A vineyard race near Cape Town—with wine in the swag bag? Sign us up!
This cozy, laid-back series lets you choose: a casual run or an all-out race. Naturally, we went for the 10K race option, as there was a chance to snag an extra bottle of wine with a podium finish.
The event was small, with just 40 runners at the Saturday 7:40 a.m. start. The race director gave us a crash course on the course: an 11K (not 10K) “butterfly” route marked with pink arrows for the first 5K and red for the last 6K. Sure, because nothing screams “straightforward” like trail markings that require a calculator.
Kai and I set off, and within a few kilometres, the lead runners—Siyabonga and Charl—vanished like they had VIP access to a secret trail. A few minutes later, they reappeared on a parallel path. Did they get lost? Did we get lost? Who knows—it’s a vineyard race, not NASA.
When my watch hit 5K exactly at the halfway mark, I figured we were still on track. We continued to follow the two leaders.
By kilometre 8, Charl began to slow. After a moment of hesitation, I decided to overtake him and set my sights on Siyabonga, who was a few hundred meters ahead. But just before the finish, we hit a snag—Siyabonga stopped, unsure of the route. I joined him, equally clueless, until Charl and Kai shouted from behind, “Turn right!” Siyabonga bolted like a man with a wine bottle waiting, and I followed close behind, crossing the finish with my watch reading exactly 11K.
Later, we all checked the routes on our watches and had a good laugh—so much for the butterfly shape!
There was an Italian speciality shop on-site and we couldn’t resist getting a mini panettone. It’s been years since I last had one, and it felt like a perfect post-race indulgence.
It had also been a while since I joined my running club, so when they announced a new monthly “5K Beer Run,” it seemed like a good opportunity to reconnect. After the run, we gathered at the clubhouse to enjoy a beer (or a Coke). The clubhouse is a bit outdated and in need of an overhaul, but its stunning sea view makes up for it.
In completely unrelated news, I was thrilled to discover that, for the first time ever, Garmin awarded me a perfect sleep score of 100! But of course, Garmin being Garmin, it followed that win with a snarky “unproductive” training status two days later. You just can’t win!
Oh, and Kai and I debuted matching Roadrunner shirts last week. Now what would Garmin say to that?! “Beep-beep! Cute shirts. Now maybe focus on running?”
- Panettone with or without candied fruit?
- Do you wear silly running shirts? Or even worse, matching silly shirts?
I’m joining Runs with Pugs and The Running Teacher’s link-up, Tuesday Topics. I’m also joining Runner’s Roundup with Mile By Mile, Coach Debbie Runs, Confessions of a Mother Runner and Runs with Pugs.
Liebe Catrina,
da ist aber viel Alkohol im Spiel bei dir. Erst Wein, dann Bier…
So ein verrückter Lauf, da scheinen die Organisatoren aber schon vorher ordentlich ihren Wein verkostet zu haben! Mich hätte das zur Weißglut getrieben, so eine schlecht organisierte Strecke! Euch nicht?! Aber ihr habt den Humor nicht verloren, gut so. Den Wein habt ihr euch verdient, und den Panettone auch. Ich habe noch nie einen solchen gefunden, der mir geschmeckt hätte.. Kandierte Früchte sind auch nicht so meins.
Eure Shirts sind witzig! Ich habe kein solches im Schrank, schau aber auch nicht gezielt danach.
Liebe Grüße (oder sollte ich sagen “Prost”?) aus dem gruselig nasskalten Rheinland!
Elke
Liebe Elke
Nur der Glühwein fehlt! Oder im Falle von Doris Glühmost. 😂
Ein bisschen haben wir uns schon aufgeregt, besonders Charl war genervt, aber danach, als wir alle im Ziel waren, konnten wir darüber lachen. Hinzu kommt noch, dass die beiden Männer vor uns etwa einen halben Kilometer mehr gerannt sind als wir… voll wirr, das Ganze.
Panettone kann nicht ganz mit den Grittibänzen mithalten! Kandierte Früchte mag ich auch nicht, die pulle ich alle einzeln raus.
Mit deinem Näh-Talent musst du auch nicht nach solchen blöden Shirts suchen, die könntest du dir selber basteln! 😉
Liebe Grüsse aus dem immer wärmer werdenden Cape Town!
