MTN National Marathon Barberton - Catherine Colyn

Finally it was time to start the season and put the legs to the test. With it being my first year junior I wasn't sure what the pace was going to be like or in what shape they would be.

I flew up from Cape Town to Jo'burg on Friday and lucky enough for me I had to study my biology on the flight and on the road trip to Barberton.  After the long road trip we finally reached the camp site but the work wasn't done, we had to pitch up our tents. Luckily we had Yolande who was a boss with the tent build unlike me...who is useless when it comes to tent building.

Morning of the race...surprisingly the nerves didn't kick in just yet but when we set up at the venue all that changed. Breakfast went down like nails. Standing at the starting line the nerves left me, felt like I was going to do one hard core huge group training ride. From the word GO we hammered it on the tar road, putting in some hard efforts to get the legs ready for the hard climb. On "the" climb I knew I had to use it to my advantage and started hammering it all the way up the climb and all the way through out the race.

Coming to the last kilometer of the race I was overjoyed because I knew it was a home run, coming around the field towards the finishing line I was able to finally throw my arms in the air and finish the race with a big smile on my face.

I personally think riding a 26er gave me an extra advantage on the climbs today and helped me to take win in the Junior girls and Overall woman.

Thank you for everyone's support today couldn't have done it with out you guys.

Want to say thank you to my team and all our sponsors for making this trip possible and giving me the opportunity to follow my dreams.