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Cape100



100km from Hermanus to Stellenbosch

Welcome, fellow runners and fitness enthusiasts. There's a new race on the WPA calendar. Cape100, a point to point road ultra, Hermanus to Stellenbosch, 100km.

The organisers say they're building "the world's premier 100km ultra marathon." I'd normally roll my eyes at that, and I sort of did, but the route is genuinely good and the distance is a real gap in the local calendar. Most Cape runners top out at the marathon, or they sign up for Comrades and spend six months training for a race that happens 1,600km away. A hundred on home roads is a different proposition.

Whether it becomes a great race depends on things nobody can promise yet: the seeding, the cutoffs, whether the water tables hold up at 70km when the field is strung out and everybody is walking. That's where ultras are made or ruined. The scenery doesn't save you at 70km.

And the scenery is good. Winelands, then farmland, then the sea somewhere ahead of you for the last stretch. You start before sunrise and you finish when you finish.

The slogan is "One Number. Infinite Stories." Take that however you like. What I keep thinking about is the first edition itself, nobody knowing where the bad kilometres are, no splits to chase, no war stories from last year to intimidate anyone. Everyone finds out at the same time.

I don't know if I'd run it. Ask me again after the entries open.

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