Schlag auf Schlag, könnte man bei dir/euch sagen – und jedes Mal ein neues, anderes Abenteuer. Dieses Mal wieder von der ganz anderen Art mit so wenigen Teilnehmern, das hatte ich noch nie. Und du wieder voll dabei – Glückwunsch, liebe Catrina !!
Dazu wieder die Wärme, der blaue Himmel – Sommer – wenn ich hier aus dem Fenster blicke: dunkel, kalt, windig, schlichtweg Wetter, um im Bett zu bleiben !! Ihr wisst schon, warum ihr dort unten weilt ! 😉
Wie gut, dass dich Garmin überwacht, da kann ja eigentlich nicht viel passieren !!
Silly shirts ? Never ever !!
Panettone ? Preferisco il vino italiano !😉
Das war wirklich mal etwas ganz anderes – klein, semi-professionell, aber richtig nett. Wir haben uns gefreut, wieder eine neue Gegend zu entdecken und das Ganze mit ein bisschen Lauferei zu verbinden. Die Weinflaschen stehen übrigens immer noch unberührt im Regal – sie machen sich als gute Mitbringsel für Einladungen.
November und Dezember sind keine einfachen Monate bei euch da oben, aber es dauert nicht mehr lange, bis es wieder aufwärts geht! Außerdem hat es ja auch etwas, diesen Kontrast zwischen der gemütlich warmen Stube und dem rauen Outdoorwetter zu spüren. Ich weiss, dass du dich als Ultrageist nicht vom dunklen Wetter unterkriegen lässt!
Italienischer Wein ist fantastisch! Ha, und jetzt bringst du mich auf eine Idee: Panettone mit Prosecco – die perfekte Italianità!
Liebe Catrina,
egal, wie oft du beschreibst oder erzählst, wie die Streckenführung eures weinseligen Bewerbs verlief, ich bin noch immer verwirrt. 😆 Trotzdem natürlich eine tolle Ausbeute an Start- und Gewinngeschenken!
Pannetone mag ich nicht – die kandierten Früchte schmecken mir gar nicht und den Teig finde ich zu trocken.
Bei eurem Laufclub dürfte es so ähnlich ablaufen, wie hier bei uns. Nur schauen wir nach dem Laufen (leider) nicht aufs Meer. 😉
Deine Garmin ist doch eine alte Nörgeltante. Gefällt ihr der Schlaf, beanstandet sie dein Training und (vermutlich) umgekehrt! Da hilft nur eins – rein in die Schublade mit ihr! 😀
Liebe Doris,
das freut mich – dann bist du ja genauso verwirrt wie ich! 🤣 Ich glaube, nach Abzug der Anmeldegebühren sind wir gerade so mit einer schwarzen Null rausgekommen. Offenbar hatten die Organisatoren hatten ihre Kalkulation besser im Griff als die Streckenführung.
Gerade das „Trockene“ liebe ich! Und dann schön dick Butter drauf…mhm.
Das habe ich mir auch gedacht, als ich euren Laufclub-Abend gesehen habe. Nur hattet ihr Kekse, und bei uns haben sie noch den Grill angeschmissen. Kekse wären mir lieber!
Diese Garmin-Despotin (ich habe soeben beschlossen, dass sie eine Frau ist) würde vermutlich sogar aus der Schublade noch ihre Befehle brüllen! 😂
Those t-shirts are hilarious and soooo great no matter what the grinches at Garmin say..!
Hmm, I’d say panettone without the candied fruit for me. I like them, but as separate snacks (and preferably together with some kind of nuts) and energy bursts.
PS: Did you ever find out the intended route from the organizers? Does it really look like a butterfly?
Haha, I’m so glad you love them, Riitta! Now we just need to build up the nerve to wear them somewhere with actual people around! 😂
Oh, I never thought of that! Candied fruit with nuts as a snack sounds fancy. I like raisins in panettone too, but only in small, non-threatening doses.
The announcer told us his colleague was responsible for the route and assured him it was butterfly-shaped. But when we showed him our graphs, he squinted, laughed, and said, “Oh yeah, a butterfly… if you’ve had a couple of drinks first!” 😅
Haha, that’s an interesting butterfly shape! That looks like a fun race. How cool to see an all-in for il panettone outside Italy. My favourite is/was always the pandoro. I’m not a fan of candied fruit.
