Zola Budd Pieterse shares track experiences with participants in annual Cal U cross country summer camp.
Zola Budd Pieterse (back row, center) and members of Cal U's cross country team.
Zola Budd Pieterse’s competitive running career often thrust her onto the national stage, but she urged more than 100 young runners to look inside themselves to find success when she spoke on Aug. 1 at the annual Cal U cross country summer camp.
“Being on the starting line of a race is one of the loneliest places you can be, and you need to show up and just keep going longer than the other people,” said Pieterse to a full house in Blaney Theatre.
“It’ not about being bold, boastful or talking loud, but rather the silent attitude or resolve inside you, where you must find something that will take you from wanting to do it to doing it.
“It’s not overt but covert, almost spiritual.”
A two-time Olympian at 3,000 meters and two-time cross country world champion, Pieterse is best known for competing barefoot during her running career and an infamous collision with American Mary Decker during the 1984 Olympics.
Despite her success, she wishes young runners were not so obsessed with winning.
“You’re going to make mistakes — that’s life — but I’ve learned more from the races I’ve lost,” said Pieterse, who still holds two junior world records in the mile and the 3,000 meters.
“Many are so intent on winning they forget why they’re here and worry way too much about a loss. You need to see the big picture and understand that if you ran a bad race, you still ran it.”
Pieterse is now the head men’s and women’s cross country coach and assistant track and field coach at Coastal Carolina University, in South Carolina. She found the transition to coaching to be smooth.
“I found it easy because you have to have patience with yourself as a runner, and I believe I can bring that to (young runners) because I’ve been where they’re at and know what they’ve done and even what hurts,” she said.
A native of South Africa, Pieterse competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Summer Olympics, in Los Angeles, and for South Africa in the 1992 Summer Olympics, in Barcelona.
She noted that the women’s 3,000-meter race in 1984 was the first time the Olympic event was contested on American soil. Additional women’s track events were added in following Olympic Games.
“That was a turning point and helped bring women’s races to the forefront,” Pieterse said.
The summer camp, directed by Daniel Caulfield, Cal U’s head coach for men’s and women’s cross country and track and field, draws more than 100 runners — mostly from high schools in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York.
“It’s pretty exciting to hear someone like her share her experiences and advice,” said Sean Krein, a junior from River Hill High School in Clarksville, Md., who was attending his second cross country camp at Cal U.
“Coming to this camp definitely helps get you ready for the upcoming season and school year.”