Oldknow breaks dreaded marathon ‘wall’

The worst thing about running a marathon is that the last 10km can be a nightmare, and if it doesn’t go well it can feel like an army of invisible elves are slashing at your legs with miniature knives while you struggle to breathe and hold back nausea.

It’s brutal, and the proverbial “wall” that people warn novices about can shatter you to pieces.

It doesn’t always happen, however, and when you’ve trained properly and you time it correctly, there are rare days when you can have a dream run and all the pieces of the puzzle just fall into place.

But the 42km distance is a learning curve and it usually takes some hard knocks before even the best athletes can get it right.

So when Cian Oldknow coasted through the 32km mark with the national record in her sights in Seville last week, I sat waiting for her to implode. And I sat. And I waited. And it didn’t happen.

Oldknow produced one of the best-ever performances by a South African woman in her first competitive appearance over the classic distance, finishing 15th in 2:25:08 and qualifying for the Paris Olympics.

What was most impressive was her pacing. She ran like a metronome, timing it perfectly over the first three quarters of the race and then gritting her teeth as she bashed through the wall like it was a holographic illusion.

At the age of 27, Oldknow is well experienced on the road, holding a personal best of 32:53 over 10km and 1:10:08 in the half-marathon, but it is not the speed she possesses over shorter distances which makes her dangerous in the marathon. It’s the ability she has to dig deep when it hurts the most. It’s her absolute refusal to quit.

At the African Championships in Mauritius in 2022, Oldknow fell during the 10 000 metre final and dislocated her shoulder. Remarkably, she sprang to her feet, popped her shoulder back into place and finished the race. Seriously. I saw her do it. It was insane.

And that, more than anything, is why Oldknow has become an overnight sensation in South African marathon running.

In what promises to be a golden era for the event, she will have to challenge the likes of Gerda Steyn, Irvette van Zyl and Dominique Scott-Efurd (as well as Glenrose Xaba when she steps up in distance) for top spot in the SA rankings.

But if her debut is anything to go by, Oldknow has become the athlete to beat, and if she can run that well in her first real attempt, she has the world at her feet.

Most of us mere mortals are beaten and battered by the marathon. Not Cian Oldknow.