Helena Joubert finished 7th in this year’s Comrades Marathon
7th Woman to cross the line and 4th veteran in this year’s Comrades Marathon! That is what Helena Joubert achieved since her first Comrades Marathon in 2014. In only 7 races! Incredible!
Not only did she achieve Top 10 she also did it in under 7 hours! 6 hours, 55 minutes and 36 seconds to be precise.
Helena spoke to the Bulletin regarding her Comrades Marathon.
“The feeling when you enter the stadium is unbelievable,” said Helena, “when I entered the stadium, I was given a rose. The guy even whent down on his knees. It was so special. I wanted to cry!”
The mother of three explains that it is difficult to train properly for Comrades as the training is quite tough. “We had altitude training in Dullstroom for 8 weeks,” said Helena, “I never whent home during that time and missed my children so much.”
She explained that at the start of the race they all warmed up together and moved to the beginning as a group. “It felt so weird, I was running with women that I followed as successful runners.”
The run this year was a Down Run. Next year the Comrades Marathon will be an Up Run
During the training in Dullstroom the athletes ran an average of 250 km per week.
Helena won the Cosmos 3 in 1 marathon this year nursing an injury. This injury kept her from preparing for the Comrades Marathon for three months. The same injury kept her from training for about three months.
Helena credits her coach for pushing her on to finish stronger. “He said that I can do better and even planted the seed to run for a gold medal,” said Helena, “I managed to run fast enough for a silver medal in my own dilapidated way. It is 4 years since I joined John Hamlett.”
“I never knew how far ahead or behind me the other runners were,” she continued, “fortunately someone next to the road will tell you that you are number 6 or 7 etc,”
“At one stage a runner from the UK passed me and I realised that I was then number 8, I decided that 7 sounded better than 8 so I passed her again,” laughed Helena, “I wanted to look back, but Coach John said one should never look back.” She kept a faster pace after passing the English runner.
“I started to do my pickup although it was a bit early but continued to do so until the end,” she continued, “we normally start to pick up around the last 10kms but I started at 18kms.”
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Runners sometimes experience a lot of pain after a race such as the Comrades, they struggle to walk end steps are especially painful. “I have nothing of those pains,” said Helena, “I feel fine. The training programme and diet that John gave us really did the trick.”
We are looking forward to next year’s Comrades Marathon. When the Bulletin asked if she has plans to better her position she answered shyly “I don’t know yet, we will have to wait and see.”
Good luck for next year Helena, you made the whole of Secunda proud!
A little about Coach John Hamlett
During the past three decades, John has been instrumental in coaching athletes who have competed and earned in excess of 67 Comrades gold medals, 5 Winners and 1 Record Holder, earned several silver medals and progressed to completing personal best times in ultra-distance Marathons, Comrades Marathon & Trail Running Ultra Marathons.
