With the 2026 Comrades Marathon now behind us, the running world is still wondering: how does Gerda Steyn keep doing it? The “Smiling Assassin” once again rewrote the record books, breaking her own course record with a remarkable time of 5:44:53.
While the headlines often focus on performances and records, there’s another side to success in ultra-endurance running that’s receiving growing attention from researchers: the psychological demands of the sport. A 2023 review by researchers at the University of Pretoria found that mental health and psychological well-being – including stress, anxiety, sleep, exercise dependence and overall psychological health – are increasingly recognised as important areas of study in ultra-endurance athletes.
Steyn’s story isn’t about those challenges specifically, but her approach offers a rare glimpse into the mental habits that help her return to one of the world’s toughest endurance events year after year.
Ahead of this year’s race, we spoke to Steyn about the psychological strategy required to tackle an ultra-marathon. Her answers offer a glimpse into the habits and thoughts that carry her through moments when physical strength alone is no longer enough. It’s a philosophy that also sits at the heart of her role as an OMO athlete ambassador and the brand’s #StayUnbeatable campaign: resilience isn’t built in the easy moments. It’s forged when things get hard.
Running For More Than Results
For Steyn, Comrades isn’t simply another race on the calendar, it’s become central to her professional running story – her ethos. “When I first started running and fell in love with running, it was mainly because I ran Comrades Marathon and I realised how special it is,” she says. That relationship with the race has changed over the years. “The meaning behind my running has grown and evolved in such a way,” she explains. “It became a thing about seeing if I can make it as a professional athlete and competing with the best athletes out there, to nowadays where I feel that running for me is not so much just a personal journey, but also about the message that I carry and how it can make an impact on other people’s lives.”
Today, she draws motivation not only from chasing faster times, but from the example she sets for others. Young runners dreaming of taking the sport seriously. Everyday people trying to live healthier lives. Individuals discovering what they’re capable of through movement. “That all plays a part and makes me want to come back every single year, beyond just the physical goals of trying to improve on my own performances year after year,” she tells us. It’s a gentle reminder that longevity in sport often comes from attaching your goals to something deeper than the finish line.
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When The Real Race Begins
Every Comrades runner knows the infamous 70km mark. Eina! It’s the point where fatigue settles in, doubts become louder and the finish line still feels frustratingly far away. A full 15.777km, to be frank. According to Steyn, that’s exactly where preparation starts paying dividends: “when you get to the 70km mark, it still is a long way to go in normal terms. You can’t really hear the finish line or see the finish line just yet and you’ve already done a brutal amount of running.”
That’s often when the mind starts negotiating. “You start to doubt yourself and you start to wonder if you really have what it takes to make it to the finish line,” she explains. “That to me is where your mental strength and where your mental preparation comes in.”
“You have to have a deeper purpose and a drive that gets you to the finish line long after your physical body and your muscles have done their part,” she says. When everything hurts and quitting seems reasonable, she returns to the reasons she started in the first place.
“Remembering why you started, why you’re on this journey and the fulfilment that it brings is how I stay unbeatable.”
– Gerda Steyn
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Breaking Down The Mountain
The Up Run has a reputation for a reason. The route’s relentless five climbs can feel overwhelming when viewed as a whole, which is exactly why Steyn refuses to think about it that way. Her strategy? “I certainly think that the best way to approach the Up Run is to break it down into smaller parts, parts that you feel are more manageable and more doable on their own rather than looking at it as one big giant and one big mountain that you have to get past.”
Long before race day arrives, Steyn prepares mentally. She creates a collection of thoughts she can return to throughout the race, almost like checkpoints for her mind. “I’ve got pre-planned thoughts that I memorise prior to the start of the race. As the race proceeds, I remind myself of those mental notes,” she says. “I would think of all the amazing experiences I had preparing for the race, and of all the early mornings and the times where I felt perhaps tired, but I still managed to get through the training.”
“I remind myself how special it is to be part of such an iconic race and such a historic race as well.” Instead of worrying about the entire race as a whole, she focuses only on what’s immediately ahead. This psychological tactic – known as “chunking” – helps get her through. “Focusing on the next two or three or five or 10 kilometres is definitely easier mentally than focusing on 86 kilometres.” It’s a simple concept, but one that applies far beyond running. Big goals become less intimidating when you stop staring at the entire mountain and focus on the next step.
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The Golden Rule For First-Time Comrades Runners
For newcomers, Comrades can feel intimidating, and Steyn understands that better than anyone. “For novice runners, it is often daunting and also uncertain and not easy to know exactly how to first approach the race.” Here’s something many beginners forget. “Even the most experienced runner out there had to start somewhere,” Gerda points out.
“You don’t have to be great in your first race. You just have to try. You just have to start and you have to start somewhere.”
While people know Steyn for planning every detail of her races, she believes preparation should work alongside trust. Before every event, she develops a detailed race plan based on her training and current fitness. At the same time, she leaves room for race-day energy, crowd support and the unique atmosphere that can’t be replicated in training. For Comrades specifically, though, one principle stands above all others: “It’s very important to start off at a comfortable effort and at a comfortable pace.”
With many of the toughest climbs coming before halfway, restraint early on becomes an investment in the kilometres ahead. “It’s very important to pace yourself and to make sure that you conserve your energy in order to be strong in the second half of the race,” says Steyn. While experience helps, she believes runners should trust themselves, listen to their bodies and resist the temptation to get carried away in the excitement. “Making sure that you don’t exert yourself too much in the first half, in order to be strong and be able to enjoy the second half of the race.”
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Inside The Mind Of Gerda Steyn
Spending almost six hours racing at world-class pace, we had to ask the obvious question: what exactly goes through Gerda Steyn’s mind during all those kilometres?
The answer, unsurprisingly, is that very little is left to chance. “I put quite a lot of planning into my inner monologue.” Before race day, she intentionally creates a bank of positive memories and thoughts that she can draw from when the inevitable difficult moments arrive. “I try to plan thoughts that I will have and remind myself of during the race. These thoughts are anything positive, everything positive.” She revisits favourite training sessions. The reasons she loves running. Previous experiences where trusting herself paid off. “I remind myself that it’s a privilege to be out here and I remind myself of previous experiences that I had that ended in a good way where I trusted myself.”
Because if there’s one thing she’s learned, it’s that the mind can become your biggest opponent when fatigue sets in. “It’s easy for your mind to wander off during a race and it’s easy for you to convince yourself that it is okay to give up when it gets tough.” That’s why those mental notes matter. “It helps me to keep perspective and not to react in a moment where I’m perhaps struggling or not feeling at my best.” When challenges appear, she reaches for those stored memories and reminders. “I can bring them to the forefront to motivate myself to keep going and to remind myself that it will be so worth it once I get to the finish line.”
So far, that approach hasn’t failed her. “Until now it’s always been so fulfilling and more than 100% worth it.”
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The Biggest Lesson
Perhaps that’s the biggest lesson from one of the greatest ultra-runners of her generation. Mental toughness isn’t about silencing discomfort or pretending the struggle doesn’t even exist. It’s hard to ignore 86 km on foot. No, it takes great preparation for those moments before they arrive, knowing exactly what you’ll tell yourself when they do and remembering why the journey matters long after the excitement of the finish line fades. And just like the physical training that goes into running, our minds deserve training too. It’s something we can all take into our next race, our next challenge or our next milestone.