Weeks after I had a very light cold recently, my Garmin told me each morning that I was basically sick and dying, but I felt fine and went to the gym!
Oh, pandoro! I think they had that in the shop, too! The place was packed with all sorts of panettone—there must be a big Italian community hiding somewhere in Cape Town!
It’s actually comforting to know I’m not the only one getting those overly dramatic “warnings” from Garmin. So dramatic! I’m glad you ignored it and stuck with your workouts—you definitely know your body better than Garmin does!
Congrats on snagging those bottles of wine with those great race performances! Hmmm, maybe that butterfly is flapping his wings so hard that they’re all over the place. LOL Garmin can be such a brat!
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever tried panettone even though I see it for sale all over the place and my husband comes from an Italian family. If I were to try it, I’d choose without the candied fruit. Now, please tell me about that amaretto candy I see next to the happy cookie.
Haha, it really was such a fun event, Debbie! Those bottles will be perfect for dinner invitations—great conversation starters, too!
WHAAAT?! No panettone in your house, even with your husband’s Italian roots? I’m shocked! But with your baking skills, I’m sure he doesn’t even miss it. 😉
That amaretto was incredible—soft in the middle, perfectly crunchy on the outside, and just the right hit of almond flavour. Seriously, why are Italians so annoyingly good at all things food?!
Will race for wine!!! And the puzzle medals!!!! It was well worth the confusion over the route.
I like to joke about wearing matching outfits but the hubs won’t have it. I might just have to buy us something that matches and surprise him.
Absolutely! We could sample the wine after the race (well, Kai did) and apparently it was very good.
Ha, I sympathize with your husband! We wore our shirts on a deserted trail… I don’t dare to wear it in public. Let me know your husband’s reaction when you surprise him!!
I am not a huge fan of panetonne, with or without fruit. We just had it so much growing up, and I prefer more chocolate things. I love that they offered it.
That race sounds right up my alley! 40 people is a small field! Congratulations to you both!
And I am ALL about funny and matching shirts! So awesome!
In that case, you must have grown up in an Italian household – or at least, someone in the family loved Italian food! 😊
I am Swiss, so I’ve had a lot of THAT growing up – and now I prefer cookies and cake, ha!
I am sure you would have loved this setting!
Right?! It does take a bit of courage to wear them though! 🤣
This was such a fun read for me, and a well-run race for you guys. The butterfly route, ha! And the Garmin stuff 🙂 It’s highly doubtful I’ll ever get a “passing” score on my sleep, LOL.
It was a fun run! I’m sure you would have love this event, Kim. Although the medals were not quite up to the standard that you get at your races!
Who knows? Maybe you’re an efficient sleeper and Garmin would honour that with a special badge!
Congrats on another fab race! You sure are crushing it lately! I see Pannetone all the time but have not had it. Definitely would go without the fruit 🙂
Thank you, Deborah! Despite all the chaos, it ended up being quite enjoyable. I hope you get to try the panettone… not sure it’s as good as your braided bread, though!
Love your shirts, and congrats on your race! I just switched back to Garmin from Coros and am learning about sleep scores and all the other notifications. So far it does not think I sleep very well!
Oh, the Garmin stats are relentless! I found them life-changing in my case. I go to bed earlier and hardly drink alcohol anymore. 🤣
What were the Coros stats like?
Congrats on a great race! If I ran a race where wine was prize, especially South African wine, I’m certain I could push myself to win a prize! Your photos are beautiful.
I have been getting used to my Oura ring, which tracks sleep. I’ve been mostly scoring in the 90s–what does one have to do to score a 100? LOL
Thank you, Wendy! Wine can be a great motivator! 😂
Oh, you’re doing well! If only I knew what contributed to that score! I went to bed at 10pm and got up at 5.30am. I remember I was very tired and went straight to sleep without reading. Maybe it was that? 🤔
I would love a wine run, though the chance of landing on the podium would be slim. Nice job to you. If I try really hard I can almost see the butterfly in that course. Kind of. I’ve never had a perfect sleep score! I don’t usually wear my Garmin to bed buy my Oura ring usually scores me in the 70-80s. I miss the days when I would go to bed, fall asleep and wake up in the morning without any dog issues or potty needs.
