly moved into 3rd place as
the 3 leaders had unfortunately missed one of the markers and went off
route. Luckily they managed to find their way back but lost a bit of
time.

Just before the last water point Candice and Cherise managed to catch
up to me again after their slight detour.

Unfortunately the erstwhile leaders (Speedy, Candice and Cherise)
never made it back to the front of the race and the event was won by
our resolute British team mate Catherine Williamson with Karien van
Jaarsveld finishing just behind her to claim her first National
Championships title.

As this was our national championships the final results for the
Marathon National Championships was as follows.

1st Karien van Jaarsveld (Team USN)

2nd Cherise Taylor (Team USN)

3rd Candice Neetling (Team Bizhub)

4th Yolandi du Toit (Team Bizhub)

5th Yolande Speedy (Team MTN/Qhubeka)