Pic: ownmyrun.com
When Gerda Steyn was setting the Comrades up run record last year, she averaged 4:05 minutes per kilometre, finishing in 5:49:46.
By every measure, that is other worldly. For ordinary runners, who constitute the vast majority, it’s worth asking why we even bother. Steyn appears to be something else altogether, someone operating on a higher plane, able to summon reserves no one else can.
Breaking Records – The Gerda Steyn Story is a noble attempt to unravel what makes her great. To be broadcast on SuperSport later this month, the film examines the many layers of her life that have shaped one of the world’s great ultra marathoners.
Happily, Bruce Fordyce lends both levity and context to the film, opining that her combination of brains, speed and endurance make her a special runner. He speaks, too, of her ability to connect with people, not least those cheering from the sidelines.
While many in the rest of the field are generally enduring some form of agony, she’s inevitably smiling, waving and high-fiving well-wishers. Her personality is magnetic and she feeds off the energy of spectators. They, in turn, adore her. It’s little wonder she’s among South Africa’s most popular athletes.
Those looking for scandal won’t find any in this film. At heart she’s still a simple Free State girl, but not without failings and weaknesses. Her ordinary performance at the Paris Olympics, where she contested the marathon, reveals her vulnerability and proves that she, too, has off days.
There’s a marathon in Valencia, too, where things don’t go to plan, but, every time, she refuses to make excuses and takes the lessons on board.
When she was asked by filmmaker Sean Everett (full disclosure: he’s a pal) to do the film, she said no. But then she changed her mind.
“Best decision ever,” she said at the premiere where figures like Fordyce, top rival Carla Molinaro (whose earthy analysis of Steyn adds valuable depth to the project), her husband Duncan Ross and her family were all in attendance.
Much of the film is shot overseas, most revealingly in the French Alps, a gorgeous environment designed for fast, long legs and a strong work ethic. Steyn’s life is revealed to be often stark and simple and it’s almost encouraging to discover that her diet and nutrition is largely instinctive. She’s no cyborg driven by science.
“I feel the desire to run every day,” she says.
Although all her training is logged digitally, one scene shows her filling out her running journal in long hand, something she’s done day after day from the very start of her remarkable career. Evidently, the simple things count for much.
Everett couldn’t resist the temptation of speculating whether she’s South Africa’s greatest ultra runner, although two realities intrude on any such discussion. The first is that Fordyce’s record nine Comrades wins, many achieved against a series of supreme rivals like Hosea Tjale, Mark Page and Alan Robb, give him the inside lane on that argument. For now.
The other is that at 35 Steyn’s body of work is far from complete and she could conceivably double her Comrades triumphs from three to six, or even more, if you consider that Vladimir Kotov was 46 when he won in 2004. She’s also won five back-to-back Two Oceans titles.
Breaking Records – The Gerda Steyn Story is a dutiful, enjoyable telling of her story and how she came to be champion.
She’s all smiles and unfailingly upbeat, but, as we discover, beyond the warmth and affability there’s a ferocious competitor who can dog it out with the best.
📺 Friday, March 21, 6pm (SS Var 4).