I think if you have a good sense of direction you would have had a good chance to podium in this race! 😀
70-80 is not that bad actually. I know what you mean with the potty needs. I’m up twice every night. I should drink less tea before going to bed!
Congratulations on that 11k win, Catrina. An amazing accomplishment when particularly the directions were a little uncertain. Looking at your map, that’s a lot of twists and turns. It I look hard enough there is “sort of” a butterfly there.
Thank you, Carl! It was very confusing! But it wasn’t a serious run, and it gave us something to laugh about later on. Our route looked more like a butterfly’s flight when looking for pollen!
I hope everything is fine with you, Carl! Are you still working as a crossing guard?
Thank you, Catrina. I’m doing well. Still doing crossing guard. Still crazy dangerous. A fatality yesterday from a crash on that same highway 1 kilometer from where I work. Nov. 4th another death less than a kilometer away. 🚸
Oh my goodness, that’s insane! Stay safe, Carl, and thank you for taking care of the kids! ❤️
You are welcome, Catrina. I can’t put a photo on the comments here. But here’s the link to yesterday’s crash. Devastating.
https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/serious-multi-vehicle-crash-on-highway-93-under-investigation-1.7149810
Oh my, that looked really bad! I feel so sorry for the family of the person who died. Stay safe out there, Carl! ❤
Liebe Catrina,
ich hätte bei dem Lauf gegrummelt, oder mehr von mir gegeben, aber es wäre laut zu verstehen gewesen, allerdings nur in meiner ehrgeizigeren Zeit! 😆 Ihr habt es ja mit Humor genommen, da hätte ich mich dann wahrscheinlich auch in meinem Ehrgeiz bremsen lassen! 😛
Alkohol ist ja überhaupt nicht meins, den Wein hätte ich wohl gleich verschenkt. Beim Vereinslauf wäre ich dann wohl ohne etwas zu trinken nach Hause gegangen, mag ich doch keine Cola, Coke oder dergleichen! … oder gab’s alkoholfreies Pils?
Panettone, wenn sie nicht zu trocken ist, dann kann sie auch ohne kandierte Früchte sein. Gerade am Donnerstag hat sie recht gut geschmeckt. Mit Butter bestreichen ist gut, die hatten sie am Donnerstag leider nicht geboten! Die kandierte Früchte sollten nicht zu zäh sein und in den Zähnen hängen bleiben, dann viel lieber ohne! Ansonsten mag ich lieber den nicht so trockenen Kuchen!
Silly Shirts??? – Es käme aufs Motiv an. Zählen Sprüche wie z. B. Zeitungsausschnitte zum Abstieg einer Mannschaft dazu, die es dann doch schafft nicht abzusteigen? – Ansonsten wüsste ich nicht, dass ich so etwas habe!
Bleibe dran, fit und gesund und lass dich von deiner Garmin-Despotin nicht unterkriegen!
Aus dem dunklen und kalten Darmstadt (boah eh, ich geh gleich ins Stadion bei ca. 0°)
liebe Grüße Manfred
Lieber Manfred,
es war so bizarr und komisch – da hättest du auch nur lachen können! 🤣 Ein paar auf A4 ausgedruckte Hinweise an strategischen Punkten hätten gereicht, um die Route etwas verständlicher zu machen.
Den Wein haben wir noch ungeöffnet hier. Wir warten auf eine passende Gelegenheit, ihn zu verschenken – zusammen mit Schweizer Schokolade kommt das immer gut an. 😊 Im Clubhaus gibt es eine kleine Bar, und zuerst haben wir alle Wasser getrunken. Ich bin mir sicher, dass es dort auch alkoholfreies Bier gab. Ich habe aber zur Cola gegriffen – nach 13km hatte ich einfach richtig Lust darauf!
Die Panettone hätte dir sicher gefallen! Wir hatten eine Variante mit Rosinen, die war echt super.
Dein Vorschlag für ein „silly shirt“ zählt auf jeden Fall! 😄 Allerdings ist ein Zeitungsartikel als Motiv vielleicht nicht ganz so ideal, weil zufällige Passanten das nicht schnell lesen und den Witz erkennen können. Aber in einer geselligen Runde mit Vereinskollegen passt das wunderbar!
Danke – ich hoffe, du hast im Stadion nicht allzu sehr gefroren! Du bist eben ein echter Fan, den selbst die Kälte nicht abschreckt.
