It?s all Evie. Evie is the one who started it, she?s the one we follow.? Nomawethu (Noma) Nika is explaining how a group of young girls from an informal settlement on the fringes of Cape Town?s luxurious Hout Bay have joined in their training schedule.

Imizamo Yethu township is as unlikely a training ground as you?re find, but inspired by the formidable Evelina Tshabalala, Noma and Zukiswa Matamo are now also runners. ?We always start and finish at the same spot, at the same red line on the circle where Evie says, we must run every day, we musn?t be late and on Friday we rest.?

The community has got used to seeing Evie doing push-ups in the dusty street, to seeing her warming up on the red line and then flying out of the township. She?s their own celebrity and also their inspiration. ?The kids are always asking when we?re going to do another fun run,? she says. Besides the group of young women who?re following her lead, quite a few men have also asked to join in the running schedule.

Evelina is a tough task master. As she listens to Noma talk, her big grin confirms that it?s true ? but she makes no apology for being tough. ?You have to work if you?re going to be successful.?

Evie?s Zulu-flavoured English sometimes makes her words hard to follow, but her animated body language says it all. She?s passionate, driven and her 40-year-old physique, more like that of a teenager, is firm, fit and ready to go.

She?s been running all her life. It started when she was a kid running the 20km to school and back from the Harrismith farm where she lived. That infectious laugh again as she describes how she used to balance bottles on her head and run 200m. If there?d been talent scouts in rural areas in those days, she would have been snapped up years ago.

Her heroes then were Zola Budd, Bruce Fordyce, Matthews Themane and her brother, Jabulani. He was a boxer and she used to tag along on his training runs. She was twenty years old before she started running competitively, and by then there was no stopping her.

Evie left school just after Grade 6 when her family moved to KwaZulu-Natal. She fell pregnant at 15 and gave birth to a boy called Doctor. At 17, she?d become a domestic worker. Had she not been so determined, that?s where she could have stayed.

The determination to be more

But Evie wanted something better for her son, she wanted to make money and she wanted to go to Cape Town. Once in Cape Town, Evie again took up domestic work, but she didn?t stop running. She used to run from Hout Bay where she lived through to Langa township on the other side of the mountain to visit family, and to the city and back with a man who worked there. ?One day he took me to a 10km ladies race in Sea Point and I came first! After that, he asked if I wanted to do another 5km km race in Pinelands that afternoon. I won that too!?

?When I first saw Evie running in 1986, I could see she had talent. And more importantly, endurance,? says Dave Spence, her coach. It may have been her talent that he noticed first, but it?s her personality that?s cemented their sporting relationship. ?She?s like my fourth daughter, I love her to bits. But she?s not had an easy time. There was a bad taxi accident back in ?96 when impact injuries and torn ligaments threatened her running; and then losing her second son, that was terrible. But she just bounces back. She?s very determined, mentally she?s tops.?

Life is tough

Evie?s smile fades when she talks about the day her second son Emmanuel drowned in 2003. ?He used to have fits and on that day, that hot, hot day, his granny warned him not to go running around, but he went swimming with his friends, the fits came and he went down.? Losing him was a massive blow that left Evie very low. She decided soon after to go for an Aids test, concerned about how her health was affecting her running. ?I said whatever the result I will take it, I?ll be proud if it?s good, if it?s bad ? I will be strong.?

And she has been. Now on anti- retrovirals (ARVs), her CD4* count is up, her viral load is way down and her focus stronger than ever.

Within a year of training with Dave, Evie was running marathons, within three years she was cruising ultra-marathons, won bronze at the SA Champs and came 25th in the London Marathon. She?s stopped counting how many races she?s done, but for years she was one of the country?s top runners. In 2005, Evelina was tipped to start moving up in the world when businessman and mountaineer Gilad Stern identified her as the perfect candidate for his plan to see a black South African woman become a serious climber.

On top of the world

?We tracked her down at the supermarket where she was a cleaner. She couldn?t locate Table Mountain on a map of the world, but she?d heard of Kilimanjaro. That Sunday we took her up Table Mountain, and abseiling to see how she handled heights. She was scared, but she handled it like a trooper.? Evie?s first test of strength in mountaineering terms was summiting Kilimanjaro earlier this year. Her eyes widen like deep, dark pools as she recalls reaching the top. ?Everything was frozen. I called out the names of my mom, my dad, Emmanuel to be with me ? I did it so everyone in South Africa would be proud of me.?

And no one was prouder than Evie when she got to meet Nelson Mandela as a result. She shakes her head, ?That was so fantastic.?

Gilad?s plan is bigger than Kilimanjaro though. His goal is for Evie and her two fellow runner/climbers, Zuki and Noma, to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on every continent through a venture called Isicongo (roughly translated it means summit in Zulu). It?s a tall order in every sense. All three have done Kili; Zuki and Noma have done Elbrus in Russia (when she reached the top, Zuki blasted the vuvuzela for all South Africa!); and in January, Evie plans to do Aconcagua in South America.

Despite the fact that after the first punishing half-marathon they did together ? she never wanted to see her again ? Zuki says now, ?Evie is my hero, I will follow that woman wherever she goes.?

Positive approach

Managing Evie?s HIV is Reon van Dyk, specialist physician at Positive Lives. ?She?s been on ARV?s since winter 2005 when her CD4 count dropped below the crucial 200 mark. It?s more than doubled since then and her viral load is almost undetectable.? For Reon, the most amazing thing about Evie is her positive attitude. ?That helps enormously ? under stress the adrenal glands pump out hormones that have a very negative impact on CD4 cells. ?However,? he continues, ?the armoury against HIV needs to be a combination of medication, attitude and a good diet. Each is equally important.?

?If ever there were an HIV icon, it?s Evie. I think she?s one of the bravest women in Africa.?

Dietician Cecily Fuller has put Evie on an eating plan that ensures her body (all 60kg of it) gets the right amount of carbohydrates to maintain energy for her climbing-specific training, protein to promote recovery of her muscles and the extra fat she?s likely to need at altitude.

It?s a complete diet that?s been designed to take into account Evie?s healthy ? sometimes traditional ? appetite and as with her training schedule, she sticks to it diligently. Like everyone who works with Evie, Cecily adores her, ?She is a delight, so appreciative and soooo inspiring!?

But it?s not only her trainers and colleagues who love Evie. When we spoke, she shyly showed off the engagement ring given to her by Edwin Mduli. Lucky man!

*CD4 count refers to the number of white blood cells. Central to the immune system, the body?s main defence can also replicate HI virus cells. ARV?s don?t kill the HIV cells, but keep them in check by preventing this replication, reducing the amount of HIV in the system.

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