The things I do.
So somehow, in a series of fortunate events, I heard about a cool race in Cape Town this weekend and after originally planning on bandit running a leg or two with a friend I managed to get an actual entry 2 days before the race (thanks mystery person who had to bail because of a broken toe). This thing is called the Bat Run, its a 26k "run" starting at 7pm and takes up up all three of the mountains surrounding the city. Yes you heard right, at night, THREE mountains. Don't let the 26k fool you, what you don't realize is there is about 1700m of climbing ahead of you.
Anyhow, said friend and I got our kit together (I must also mention that in order to do this race you must bring with you a backpack with 1L water, cell phone charged with the race directors number programmed in, headlamp and backup batteries, enough food to survive the night on the mountain, first aid kit, space blanket, rain jacket, and a whistle) and head off to the race, hoping to find other runners new to the scene, especially ones that we could possibly beat. Pulling into the carpark of race registration there were no such runners to be found. Everyone looked 1. extremely fit 2. extremely experienced. Yikes. Our courage was completely shattered when at the pre-race briefing the race director stated "anyone who hasn't run this race before, or is unfamiliar with the course, should probably not be here". Awesome.
A few minutes into the race I decided that advertising this event as a "run" is a bit misleading. I would categorize it as an extreme hike, followed by controlled falling, then racing on jelly legs to the next mountain. Seems crazy enough right? Well factor in the "tablecloth" aka the gigantic cloud that usually rests on the mountain. At a certain point it felt like I was in a wind tunnel with cold mist coming at me from all directions, so powerful that 5 people I was with at the time went down on all fours holding on to each other and the rock we were climbing up. I realize I do crazy stuff sometimes, but at this point I decided this was more extreme than usual. Made it to the first checkpoint on top of Devil's peak and had to shout my race number to someone who most definitely drew the short stick of volunteer jobs. The weather up there seemed more fitting for an Everest base camp of sorts. Don't know how he stayed warm up there!
In between legs we stopped for food and water refill with my friend's family, who had showed up in their aqua Volkswagen bus, an ideal support vehicle! Heading up platteklip gorge I made another interesting observation, the strategically placed rock steps must have been created for a giant, because I nearly had my knee in my chest trying to climb up them. The gorge was the first full leg using headlamps which wasn't too bad until we hit the cloud again and visibility went down to abut 2 ft. No worries, if you slip on the rocks you have your pick of barbed wire fencing of nasty prickly bushes to grab onto. Yipee. Throughout this whole adventure there were constant "humor meter level" checks and surprisingly, with each obstacle we seemed to just laugh it off. Needing to change headlamp batteries with the wind flattening you against a mountain, getting lost 20 meters after the table mountain beacon, running out of water on leg 2...One couple actually mistook us for bat run regulars (apparently chatting while scrambling up mountains makes other people think you know what you are doing and have done said task multiple times before). In fact, we did fairly well for newbies, only getting lost twice!
The last leg of our adventure was up lion's head, the only peak not blanketed by clouds. This finally allowed us to see the full moon the most incredible view of the city bowl as we made the final ascent. Seeing bobbing headlamps snaking up the trails of all the mountains were so crazy awesome! Even felt fresh enough to do the more difficult chains route (metal chains and hand holds drilled into the rock face to climb up along with a few ladders). The downhill into the carpark was one of the greatest feelings of relief ever! Despite keeping our spirits high the whole night we were both cursing downhill steps by the end, poor knees and toes! 6 hours and 55 minutes after we started, the bat run was finally finished (and we weren't even DFL, success).
Staring out the window watching the stars and ocean as I sipped on some fresh orange carrot juice in the back of the vw, with sore legs and completely covered in mud and scratches I decided in this moment everything was right with the world. Maybe I am just mental. All I can say is my bed was so incredibly inviting that I decided to throw a huge towel down and pass out right there. Seemed too much of an effort to try and scrub 7 hrs of grime off the body at 3am. Seriously though, I can try and describe this weekend as best as I can, but nothing comes close to actually witnessing this adventure. Still trying to wrap my head around what actually just happened. I am just so crazy thankful that I managed to find a place in the world that have people that love ridiculousness as much as me. I have heard that there are normal people living here in Cape Town, wonder why I haven't managed to meet them yet.
