Bernadene wins Kaapsehoop Half Marathon
She only competed in road races last year but Bernadene McLoud recently won the Kaapsehoop Half Marathon.
Local athlete, Bernadene McLoud, 26, recently won the Kaapsehoop Half Marathon (21km) where she placed first.
This is a remarkable achievement for Bernadene who only started competing in road races last year.
“Before then, I only ran track and cross country and a few 10km races. I still competed in track and cross country in my first few years in university,” said the number one road runner winner, “but in my last year of university, and when I started working, I completely stopped”.
She started the sport at the tender age of nine, but only became an active, dedicated athlete at around the age of 15. At 16 McLoud received her first medal at the South African Championship 3000m, however, the road runner explains that juggling sport and academics in university was not easy.
“I studied Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) which is a difficult degree so I had a lot of stress on me and not a lot of time, towards the end I was also working in my off time apart from studying,” said McLoud to which she said that that is the reason why she gave temporarily gave up on the sport.
Competing in road races has never been on the now 26-year-old athlete’s radar, however she says that “If you love the sport, you never lose interest in it”.
To get back into form, McLoud joined a local running group in the Karoo as she was busy with her conserve year, that was the same year when the pandemic had hit the world, and because of the pandemic McLoud just continued training and could not enter any races.
Having a coach who trained her for five years really made her the athlete she is today.
“He understood me, he believed I can do it, he was just a great supporter, he was there everyday after school to coach me, when I went to university I didn’t have that anymore,” she said with a hint of sadness as she relates that her former coach had passed away in her first year of working.
Although she won first place for the half marathon 21km which is her usual distance together with 10km runs, her longest distance is 32km. The pharmacist and number one winning athlete will be competing on November 27.
