Challenor on the comeback trail
Challenor’s highest international honours saw her represent South Africa in the half marathon event at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 2013. In the past year, Challenor made a successful jump to full distance marathons – the distance she hopes to run if she earns a trip to Rio.
“I ran Mossel Bay in September last year and I won that marathon in a time of 2 hours and 41 minutes and 19 seconds,” Challenor told East Coast Radio Sportswave in an exclusive interview.
The feat was impressive, considering a number of hardened marathon runners featured in the field while Challenor came to grips with her first 42 km race.
“It was unbelievably hilly course. I remember being asked to run the marathon and they sent the route profile and it was a fairly flat looking race. But when I got there and they drove the route it was unbelievably monstrous, it was really hilly,” she said.
Nevertheless, Challenor aimed for three specifics outcomes; to enjoy the distance, finish strongly while not feeling ‘dead’ and end up in the top three. All three boxes were ticked and the next challenge was lined up.
While she looked ahead to an invite to the Prague Marathon, Challenor had to work through a knee injury she picked up in Mossel Bay.
“My knee got really sore in the last eight or so kilometres of the race. I’d never run a marathon, so I just thought it was part of it so I finished the race but it was really sore afterwards. I had a week’s rest and tried to run and couldn’t,” she said.
She spent six weeks nursing her knee before getting back into racing. A successful Two Oceans 21 km race boosted confidence but a chest infection laid her low with just a few weeks to go before her trip to Prague. Things went from bad to worse from there.
A batch of antibiotics containing quinolone did some real damage to Challenor’s preparation. The antibiotic is known to weaken tendons and did exactly that. When Challenor returned to training after her course of medicine, she injured her knee quite badly.
“So from fixing the chest infection, it then broke my knee,” Challenor quipped.
“I went and ran in a track session and my knee just went. It was such bad luck, there was nothing wrong, and I was strong and ready and had no problems with the knee. So I was off again for another eight days with no training.”
With the trip to Europe fully paid for the decision was made to travel to Prague and give the marathon a crack – good knee or not.
Biting the bullet, Challenor ran the whole race despite her knee acting up just nine kilometres in. She finished 12th.
“I ran it in 2 hours and 42 minutes – which was below my personal best, I would have liked to have run a 2.38. In hindsight, I will never run a marathon injured. But I have no regrets, Prague was so beautiful,” Challenor said.
The Durban runner’s good form in Europe earned her a spot in the South African team heading to the World Champs in Beijing in August. Unfortunately she has only returned to training and will not head to Asia.
Challenor plans to run her next marathon towards the end of the year – hopefully in Europe.
In the meantime, she is hard at work getting back to full fitness.
“I have to thank my physio Wayne Holroyd, and my biokineticists Dennis Jackson and Jaryd Rudolf for helping me out after every training session and getting me back to fitness.”
All three work at Prime Human Performance Institute at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. Challenor is an ambassador for Prime.
“They are incredibly good to me and Prime is like my second home. They welcome me and my family with open arms always, it’s really special - my happy place.”
You can find out more about Challenor on her personal website, www.jennachallenor.co.za.
Image - Supplied (credit: Anthony Grote)
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