Welcome to the ‘background information of Cassandra Davis, Time-to-Run‘s head of the women’s section.
Cassandra Davis was born in the Netherlands, but was raised in Cape Town, where she went to school and graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1981.
Cassandra is an accomplished marathon runner with a decade of international marathon wins. She won two national marathon titles in consecutive years, taking first the South African marathon title in 1986 and then, after immigrating to France and gaining French nationality, she won the French national marathon championship title in 1987.
She has run for the French team and represented France at international level in distances from 3000 meters on the track to the marathon (42.2 km) distance.
Being unable to repeat the performances she achieved 10 years ago at the marathon distance, she now seeks new challenges and motivation in the longer distance adventure runs. When asked the question why she needs to seek out new challenges after having such a career already behind her, she said: “In long distance races no matter how fit the athlete, the point is reached where fatigue drives each runner back into themselves; into the secluded parts of the soul which are discovered only under times of duress; and from which one emerges with a clearer perspective of the people we truly are, each time for me it is a new learning experience”
Cassandra is also a full-time mother and lives in Paris with her husband who works full-time for the French N° 1 athletic club, C.A. Montreuil. She holds a full-time job at the OECD, and at weekends she often interprets at some of the French international road races. She also coaches athletes by email.
In September 2000 she was badly injured in a car accident; cracking several vertebrae, for awhile she struggled to walk let alone run. However, she was soon back running again, only to discover that the nausea and amenorreah she was experiencing were not due to the accident and consequent medication, but that she was four months pregnant with her third child, against all odds, at 40 years old, with an IUD.
Annoyed with people telling her that her running career was over and that she should take it easy for the rest of her pregnancy, as with her previous pregnancies, she ran up until the day her baby was born. This inspired her to research and write a book on the subject of pregnancy and exercise. To this end she began by placing a survey on the web to which she received an overwhelming response. She aims hopes to have her book published later in 2002.
Besides running she enjoys cinema, visiting art exhibitions, doing some African-inspired craft work and reading.
We welcome Cassandra to the pages of Time-to-Run and are proud to have a woman of her stature join our ranks.
