Johan van der Merwe - With Every Step

Imagine that you are standing at the starting line of the Comrades Ultra-Marathon. Think of the feeling of the cold air upon your skin as you stand surrounded by shivering bodies. In the actual race, the distance is gruelling, but you love it the way only a runner can, and after hours of sweat and your feet slowly but surely whittling away at the distance, you see the finish line. When you cross it, the feeling of having achieved this immense goal overwhelms you. This scenario offers you a small glimpse into the running adventures of Johan van der Merwe. The difference is that he only really begins to catch his speed at the distance that the Comrades ends with.

The man who has won every 100 miler race he has ever entered into reminds me about the power of the ordinary man when he tells me about his christening into the running world. “My running career was created because I was immensely overweight. Initially, I just started jogging to get rid of all of the excess weight, and I lost 24kg in 6 months. As time went on, I realised I had a talent for running distances further than Comrades and that’s where I really started to do my best.” Johan notes that improving the long-standing Washie 100 Miler record on his first attempt was one of the most memorable moments in his career, alongside setting a new record for the amount of kilometres run around a 400m track in 24 hours. With this, he joined the ranks of the men who were his running idols, taking the title from Wally Hayward, who set it in 1953.

In the right hands, a pair of running shoes can open doors to places that somebody would never otherwise be able to reach, and even after winning many titles, Johan has never forgotten his fellow man. Living in Polokwane, he has also started his own running club called Polokwane Road Runners, where he can use the knowledge and expertise gained from running numerous amounts of races to the benefit of fellow runners. In 2010, he tells me across the table of a coffee shop, he was walking through a parking lot wearing a Comrades t-shirt, when he passed a car guard. “’I’ll beat you!’ he told me. I told him that it wasn’t that easy, and invited him to come to the club and beat me there. I told him that if he came the next week, I would give him a pair of running shoes.” The car guard ran with the club that following week, and Johan gave him a pair of shoes. Johan offered him a running watch if he continued to come to the club to run. The man’s name is Rufus Photo, and today, he has already won three gold medals in the Comrades. “The difference with us,” Johan remarks, “is that our team has a passion for what we do. For us, it is not all about the money.”

Johan maintains that his real success in running is his mental strength. “The biggest asset that you can have in ultra-distance running is mental discipline. I’d play games with my mind, always imagining that there is a cheering crowd when there is actually nobody there. It’s a way to tell myself that I have to push through.” And although it might be true that there aren’t any physical people there to cheer him on, I think it is safe to say that there are hundreds watching him at home on the television for him to think of too.

For me, it was fantastic to experience somebody who is still in love with their sport after so many years. Johan’s humility about running and willingness to share his wisdom with me speaks about the person that he is. He is truly a man who started at the bottom and worked (or rather, ran) his way to the top. When I asked him what he would say to young, up-and-coming athletes, he replied without hesitation, firm in the knowledge that he knew what he was talking about. “I know that this is such a cliché, but don’t give up on your dreams. I promise you, talent and nutrition is not even 1% of it. Hard work and hard running every day is what makes a person. There have been many times that I’ve wanted to give up, but I still had goals out there. Definitely, just make your dreams happen!”

Johan’s records include:

• 24-hour track – 258 063km, bettering Wally Hayward’s 60-year standing record (2013)

• 24-hour road – 231,12km – split distance record on day one during the six-day race in Hungary (2013)

• 200km track – 17:34:20 – split time record during 24-hour race in Taipei (2013)

• 48-hour road – 333,18km – split distance record on day two during the six-day race in Hungary (2013)

• Dusk-2-Dawn 12-hour circuit race – 139km – beating the previous record by 19km (2011)

• Jannas 18 hour circuit race – 191km – improving the previous record by 23 km (2012)