RACE REPORT - I am a survivor of the UTCT 100 MILER by Etienne Ralphs

D Day – 5pm Friday 25 Nov 2022

The culmination of a focused 4-month training block with many 100km+ weeks.

After some car lift PT on race day, I eventually toe’d the line with 140 other brave, or stupid, runners. The atmosphere was electric and DVG and the Gibbons brothers next to me started to get our heads ready for what was to come. Strangely I had zero nerves…just wanted to get going! I will never forget that start, huge emotion and massive spectator support.

The run through town was fast as usual and as soon as we were off the dreaded black stuff and on signal hill single tracks, I decided to slow it down a bit. Long, long way still to go.
DVG and Co disappeared into the distance as expected. 15km in my lower back started playing up, (story on how I hurt it two weeks out another time), but on top of that my right knee developed a very sharp pain under my patella every time I took a step up! WTF, I still had 150km to go and already the negative thoughts were creeping in! As we do, we carry on and hope it goes away.

Kloof Nek water table passed as the sun was setting and the wind and cold started arriving up Kloof Nek corner, as always there was such an awesome support there that you forget about the burning climb. Contour was uneventful and we started up my nemesis, Platteklip, in howling winds. By now I had base layer and wind jacket extra buff and gloves on.
Up and Up with a few lonely soles passing as we went, then Armageddon arrived! 2 thirds up I experience the strongest winds ever felt on a mountain, literally hurricane force and the wind chill dropped to below zero degrees. Had to change to rain jacket as it had a hood and extra buff on head. Freezing condition, total numb face, legs and fingers, for the next 4 hours on top of Table Mountain. A long slow trek across the Twelve Apostle’s solo…being blown off my feet on two occasions by these gusts.

Arrived ahead of my scheduled time at Llandudno and ate some warm noodle soup and took a gel (Maurten) at aid station for energy up the rocket road climb. And there I messed with the cardinal rule of not trying something new on race day. 30 min later nausea and vomiting! 45Kmin to race. Composed myself and the Suffer peak climb and run into Hout Bay passed by in a flash! Across the beach and then a surprise, just before aid station, that we had to cross river that was waist deep. Freezing but awesome for my already sore legs.

My seconds met me for first time at Hout Bay aid station (59k) and I changed socks, refuelled and took some time to try eating solids on my empty stomach, ended up being watermelon and oranges. I experienced my first sunset and still on schedule.

The long grind up Blackburn was rewarded with usual great view from top of look out point and then the leg relieving long down through Silvermine. As you know the UTCT is a very front-loaded run (almost 4000m climbing in 76km) so enjoyed the tar road down until, disaster, my tread on my new Olympus 5’s came off on one shoe! SMS’d Ashton to bring my old shoes to the Kalk Bay aid station.

Arrived in Kalk Bay, now behind schedule but received an awesome welcome From Bev Mac and her team, lots of friendly faces all offered great words of support and mentioned how strong I looked. (Really!) This helped my moral and took my time refuelling, changes shoes had my now customary Red Bull and said bye to my seconds.

Next stop would be Simonstown at almost 100km. I was on a mission to reach that first milestone! By now the sun was high in the sky, it was windy and getting very hot.
I hated the Elsies -Brakkenkloof section, too much sand and my feet started taking stain.
Negativity started creeping in and I stopped on a shady rock outcrop to contemplate what still lay ahead. I was nauseous again and the thought of maybe calling it at 100km was real! That was still a great effort hey! I was passed by quite a few runners, and I powerwalked till Blackhill. Suppose a good time to mentioned if you are every thinking of doing these silly long distanced you need these second legs, your trusted trekking poles! My Black Diamond Carbon z-poles kept my rhythm going through the run.

I eventually made Simonstown after a similar Blackhill sandy grind and was met by friends and my now favourite people in the world, my seconds.
What a vibe at this aid station, Wildfire services, I took my time, cleaned my feet, changes shirt and cap, cooled down and ate solids. But more importantly, after listening to a voicemail from my son and my wife’s lecture on …YOU WILL FINISH THIS RUN!… I created a mantra to help counter any further thoughts of quitting.

