Ultra-Trail Cape Town training: Table Mountain, Platteklip and 5,000 metres in 100 km

Ultra-Trail Cape Town runs on Table Mountain and the peninsula from Gardens Rugby Club: a 100 km with about 5,000 metres of climbing and a 26-hour limit, starting at four on a Saturday morning in late November, and a 100-mile with about 7,200 metres and 45 hours, starting at five on the Friday evening. The 100 km puts almost all of its climbing in the first 50 kilometres, including Platteklip Gorge, 876 metres in 4.8 kilometres. The organisers describe the terrain as technical with steep ascents and descents, the summit in single digits on a morning when the coast is past 30°C, and weather that changes drastically. In 2025 gale-force winds shortened the 100-mile.

Fifty metres of climbing per kilometre is UTMB density on a course that looks, from the city, like a day out. It is the race in the library most likely to surprise a fit road runner.

Stairs, then more stairs

Platteklip is a stone staircase up the front of Table Mountain and the rest of the course is not much gentler: Signal Hill, Kloof Nek, Llandudno, Suther Peak, Constantia Glen, then Nursery Ravine to finish. The climbing is walked, steeply, with the hands on the knees, and the walking note is the training: uphill economy on 25 to 30 per cent grades, stair repeats where the hills are short, and the calf capacity from the strength work that stairs demand. The 100 km is front-loaded on purpose; a runner who climbs 5,000 metres in the first eight hours has to descend the rest on legs already paid for.

Hout Bay, where the climbing stops

The organiser doesn't publish finish rates or where runners stop. Its old LiveTrail timing pages for 2017 to 2019 still do, for the earlier 100 km route of about 4,250 metres. They list 120 finishers from 175 starters in 2017, 126 from 240 in 2018 and 181 from 259 in 2019. Hout Bay, at about 59 km on that route, was the most common place to stop each year (joint top in 2017): 10, 34 and 23 withdrawals. Across the three years, more than half of all withdrawals came at Hout Bay or later.

That is where the front-loaded climbing ends and the long runnable afternoon begins. My reading, and it is a reading rather than data: runners who climb Platteklip and Suther Peak too hard arrive at Hout Bay with quads already spent and a long way to run. The route has changed since, so I treat the numbers as a pattern, not a forecast.

Rock, descents, wind

The descents are rocky, steep and technical, and the quads and the ankles pay for them together. The descents note is the winter and spring work, on ground as rough as can be found; foot placement is a skill and it is trained on rock, not on tarmac. The 2025 wind, up to 90 km/h on the ridges, is a reminder that the mandatory kit, from the waterproof to the sunscreen, is on the list for a reason.

Heat and cold in one day

Late November is early summer: a chilly summit at dawn, a hot exposed afternoon on the peninsula, and for the 100-mile a second night. The heat note covers the block for a British runner arriving from autumn, and the layering is rehearsed for the reverse: warm kit on at the top, off by Kloof Nek. Aid is 14 to 20 kilometres apart with no mobile crew allowed, so the pack carries a litre and a half and the compulsory kit up every climb, which is the loaded walking again.

Two nights, for the miler

The 100-mile starts at five on Friday evening and a 35 to 40 hour finisher sees two full nights. Pacers are allowed from Llandudno to Alphen, up to three, one at a time. The night note is the block, with the first-night start rehearsed, because starting a race at dusk on a mountain is its own skill.

Where durability shows up

Steep rocky ground makes the watch approximate, so the durability reads through a UTCT build come off the comparable sections and the long climbs: uphill speed at the easy cap over the months, and descending on the second half of a long day against the same descent fresh. The pattern I want is a runner whose legs still descend Nursery Ravine at hour twenty. Then I decide what the next block holds.

Twenty-two weeks for a November start

No ballot, so the build starts when the entry does. For a late-November race I count back about 22 weeks to late June: eight weeks of base, six of steep work, six of race-specific days and a taper. These are the sessions that carry it.

• Stair repeats, weekly from the base: a long flight or steep hill walked hard with the race pack, built by half a kilo or 10 per cent more time per step, with heavy single-leg strength twice a week kept 48 hours clear.
• Rock descents at least every fortnight: three five-minute downhill runs at 5 to 10 per cent, moving onto the roughest ground available and then to the end of long days.
• Front-loaded long days from the steep block: the climbing in the first half, then flat running on the legs that are left. This is Hout Bay in training.
• A heat block of ten to fourteen days, hot baths or sauna after easy runs, finishing two or three days before the flight.

The peak weekend for the 100 km is four to five hours then two to three the next day, about four weeks out; for the miler, five to six then three to four, with the first one starting at dusk. The long day grows about 10 per cent at a time against the longest of the last 30 days. The taper is two weeks for the 100 km and three for the miler, whose sleep is banked in the last fortnight.

What I watch

• Uphill speed at the easy cap on the steepest ground available, loaded, over the build.
• Descending on rock in the second half of long days against the same descent fresh.
• Calf and ankle soreness after stair and rock sessions, and how it changes across the build.
• Easy-pace heart rate through the heat block.
• Kit discipline on long days in changeable weather, from the check-in.

Facts checked September 2026 against ultratrailcapetown.com, its race information, pacer and entry pages and the 2025 timing schedules: 99.1 km with about 5,000 m and 163 km with about 7,200 m of ascent (the organiser's pages give slightly different totals for both), the 26 and 45-hour limits with the cut-offs above, 4,972 m of climbing in the first 50 km of the 100 km, no mobile crew support, the mandatory kit and penalties, pacers on the 100 mile only, fees of R5,495 and R6,495, a 50 km trail qualifier for the 100 mile, the 20 to 22 November 2026 dates, and the 2025 shortening for wind. Official finish rates were not published when this was checked. Where runners stop was checked in October 2026 against the organiser's LiveTrail timing archives for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 100 km (linked from its results page), which give starters, finishers and withdrawals by checkpoint on the earlier, shorter route; nothing comparable is published for later editions. Reading the Hout Bay pattern as quad damage from the climbing is my interpretation. The build's week counts, pack and long-run steps, descent repeats, peak weekends, heat block and tapers are coaching method translated to this race, not a tested protocol. Evidence level: the climbing, descending and heat physiology matches the field notes; the demands are the race's own.