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Irvette van Zyl: A new chapter, but still plenty of running left.
IRVETTE VAN ZYL may be preparing to enter the veteran (40 to 49 years age category) ranks, but there is little sign that the South African running stalwart is ready to slow down.
After a tough outing at the Totalsports Women’s Race in Johannesburg at the weekend, Van Zyl could easily have been forgiven for focusing on the disappointment of a race in which her legs refused to cooperate from the start. Instead, she found a different reason to keep pushing.
Her eight-year-old son, Gideon, had run his first provincial cross-country championship the previous day - and run it beautifully.
“He was my motivation today because I knew if I didn’t finish the race, he would ask me why,” Van Zyl - still panting - said after the race. “And I don’t want him to feel like if it goes hard, you have to stop. If it goes hard, you still have to push through. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you have to push through.”
It was a fitting lesson for a runner whose career has been built on precisely that resilience.
The Hollywood Athletics Club star admitted that she had considered quitting the race: “I wanted to actually stop in the race because I felt really tired.”
But thoughts of Gideon changed her perspective.
“I started as his motivation, now he’s my motivation.”
The moment also offered a glimpse into another chapter of Van Zyl’s life. For years, she has been one of the familiar faces at the sharp end of South African distance running. Now she is watching her son begin his own journey in the sport.
She speaks with obvious pride about Gideon, who is only eight but has already discovered the joy of competition.
“He ran so beautifully,” she said of his son who qualified for the national championships. “I’m so proud of him.”
And while Van Zyl is enjoying seeing the next generation in her own family take its first steps, she is equally delighted by what she sees happening among South Africa’s young female runners.
She singled out race winner Glenrose Xaba, whose development she has watched closely over the years.
“Glenrose is just an amazing athlete,” Van Zyl said “How she started, I mean, she started with me way back a few years ago. And then she was still a youngster. And she’s still a youngster. But just see how she grows and just progresses. It’s phenomenal.”
Van Zyl also mentioned Karabo Mailula and other emerging runners, joking that she now feels like their “ouma” - a reflection of how long she has been part of their journeys.
For Van Zyl, their progress is a source of genuine satisfaction and reassurance about the future of South African road running.
“I think road running is in really good hands,” she said.
That makes the prospect of her own move into the 40-plus category next year rather less daunting.
“One year to go, so I’m not that old yet,” she laughed. “But I’m looking forward to it.”
The veteran label may be approaching, but Van Zyl still has plenty she wants to accomplish. One of the things that has defined her career is her ability to move between distances, from the shorter road races where she developed her speed to the ultimate endurance test of the Comrades Marathon.
Despite her success over the ultra distance – she was third at this year’s Comrades and has been a runner up in the 56km Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon - she does not yet consider herself an ultra runner.
“I don’t feel like an ultra runner yet,” she admitted “I think maybe after a few more Comrades, I will maybe relate more to ultra running.”
Her heart remains firmly attached to the shorter distances.
“I really like the shorter distances and I feel like that is what made me as an athlete,” she said.
That is why she is determined to maintain her speed while continuing to explore the longer distances, a balancing act that has become an important part of her career.
“I just want to keep the leg speed going as far as I can and try and juggle all the distances,” she explained.
Her immediate plans include more 10km racing – she’s already registered for Sunday’s Absa RUN YOUR CITY Tshwane and the Hollywoodbets Durban 10k on the 30th - where she believes she needs competition to regain her sharpness.
“I have to race myself into shape,” she explained. “For me, I need to race them and race the girls.”
The challenge, she says, is that spending too much time focused on ultras can take the edge off her 10km racing.
“I lose touch in the 10K races if I don’t race them,” she said. “Because I do the ultra and then I’m not ready for the 10K races.”
That means learning to race all over again, something she embraces rather than fears.
“You learn every race, how to race them again. And each year, it is different how to race them.”
The longer-term goal is another Comrades Marathon - and this one carries special significance.
Van Zyl wants to be on the start line for the 100th running of the Comrades Marathon in 2027.
She still has to decide which marathon she will run to earn her qualification, but qualifying early for Comrades is firmly on the agenda.
“I really want to run next year the 100th Comrades,” she said.
Her first Down Run last year on which she finished fifth has also given her a valuable education. She believes the experience will make a second attempt considerably better.
“I feel like if I do my second Down, it will go a bit better, I think, than my first Down,” she chuckled.
Comrades, she explained, is a race in which experience matters enormously.
“I think Comrades is all about experience and learning the route and learning how your body adapts,” she said.
The lessons are not always gentle. On a race of such enormous distance, Van Zyl has learnt that seemingly insignificant errors can become major problems.
“There’s so many areas you can learn from, and mistakes that you’ve made that small mistakes become huge mistakes on such a distance,” she said. “So, yeah, I’m still learning.”
That may be one of the most revealing things Van Zyl says. For a runner with years of experience behind her, she remains a student of the sport.
And perhaps that is why the transition into the veteran category does not sound like a conclusion. Instead, it sounds like another opportunity.
There are still 10km races to sharpen the legs, marathons to choose, another Comrades to conquer and, perhaps most importantly, a young son beginning to discover the sport that has shaped so much of his mother’s life.
Van Zyl can now watch Gideon run while she continues to run herself. She can encourage young athletes such as Mailula as they grow into the stars of tomorrow. And she can contemplate the next stage of a career that has already taken her across virtually every distance South African road running has to offer.
She may soon officially become a veteran. But Van Zyl’s appetite for running remains anything but veteran.
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