Golden girl Smith shines in fast Prague race
EAST London based top marathon and ultra marathoner Stephanie Smith continues with her “purple patch” in respect of road running results and a quite outstanding comeback following the birth of her first child just eight months ago.
Smith won a gold medal at the recent Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town and this past weekend, while running to promote awareness for the Kidney Beans Trust at the Prague Marathon in the Czech Republic, she finished the 42.2km in an unscheduled 2:54:49.
This is Smith’s “official” personal best by 23 seconds. She ran an unofficial faster marathon in 2015 when she was a few weeks too young to run the Masters, but given “permission” to compete.
“The Plan” for the Kidney Beans Trust charitable effort was to run slowly and enjoy the crowds. Well she certainly enjoyed the crowds as various photographs have confirmed. It was just the slow part that went awol.
The Trust comprised a team of six, four men and two women. The entrants had been entered into a raffle in aid of the charity and were the lucky winners. Other than Smith that is, who was given the travel package and entry by a father of one of her students, who could not himself make the trip.
Smith’s comeback has been nothing short of amazing, given that being a young mother and fitting training in between feeds and other commitments is not quite as relaxed as her previous running life.
Dedication to a goal has, however, always been one of Smith’s strong points.
The athletic jury will be out on how the “training” run will impact upon Smith’s Comrades Marathon effort in four weeks’ time.
Speaking after the race, from Prague, she said in answer to a similar question “but it was so easy and flat and I just ran comfortably. I promise you.”
A day later Smith confirmed during a further conversation: “I am no more stiff than after a normal Sunday training run, actually less so.”
The decision to run the 2017 Comrades at all was only taken after Two Oceans and based on the fact that she had finished so strongly, picking off sub-four minute kilometres towards the end. That effort was also a personal best 4:04:17, eclipsing her previous time by 7:07.
The Buffs Marathon at the end of February produced a 2:57:07, just 1:55 slower than her previous best, but on the back of serious training and little time for a taper.
Smith has run the Comrades on five occasions starting off with a 9:42:39 in the 2009 down run.
In 2010, again a down run, she improved her time to 8:26:21. Choosing to skip the 2011 race which she believed she would battle on, she ran again in 2012, a down run. Her time of 7:30:43 was just 44 seconds off a silver medal.
Just as all sat and took notice of the slight young runner, she again skipped 2013 because it was an up run, returning the following year. While her personal time was a slightly disappointing at 7:46:56, she was elated to be a part of the first ever Born 2 Run women’s winning team.
2015 was going to be another skipped year until a coach who had experience of equal performance on both the up and down versions of Comrades finally got through to Smith, who had entered “just in case”.
The result was a 13th-placed finish (sixth South African) in the women’s race and a first silver medal PB time of 7:11:26.
What awaits us on June 4 from this little dynamo of the road is what many are wondering and looking forward to following. And 2017 is an up Comrades.