Bat Run 2007

The BAT RUN
Devil's Peak – 6hours
Maclear's via Platteklip Gorge – 4.5 hours
Lion's Head – 2.5hours

That's how Mike Lundy's Best Walks in the Cape Peninsula times these three beasts. Well the routes might not be exactly the same, but uphill is a monster no matter which way you look at it.
Silly things normally start in a bar somewhere, and I can confirm that these roots definitely are firmly entrenched in a hotel bar.

Way way back in 1897, some dutch couraged fit guy, claimed he could climb Devil's Peak, Maclears and Lion's Head all in a day, returning to the same spot. He was sitting in the Johannesburg hotel bar(off greenmarket square) and made it the next day, stopping for a pint between each leg. The Three Peaks challenge was born, and is run to this day in early November. Clearly insanity needs to be exposed more than annually, so the Bat Run was started as a similar challenge, but at night. They lopped off some of the height too, with the rendezvous point being kloof nek instead.

I heard about it last Wednesday, and decided it was a crazy, insane must-do. Saturday 7pm I was lined up, not knowing what the hell was about to unleash. I'd loaded up a fair amount of water, a few energy bars and a headlamp. In the unlikely event of a blizzard, my space blanket would keep me warm. There was a whole lot of psyching out going on in the herd, with everyone Cape Storming each other with hardcore apparel, but eventually 60 other looneys trod off with me from the parking lot in a loose huddle along Tafelberg road. I'd found a guy who said he wasn't that fit, and we thought of doing it together. Somehow we got caught up in the excitement and were 4/5 at the end of Tafelberg, 20minutes into the race. Now for some reason I managed to run/power walk the whole way up Devil's Peak, something to do with Peer Pressure. I summited in 7th, in just under an hour, and headed back down.

What goes up must come down, but Newton didn't realise that down is sometimes the killer. You go way too fast, and if you don't wipe in the gloomy halflight, then your quads and hammies soon take you out. As day turned to dusk, the headlamps started coming out. Petzl and ultra bright LEDs make my day, but you still have to concentrate like mad to ensure that every footstep is placed correctly. A tiny lapse and you're on your face or ass. I had a few closies, but nothing that took me off my feet. Arriving back at the road, I looked up to see a surreal string of lights dangling from the peak all the way along the trail. Take that Bothasig! On the way to Platteklip Gorge I let a few keen beans charge down ahead, and hit the checkpoint in 11th. The point was manned by about 10 people, and they went beserk when I came in, now ninety minutes into the challenge. Sweeties, chocolate, sarmies, cheese, fruit, powerade and anything else a sweaty athlete would desire was placed on a spread before us. I went with an orange or two and charged up.

Platteklip Gorge is the most popular route up Table Mountain, it's also the shortest and therefore steepest. The trick seems to be go as fast as possible without having to take a break. I'd follow the dudes up ahead of me, only seeing them by the headlamps on switchbacks. I did pause to look out over Devil's Peak when the moon rose above it, full and yellow – what a sight. When I eventually reached the top, I was huffing like the wolf from the fairytales. It levels off quite quickly onto a decent hard surface and Maclear's Beacon was approached at a little canter. The leaders passed me pretty soon, the first competitors I'd seen since Devil's Peak, and they were flying! The one bonus is that I actually did beat the timekeeper to the checkpoint, by about 30 seconds. Once again, conditions were perfect, hardly any wind, and the night air was beginning to cool slightly. I managed to overhaul one guy on the return, overtaking him when he wiped out! I was now sitting in 10th place, and everyone coming the other direction was telling me so! I took it really slow down Platteklip, and thankfully two dudes came flying past me halfway down. I didn't really want to end up hurting myself just to make the top 10, as I was now starting to feel REALLY tired.

I made it down to the checkpoint to see the same crowd, but just bigger cheers now. I filled up on some watermelon and my legs were just shaking uncontrollably. It was now that I was really thinking of pulling out. It had been three and a half hours of hard going, and I still had Lion's Head to do.

I stupidly even managed to miss the shortcut on Tafelberg Road, which skips the huge switchback. The hardest was going past the parking lot, and checking out my car...waiting for me. When I got to the turnoff to start Lion's Head, I decided there and then – no more RUNNING. So I walked the rest of the way, no matter who comes past! I'd gone out way to fast and was now totally gone, my race position fading like Comet McNaught. It was really cool watching the leaders from far away, as the headlamps are so visible. By now they had started down and the first three came past in rapid succession. Spare a thought for the eventual winner, he missed the record by a paltry minute. The ladders and chains all went by subconciously, and eventually I had summited to the great 360' view. There was little time to hang around, the only consolation was that I did beat the first girl to the top. She flew past me shortly thereafter. I coasted to the finish, only running when some lady asked me why the hell I was walking downhill!



I had no idea what time I was going to do, but thought sometime less than 7 hours. So in the end 5:07, just over an hour behind the leader and 16th out of 63 starters, was pretty good. Mike Lundy suggests 13 hours, during daylight. It was a really cool event, no sponsors/no prizes, entry fee goes towards padkos and donation to TMNP. Who's keen to do it next year, first full moon of Feb? It's ticked off my list, hope you enjoy it!

stats(1st, me, last)
ParticipantDevil'sPlatteklipMaclear'sPlatteklipKloof NekFinish Time
Middleton, Owen 19:58 20:23 21:21 21:56 22:08 23:05 04:05
Burnett, Steven 20:00 20:39 21:39 22:34 22:47 00:08 05:08
Westrandt, Hendrik20:26 21:44 23:23 01:03 01:30 03:48 08:48