This year adidas has invited a group of 11 women to come together, to go beyond their impossible and run their first-ever marathon – The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in October.
Adidas will guide these incredible and inspiring women from all walks of life through a holistic program leading up to the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon 2022. Along their journey, we are documenting their experience, capturing what brought them to the table, and sharing HER stories.
Jana spent most of her life in the bushveld of Limpopo. She recently moved to the West Coast and is fulfilling her dream to live at the beach. Jana is a lawyer and enjoys going on all sorts of adventures while exploring her home country.
Her current adventure is training for her first marathon. Jana was diagnosed with Mitral Valve Prolapse in 2018 and was encouraged by her doctors to start exercising. She started to go after her long-time dream of becoming a runner. She ran her first half marathon in May 2021 and it was one of the best experiences of her life. Jana wants to encourage everyone out there to go after their dreams, one courageous action at a time.
How would you describe yourself?
I am just an ordinary girl who decided to step outside of her comfort zone and go after her dream.
What are your success habits and what are you proud of?
Consistency and discipline. Motivation only gets you that far. You have to take action and train, even on days when you don’t feel like it. That’s when you need to be disciplined with your training.
I am proud of the progress I have made on this journey so far. When I started this journey I was recovering from pneumonia and my fitness was not that great. I have slowly gotten fitter, improved my pace and run distances that I never thought I’d be able to run.
How far do you think you are from achieving your big dreams?
I feel I am close to achieving my dream. I am confident that I’ll be able to finish the marathon, even though the distance still seems daunting at times. But it’s just one step after another. Now it’s time for some fine-tuning (as Coach says) and waiting for race day to arrive.
What would you like to be the experience you want to share your mentees or children with?
If you have a dream, it was placed in your heart for a reason. You owe it to yourself to at least try to chase that dream. Chasing your dream isn’t always easy and there are a lot of “dark” moments or times when your inner stories and emotions can get the better of you. But it is also a great opportunity for you to examine those inner thoughts and change the narrative for yourself. Running has shown me that I am a lot stronger than I think I am, and I get to push my mental boundaries almost daily. I have definitely changed some of my core beliefs since starting this journey.
What advice would you give to your past self-5 years ago?
Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. We often let fear control us in an attempt to keep us “safe”, but we just end up keeping ourselves from truly living our lives. At the end of the day what we regret the most is not the things we have done, but rather the things we never even tried.
What advice do you have for female runners?
Don’t let fear keep you from running. Create a safe enough environment for you to be able to go and enjoy your runs. And never let anyone tell you that running isn’t for you.
What is your time prediction for the Cape Town Marathon?
Honestly, I would just like to finish the marathon before the cut-off time. However, my goal is to try to finish it within 5 hours.
Adidas Beyond My Impossible: Video
