Conquering Ultra Trail Cape Town
By James Baxendale on 24 October 2026
Introduced in 2014, the RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town has grown from a local favourite to a crown jewel on the Gran Canaria World Trail Majors circuit. Taking place this November, the event draws the world’s elite to the Mother City for a brutal, beautiful dance across the Cape Peninsula.
While the final starting list for 2026 is still under wraps, we can speculate on who might return based on last year's dramatic finishes. In 2025, the UT100 men’s race came down to a nail-biting sprint, with the USA's Jeff Mogavero edging out Dmitry Mityaev by just 31 seconds. Local favourite Matthew Healy rounded out that podium. On the women's side, Nepal’s Sunmaya Budha put on an absolute masterclass, running away with the UT100 victory by more than an hour. Over in the gruelling 100-miler, South Africa's Nicolette Griffioen completely smashed the course record, while Douglas Pickard took the men's title. It will be fascinating to see if these reigning champions return to defend their crowns against this year's fresh challengers.
The hype for 2026 is already off the charts, with record entries pushing the flagship UT100 distance toward a potential sellout. For those brave enough to take on the ultimate 160km beast, UTCT has also introduced "The Hundreds Wall of Honour" to commemorate runners who cross that finish line, celebrating an achievement that organizers say stays etched in a runner's DNA forever.
If you are taking on UTCT as a novice, be warned that the mountain doesn't care about your road marathon personal best. Trail running here requires specialized gear, acute concentration, and serious pacing. The mandatory gear list is strictly enforced alongside a cupless policy, meaning you must carry a minimum 300ml water reserve, a reusable cup, and a running pack at all times. Missing items like your waterproof jacket, first aid kit, or the pre-installed MYSOS app during a random spot check will slap you with brutal 15 to 30-minute time penalties.
When it comes to technical mountain descents, Table Mountain is notoriously rugged, rocky, and often hidden beneath dense fynbos, a far cry from smooth European single tracks. You need to practice looking ahead rather than staring directly at your feet, trusting your body to anticipate obstacles naturally. Keeping your strides short on those steep, slippery descents will help you maintain your centre of gravity and prevent you from overcommitting to a loose foothold.
Table Mountain also demands massive respect for its elevation profile, which is heavily front-loaded. The biggest mistake you can make is getting sucked into the early adrenaline and burning all your matches on those initial climbs. To make the monumental distance mentally digestible, chunk the race down into smaller aid-station-to-aid-station segments and swallow your pride to hike the steep sections.
To give you a realistic idea of how this strategy translates on race day, here is a fixed pacing example for a runner targeting a 15-hour finish on the 100km route. Because of the aggressive early elevation, your pace shouldn't be flat, it must adjust drastically depending on the terrain.
If all this talk of the mountain has you fired up to build your trail running calendar, we have you covered. Whether you are hunting down a local 10km to test your legs, or searching for an official qualifier for next year's UTCT, you can discover and enter your next event directly on RaceSpace. The trails are waiting, so grab your gear, lock in your next starting line, and we will see you out there.
