'It's good to be back' - Viljoen to end fruitful SA road running season at Thembisa Mile
After setting two 10km personal bests in a month, Carina Viljoen is beginning to make a name for herself as a promising 10km athlete. Known better as a 1500m and mile specialist, the US-based Randburg native is back in South Africa on holiday and has been using the time to compete on the roads. The 27-year-old who represented the country at the 2023 World Championships over 1500m and the 2023 World Road Running Championships in Latvia over the mile, stunned a quality field including the likes of 800m specialist and defending Thembisa Mile champion Charne Swart as well as former national 1500m champion Simonay Weitsz to win the Parys Crater Street Mile on 12 October in 4:38 which was a new SA Road Mile Record.
"I've been back in SA for just over a month now. I've been absolutely loving every second of it. The Parys Crater Street Mile was really a test of strength for me since I’m currently more in a distance training phase. I think the course played to my favour with a very long steep hill in the middle section of the race. I think my distance training and endurance helped me through it and I was very lucky to get a small South African Road Record. I was happy to improve my time from Latvia (4:39.01) a year ago. A lot of South Africans including myself have run faster on other courses but this one was an official World Athletics certified course," she told #TheTopRunner.
The strength she drew on to win that mile race in the Northern Free State town, comes from the mileage she has been doing while back in the country visiting with family. The first indication that Viljoen that her training was paying off came when she surprised many with a fourth place finish at the Gqeberha leg of the SPAR Grand Prix. Finishing the women's only 10km race in 33:10 on 21 September earned Viljoen a new personal best, a mark which she then improved on when she claimed an unexpected second place at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon 10km Peace Run a month later.
"I was also surprised with my performance in the 10km race in Cape Town. I already ran a personal best a couple of weeks ago at the SPAR Ladies PE race and thought it would take me much longer to dip into the 32's. So I was very excited to finish the race and look down at my watch to see that it was 32:48. I thought I was much slower because of the wind and the tough course but I guess the views and the sea level really helped to carry me through that race and I ended up walking away with a personal best," said the women who is also the holder of a 4:07.11 metric mile personal best.
Could these performances over 10km be hinting at the middle distance runner's latent ability over the longer distances in a country where road running reigns supreme? Viljoen is quick to caution against such talk saying she is still focussed on the track and that her training has been geared towards balancing speed and strength while she uses the 10km races to lay a solid foundation for the season ahead.
"It's been a long while since I ran some good 10km races but in theory these are just in place of the cross country races that I’m used to having this time of year. I’m trying to establish a good base heading into the 2025 track season. I’m currently focussing more on longer reps and long runs. But I have kept some hill sprints in there to keep up with the speed. So that’s one way I'm kinda balancing both. I'll be closing out my season at the Thembisa Mile. I haven't run there since my high school days so it's good to be back."
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