Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 122, September 2019 | Page 41

TRAIL RUNNING
with trail running all over again in the process. Things
were looking up! But, then I lost my little dog, Gigi, in
a tragic accident, and with that experience, I lost my
last little bit of sanity. So, before sanity would return
(or in order to regain it), I decided to take on the 13
Peaks Challenge. I’m not sure if I was literally trying to
run away from all my problems, or if I was really just in
search of some kind of perspective. Hope?
Up for the Challenge
So yes, this was a fantastic idea, considering I had
never run more than 56km on the road and only
25km on trail. A two-day, 115km, 6585m elevated
mission up 13 of Cape Town’s most iconic mountains
definitely seemed realistic... especially since I have
zero sense of direction. So bad, in fact, that I still get
lost looking for peanut butter in the supermarket I visit
weekly. So, if I were to do this, without accidentally
navigating my way off Chapman’s Peak, it would have
to be with a little (or lot) of help.
Luckily, it didn’t take much to convince my friend
Sean Altern to join me. He is always over-prepared for
such things, while I am always underprepared. Sean
is patient, I’m not. Sean doesn’t swear, I do. Sean
is always calm, I’m not. So Sean basically prepped
everything, while I contributed snacks, bad ideas,
inappropriate jokes and wet wipes (that nobody ended
up using anyway).
Leading up to this, I could not think of anything else
but the challenge. I spent a lot of time running (and
getting lost) in the mountains to prepare, but I knew
it was 90% a mental game! The combination of
nerves and excitement was overwhelming, but also
a relieving distraction from all the issues causing the
above-mentioned quarter-life crisis.
Very Early Start!
Before I knew it, it was 4:30am on 2 August 2019.
Breakfast was chicken mayo and vegetables on
toast. Since I’d never taken on a challenge of such
proportions, I figured I’d eat a bit of everything, and
hopefully the body would find something useful. JJ
Bell and Sean picked me up and we were on our way
to Signal Hill (Peak #1). Alex Topliss met us there for
the start, and we took a few photos before setting off
at 5:07am. It was dark, but a perfect winter’s morning!
As we trotted on and up, reaching the summit of
Peak #2 (Lion’s Head), we looked down at our fellow
Capetonians also sitting at their peak… peak traffic.
Waves of fog and cloud slowly crept in from the
sea and over the city lights as we looped down, but
it didn’t take long to start the next climb up Kloof
Nek, and we enjoyed a jog along the edge of Table
Mountain. We looked back every so often to see the
top of Lion’s Head peeking out above the blanket of
clouds, which we were now well above. The sound of
waterfalls, traffic, hooting owls, hooting cars, rustling
leaves and trees is an endemic remix only Cape Town
can offer. As the city lights dim and the sun lights
up the mountain, a sensory overload of magic is
experienced. It was all fun, laughs and inappropriate
jokes, Sean listening quietly while Alex and I spoke
a bunch of nonsense. Sean must have known what
was coming, as it didn’t take long for the infamous
Platteklip Gorge to shut Alex and I up. I had never
climbed the gorge before, but people always spoke of
it being quite nasty. It was.
Upon reaching the top, we started running again.
It felt like we were running on the moon, leaping
between cratered rocks and dodging puddles. Well,
Sean just ran through the water, clearly not too
concerned about the dreaded “trench foot,” despite
his constant referrals to the condition. We skipped
and slipped our way over a few frosted boardwalks
to reach a big pile of rocks triangled to form Peak
#3, Maclear’s Beacon, the highest point on Table
Mountain as well as the Cape Peninsula. The view
included beautiful sneak peeks of bits of mountains,
city and sea between patchy clouds.
Slip-Sliding Away...
After a few majestic poses on top of the beacon,
we said goodbye to Alex and descended the back
of the mountain. It was surprising to see so many
frosted board walks, and Sean slid right down one
into a bush. I had a long, loud laugh, before asking
whether he was ok. He was, and our fall scores were
officially, Sean 1 - Leigh 0. This side of the mountain
was shaded, so it was a little chilly, but the descent
allowed us some time to move faster and warm up.
This was also the first water refill point. We relied
largely on drinking water from the rivers, waterfalls
and mountain streams, and nature provided us with
ice cold, fresh water for the duration of our adventure.
Another cool thing about this challenge is that the
journey between and to the top of each peak is so
different, from the vegetation, to the rock formations,
to the paths leading to the summits. Grootkop (Peak
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