Liebe Grüße aus dem kühlen Kapstadt!
Omg the matching shirts are adorable! Congrats to you and Kai on the speedy 10k and taking home that bonus bottle of wine. Maybe the course was designed in the shape of the way butterflies fly?? Haha!
I was thinking the same! And probably a butterfly that’s had a bit of wine, too! 🤣
It sounds like Siyabonga and Charl have a side hustle in wine collecting (along with yourself and Kai!)
I can’t think of any better hobby myself though – cruising the vineyards on weekends to run and be in the ‘running’ to win prizes like that!
I also chuckled when I saw your picture showing the course GPX line – that’s some crazy looking butterfly!
I had some trouble commenting a few weeks back on a post, and again this time. After some persistence I figured out Firefox web browser is not showing the wordpress login button on comments, but switching to Chrome worked. I was trying to login to your main site admin panel by mistake too – hopefully it didn’t flag me down and email alerts along to you for too many login attempts 😂
It looks like you have both been enjoying the Summer over there.
Oh, and we’re heading to the Cape soon! For a few months actually. We’ll be staying with some family in Knysna and then also touring around a bit in various AirBnBs. It’ll be great to meet up and do some hikes to ‘recce’ some of the mountains if your plans lined up at all. I would like to take on the 13 peaks 48 hour challenge so getting in some exploration of some of the trails to learn some of the route will be high up on my todo list!
Haha, it would make a good side hustle! Now we only need to sell the wine at a profit and we’re made! 😂
Oh, sorry about the commenting issues! Others have reported having problems, but I didn’t know that it was linked to the browser. I will ask the tech people about it. I got no alerts that anyone was trying to login to the WP admin site – although it would be an interesting test to see how far you can hack into the site!
WHHHAAAAT??? This is AMAZING news! We just spent a few days in Plettenberg Bay and ran in Knysna Forest, it’s an amazing place.
And the 13 Peaks! HOW COOL IS THAT??? I’d say you could easily do that in 48 hours – most likely you could do it in 24 hours. We would absolutely accompany you for a recce (but we’re not as fast as you) and also be your support crew on the day. It would be nice to have a few strong trail runners (as a relay team) doing it with you, too. We have all of that in Cape Town! Looking forward to seeing you here!
I think the main issue with comments was on my end. Otherwise they work here, but seem to take a long time to submit, so I just leave the tab open and don’t close it until its submitted.
We’ll get lots of time to explore places like Plettenberg Bay and the forest. Some good game reserves around there too.
A little closer to the time I’ll get in touch via email and see if I can get your numbers (Whatsapp maybe?) And then we could coordinate to do some hikes on the route. I have the whole GPX so could share that and maybe pick out some nice hikes along there. I wouldn’t need to run them, just hiking to explore is more than enough.
Very kind of you to offer support crew! We could catch up over there and see what sort of date might work.
WordPress updates can be frustrating at times – they’re meant to improve things, but sometimes they seem to slow my site down instead. Quite annoying! 🙄
We tackled the Perdekop Trail in Knysna while we were there, it was really nice. It’s a short one, just about 9.5 km through the forest, but I’d highly recommend it.
We did the 13 Peaks a while back, although it took us over a year to complete all the segments. Some parts were done in less-than-ideal weather (hello, fog!), so it would be great to do some of these again in sunny weather.
Definitely, let’s stay in touch via email as the date gets closer – it’s going to be exciting!
Das war definitiv mein Favourit deiner diesjährigen Läufe 😀 Soviel Durcheinander muss man einfach mit Humor nehmen, bei der Route müsste es eigentlich Tapferkeitsmedaillen geben! Wo bitte ist da der Schmetterling??!
Ganz großartig jedenfalls das alles und sogar noch mit Treppchen belohnt, gut gemacht.
Keine Panettone und keine Silly-Shirts übrigens.
Chaotisch, und keiner regt sich darüber auf! 😂 So etwas in der Schweiz oder in Deutschland würde ja gar nicht gehen.
Vielleicht waren es ja auch die Wein-Preise, die alle etwas besänftigt haben – es gab noch so eine Art Lotterie, wo die anderen Läufer auch Wein gewinnen konnten, und da wurde grosszügig verteilt. Die andere Preiskategorie war übrigens Tierfutter…. eine logische Kombination, nicht? 😅