Van Zyl aims for the podium at Two Oceans

AT 31, Irvette van Zyl is look for new challenges while still improving on the old, and the Pretoria-based athlete tackles her first ultramarathon at Saturday’s Two Oceans Marathon.

Less than a year after the birth of her second child and fully engaged as a working mother, Van Zyl is still at the top of her game as one of South Africa’s best distance athletes, scarcely pausing for breath on her path to achieving her athletics and life goals. Van Zyl has an enviable Two Oceans record over the halfmarathon distance, second only to three-time winner, Rene Kalmer. Her first four attempts at the race yielded four second positions, twice behind Kalmer, before she was able to clinch victory in 2016, defending her title the following year.

Van Zyl is a role model of a professional athlete, who has worked long and hard to achieve her success. Rather than emerging as an overnight sensation, she has improved gradually over the years until now, and should be regarded as one of the best distance athletes in South Africa. But just as Van Zyl appears a shoe-in to represent SA in the marathon at this year’s world championships in Doha and next year’s Tokyo Olympics, she has chosen to race beyond the standard marathon distance for the first time in her career. So why has she decided to run the ultra now?

“I think it’s a nice to do something else for a change,” Van Zyl said. “But more seriously, I’ve wanted to run an ultra for some time. I had hoped to do the Two Oceans 56 last year, and then I found myself seven months pregnant at the time! I had set myself a goal to run a faster marathon, and if I was unable to do so before (the) Two Oceans this year, I would do the ultra. So I went to test the route a few weeks back and enjoyed it. I like the race profile with its climbs. It’s just the distance which scares me!

“I’m getting excited now! In the past I think I’ve over trained for races. While I’ve trained quite hard for the (Two) Oceans, I think it is more strategic to be injury-free than trying to push too much. I’ve learnt that you need to train smarter rather than harder to beat your rivals.”

Van Zyl is one of the most competitive athletes on the planet – she gained a podium position in the Cape Town leg of the 10km challenge last year at six months pregnant – and would not be running the 56km to enjoy the social occasion.

“I’d like to finish on the podium,” Van Zyl said. “But my main aim is to just finish in one piece – to get to the finish and still be healthy and uninjured. Regarding the world champs and the Olympics – I don’t know if that’s for me. I’m still not over the heartbreak of the 2016 Olympics (Van Zyl was forced to withdraw with a stress fracture) and they’re already talking of 2020! But if it works out that could be good too.”

Inevitably the question arose on whether Frith van der Merwe’s incredible 31-year-old course record of 3hr 30min 37sec can ever be broken.

“I’d like to go for Frith’s record, but it’s my first time over the distance and I think I’m going to be running scared. Perhaps next year I’ll go for the record and this time just focus on finishing.”