Gerda Steyn, the favourite for the Two Oceans Marathon, will be difficult to beat once more at the 2026 Two Oceans Marathon.
Image: Tobias Ginsberg
CAPE TOWN — IT’S A LONG WAY from lining up at the start of your maiden race as a ball of nerves — unsure of what awaits having succumbed to FOMO because all your friends were harping on about how great that race is — to being a shoo-in for victory every time you toe the start line.
But Gerda Steyn has made that journey at the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon in style. Hers is a true "rags to riches" tale even she would not have dreamed of back in 2016 when she first laced up for the world’s most beautiful marathon, inspired to sign up as she was by all the nice things her mates were saying about the 56km Mother City ultra.
Seven races later, Steyn is "Queen of Two Oceans," having won all six races and setting records along the way after that "uneventful" rookie run that could not even deliver the silver medal she’d aimed for. On Saturday, South Africa’s most beloved road runner is again expected to win the race unchallenged.
“2016 doesn’t feel like 10 years ago at all and I can’t believe it was so many years ago,” she said during the pre-race media conference for this year’s race, which is powered by BYD.
“I remember being very, very excited for the race, but also very, very nervous because I had never done it before. Even so, I just remember crossing the finish line thinking, ‘This can't be it. This can't be the end result. I have to come back.’”
Steyn finished 14th in what now, given the times she’s been running since, looks like a pedestrian 4:15 time. Even as a rookie, Steyn had aimed for a much faster time.
“For that first race, I remember that most of my preparation was done in Dubai because that was still where we were living at the time. And I think at the time, I had just recently run a sub-three marathon going into the race. So, I really wanted to try and run a silver (medal) at Two Oceans. But I didn't achieve my goal on the day.”
That failure stung, and Steyn went on to work on getting better.
“After my first race in 2016 I actually missed the 2017 race, but in 2018 I came back. In between the two years I made a lot of progress in my running so I knew I was in much better shape and was already running much quicker in the other distances,” she recalls. “So, I was just feeling a lot better coming into the race as well, having a little bit of experience.”
Not that she considered victory a given — far from it.
“But in 2018 I wouldn’t say I was a standout favourite to win the race because there were other ladies who were also very strong, some new runners and others very experienced. But I did end up winning the race, my first big race that I had ever won, and it was a really exciting day for me.”
And then she made the race her own, winning it every year thereafter and breaking a long-standing record that many had thought would never be broken, and then going on to improve on it more than once.
“I did not foresee things to go the way they did,” she says plainly. “But it has been a wonderful journey with the Two Oceans and not in my wildest dreams did I imagine things would play out in the way they have.”
How could she have, when her maiden race was borne out of the fear of missing out?
“The first time I ran I’d just decided to run because all my friends were running it and it just sounded like a really fun event. At that time I was looking at Caroline Wostmann who was running so amazingly, and also Ellie Greenwood, who had recently won the Comrades Marathon. So those were the role models that I was looking up to.”
She is now a role model to many — girls and boys alike — who aspire to scale the dreamy heights that she has. What advice does she have for them?
“I always say to aspiring athletes that they must remember that it takes time and also that they must remember that what we often see from the outside, which is most of the time the races when it goes really well, is not the entire picture. What happens in the background is really what is going to determine whether you are going to succeed or not.”
Champions are made far from the limelight, she says.
“It is the times when nobody is watching, when it is just you, to make sure that you work hard to do the right things; to make sure that your lifestyle is pointed towards you being successful in what you put your mind to. It is not just about race day or what you do the week before the race. It is your whole lifestyle.”
She adds: “If you want something, you can have it. You can reach your dreams but it is not just a miracle; it comes with hard work and lots of it, and not giving up when things go a little off-plan or when things are not going the way you thought they would be, or on the timeline you thought it would go. That is the time that really determines when your character gets built or whether you are going to turn yourself into a winner or not. That is what I tell athletes who aspire to become professionals.”
And so, when you see her breaking that tape at the UCT Sports Ground tomorrow, do not think it is a miracle or that she’s made differently. Gerda Steyn works hard to become the champion she is. And that’s why she has moved from a nervous rookie who missed out on that silver to being the Queen of the Two Oceans Marathon.