Ashworth’s Comrades dream takes on more significance in 2022
2018 Comrades Marathon women’s champion Ann Ashworth will
have added motivation going into this year’s down-run from Pietermaritzburg to
Durban, as it will be the first one without her mother seconding her.
Ashworth stunned many when she powered her way to victory in 2018 and followed that up with a fourth place finish in 2019. It’s going to be an emotional run for the Hollywoodbets Athletics Team runner on Sunday without such a key person in her life.
“In 2018 I just thought, shucks I hope I get a top ten!”
Ashworth said. “This year will be the first year that I am running without my
mom. She has seconded me on every singe Comrades that I have run and she passed
away in June last year.
“Before she passed she said that she really wanted me to run one last Comrades
and she said she wanted me to run it for her.
“This year I am running in my mom’s honour and in her memory and my plan is to
give her exactly the type of race that she would have wanted to see.
“That race is guts and glory, leave everything out there on the road and always favour the underdog.”
Ashworth’s career took a turn when she decided to move to a more professional programme and then she broke through at the 2018 Two Oceans Marathon which set her up for her historic Comrades win.
“For the majority of my running career I was a weekend warrior; but I was really inspired by Caroline Worstman in 2015/2016 who had two kids and worked full time but managed to find time to race and train as an elite athlete.
“At the end of 2016 I took the decision that I was going to train more seriously, and I got a coach and gave up my job to study so I could start working for myself and not a law firm.
“Then I tried to be more competitive from the beginning of 2017 going forward.”
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For Ashworth, 2022 will be another opportunity to add to her gold medal tally and this year will be her ninth Comrades Marathon. Despite a solid build-up she knows that things won’t always go your way in the lead-up to such a big race.
“I say this every year, there is no such thing as a perfect build up,” she stressed. “Every athlete goes through a few setbacks through their build up whether it be injury or flu or whatever.
“Bearing in mind that I am working full-time in a high stress, high pressure environment with long hours I think that I have got in everything that I can this year.
“All things considered I think that we have done the best that we could do going into this year’s race,” Ashworth added.
