Gerda Steyn is preparing for the Two Oceans Marathon with the support of Gift Kelehe over the weekend, aiming for her seventh consecutive title while sharing her training journey on social media. Picture: Gerda Steyn/Facebook
Image: Gerda Steyn/Facebook
As the Two Oceans Marathon on April 11th’s start edges ever closer, Gerda Steyn has been an open book when it comes to sharing her training progress with the public on social media.
This weekend, Steyn shared that she put in another long training run— this time under the watchful eye of 2015 Comrades Marathon champion Gift Kelehe.
Kelehe performed seconding (drinks and safety monitoring via support vehicle) duties on the Saturday club run Steyn joined in on.
Steyn posted a video of her training session on Facebook along with a caption, jokingly hinting at a return to competition in 2027 for the retired Kelehe.
“I feel so thankful for this build-up and the fact that after so many years, I still get to see different sides of it. I have no idea where time has gone, but it has been one awesome ride!” said Steyn.
Kelehe commented on the posts when he said: "Thank you very much champ it was very nice to spend sometime with real champions rubbing shoulders with a champion. I really had a good day ."
Steyn, 36, will be gunning for her seventh title in a row, and once more comes into the race in fine form.
Over the last few weeks, Steyn has turned out at some of the toughest races in Gauteng.
In Joburg’s ‘Toughest Half Marathon’ at the Pirates 21km in mid-February, Steyn had to settle for second place in 80 minutes and 14 seconds (80:24) behind Lesotho’s Neheng Khatala (79:33).
Since then, though, Steyn returned to winning ways at the Sunrise Monster 32km race in Pretoria as she completed the gruelling course in 2:06:56, which works out to a pace of 3:58 per km, which is similar to her goal speed for Two Oceans.
The prize money for 2026 has been increased by R130,000 to R380,000 for first place in the respective men’s and women’s races in the 56km event.