It’s all systems go for the Trail Triple Crown

by Stephen Granger

The sport of trail-running continues to grow, literally in leaps and bounds, and a new Cape Town trail-running challenge, which includes two of the oldest and most popular trail races in the country, looks certain to prove a winner amongst off-road aficionados.

Three of the most popular trail races in the southern Peninsula have been combined into a series – the Triple Challenge – with bragging rights and more up for grabs for runners completing all three in a calendar year.

“The series will give local runners the opportunity to race three special winter races within a period of six weeks,” explained series founder, Richard Sutton. “The Old Fisherman’s Trail Challenge (OFTC) and the Hout Bay Trail Challenge (HBTC) are two of the oldest trail races in the country while the Muizenberg Trail Run offers new and exciting trail opportunities on its new date of 2 July this year.”

If one imagines that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet at Cape Point, as tour-guides rather than geographers might argue, each of the three races offers the opportunity of exploring some of the Cape’s best mountain trails while enjoying exceptional views of both oceans.  In the case of Old Fisherman’s Trail Challenge, which starts the series on 11 June, the race physically connects the oceans, with competitors racing from Fish Hoek Beach to Hout Bay Harbour, while the other races offer elevated ocean views from high mountain peaks.

“We scheduled a new date of 2^nd of July for the Muizenberg Trail,” said Sutton. “This works perfectly to sustain interest in the series with three weeks between each race. Bring on the Triple Challenge!”

OFTC and HBTC have their origins in the early years of the century when the sport was in its infancy. Sutton, who remains one of the city’s longest-serving and most respected trail race organisers, translated some ideas shared with some of his fellow Hout Bay trail runners into action and the Hout Bay Trail Challenge was born in 2002, followed shortly after by the Old Fisherman’s Trail Challenge. 

Each race has its own distinctive feature.  The OFTC tracks the path of the fishers of old, who used to cross the mountains between Hout Bay and Kalk Bay harbours in search of the better catches when the fish shoals stopped running on one side of the Peninsula. The race alternates directions each year, the east to west run from Fish Hoek known as the ‘up run’ and that from Hout Bay the ‘down run’.

While the second half of the OFTC trail ‘up run’ – from the Silvermine Dam, down Blackburn Ravine to Hout Bay Harbour – has remained constant since the first race in 2004, the first half has seen a number of variations, either at the behest of SANParks after a wild-fire or other disturbance, or on the whim of Sutton, who is always looking for new challenges and adventures for participants.

The race has attracted the best trail racers in the province, with past winners including Warren Petterson, Nic Rupanga, Michael Bailey, Ryan Sandes, Ben Brimble, Kane Reilly, Siviwe Nkombi and Llewellyn Groenewald, who won last year. Michelle Lombardi, Katya Soggot, Candice Davison, Landie Greyling, Annemart Laubscher, Meg Mackenzie, Bianca Tarboton and last year’s winner Lijan van Niekerk were among the winners in the women’s competition.

The HBTC is a circumnavigation of the peaks and ridges which surround Hout Bay Valley and is regarded as one of the most iconic and toughest trail marathons in the country. “Kilometre for kilometre this is the toughest I’ve ever raced,” admitted past winner Ryan Sandes, who has raced most of South Africa’s high-profile races. A measure of the high esteem in which it is held by race organisers and administrators is that it has twice been used as the national trail championship, where it attracted the country’s top athletes.

While the testing 40km circuit may prove too daunting for the average trail runner, the race offers a popular three-leg team option. The first leg starts at Hout Bay Harbour, crosses Karbonkelberg and Suther Peak before ending at Suikerbossie. The second climbs Llandudno Ravine to the Back Table and finishes at Constantia Nek, while the final leg ascends Vlakkenberg before a fast descent to East Fort and back to Hout Bay Harbour.

As with OFTC, the HBTC route has undergone changes over the years, although the basic concept remains unchanged.  The original 36km circuit now ‘weighs in’ at 40km, with the most significant addition requiring runners to drop down to and back up from the beach at Sandy Bay following the descent of Suther Peak.

Hout Bay runner Mark Preen’s keen knowledge of Hout Bay’s mountains in the days of unmarked trails took him to several HBTC wins, with top athletes Warren Petteron, Will Robinson, Ryan Sandes, AJ Calitz, Kane Reilly (the only athlete to have run faster than 4 hours for the circuit) and Johardt van Heerden also boasting Hout Bay victories. Sylvie Scherzinger, like Preen winner of the first race in 2002, was unbeatable in the early years with Linda Doke, Karoline Hanks, Landie Greying, Kerry-Anne Marshall, Meg Mackenzie, Nicolette Griffioen and current champion Kristen Heath among prominent winners.

One of the biggest names to have claimed a HBTC title was American Stevie Kremer, at the time one the world’s leading marathon-distance trail athletes, who raced to victory in record time in 2013. She regarded the circuit as one of the best trail routes she has raced in her career.

The Muizenberg Trail, which had its inaugural race in 2020, is the final jewel in the Triple Crown. Lacking the history of its Triple Challenge companions, it more than compensates with its invitation to runners to explore some of the best mountain trails above the False Bay coast.  The 20km route takes runners on surprising mountain adventures to some of the less-visited place names in Table Mountain National Park, such as Muizenberg Peak, Farmer Peck’s Valley, Mimetes Valley, St James Peak and Nellies Pool.

“It’s great to have both of last year’s winners (Jarryd Dunn and Lijan van Niekerk) back to defend their Muizenberg titles this year,” said Sutton. “There has been growing interest in the race which is certain to increase with the advent of the Triple Crown. Don’t wait till the last minute, or you might be disappointed but runners can still grab an entry at https://muizenbergtrail.co.za/.”

Triple Crown

11 June 2022  Old Fisherman’s Trail Challenge 24km

3 July 2022 Muizenberg Trail Run 20km

23 July 2022  Hout Bay Trail Challenge 40km