It was simple but effective, “One aid station at a time will get you to the Finish line!”, this I repeated at every niggle I felt, or negative thought. O yes, I had been running now for 20hours and awake for 28hrs. Thank you Red Bull!

With renewed positivity and a strong will to finish I tackled the Signal Hill steps and got going on more sandy single tracks and rocky climbs all the way to Kommetjie.
It was cooling down a bit and on arriving at the base of the Kommetjie hill more family and lots of familiar faces and friends were there to greet me. I even had them cleaning my feet for me and changing shoes and socks again! Thanks to Marci for arranging the Gees there, helps so much on a run like this!

It was then onto the beach section, but it was just off high tide, and the SE was strong and sandblasting us running on the soft sand boundary was tough.
I could only power hike this section and arrived further behind schedule at Noordhoek aid station after running 26hrs! Awesome group at this station as well.

By now my soles of my feet felt as if they had been sand papered and on looking around me in the aid station saw EVERYONE having their feet treated for blisters, and taping.
I cleaned my feet again and asked medic to help my feet, but blisters hadn’t surfaced yet, so just had to put clean socks on and deal with the very painful feet. It was getting dark now and we had to start the infamous Chappies steep side climb, with the wind howling again.

At this stage we had been informed the Hout Bay fire had meant we were being diverted and would miss out on doing the Vlakkenberg section of the race. This was somewhat of a relief considering how I was feeling.

The wind picked up and I was truly scared going up this ridge line as you were literally being blown off the trail. I passed a few runners and worried about them as looked very unstable on their feet. Made the top and wasted no time making my way down to the saddle. The wind was gusting hectically and making my way along the horrid technical contour to Blackburn, I was once again literally blow 3m through the air onto a rock shelf off the contour! Huge wake call to focus! Passed two more runners. Made my way down the Blackburn detour to a waiting shuttle who would take us to next aid station a Constantia Glen. I was frustrated here as I had found my 3^rd wind and was first to arrive at shuttle and had to wait 15 min for more runners to arrive. Used this time to charge my watch and phone but forgot to take advantage for a little nap. I did chat to Ryan on the phone and received some needed positive reinforcement!

At this stage I had been running for 30hrs and awake almost 40hrs. All new territory for me…

We continued as soon as arriving at Constantia Glen on the short runnable path to Alphen trail. It was here that for the first time in the race I was joined by two runners
for company, both seasoned ultra-runners and also having their own ‘suffering’ we made our way to Alphen trail, refuelled, had my 7^th Red Bull of the day and got going after 10 min as we this was the last stretch of 20 odd more Km’s and we would be done!

Now for those that know the contour section to UCT, it super technical in the daytime, so you can imagine at night that this section literally became un-runnable!

Very tired bodies, poor eyesight, inflamed knees and sore feet after tripping, and sliding so many times we decided to just power hike the section and run the boardwalks.
How I loved 400 steps at 150Km into the run! went on forever and hated the new section into UCT, we were very frustrated with this change, feeling lost at times and me even frustrated with Dan who was leading us! Asking multiple times is he sure we not lost!

O yes, I was also seeing cute little faces in the leaves on the ground by this stage…and those 3 burnt log black cats.

Arrived at a very quiet UCT at 4am walked through the light tunnel and in to aid station. Was freezing now and my seconds, Tash and Ashton, I could see were clearly as frustrated on how long that section had taken. They too had been awake with me the last 20hrs. I felt bad and tried to get going quickly to finish this monster off. A couple more runners who had been ahead of us must have had a bad section as I saw them coming in.

To my surprise my two fellow runners, got up and left me there without a word! Must have been my, are we lost comments. Well this ‘spurred me on”. I changed into my warm kit and wind breaker for the block house section and set off after my deserters. I caught them on the first section of the #&%# blockhouse climb and decided, lets show them. I powered past them on that steepest of section and maintained my pace all the way to the Blockhouse. I literally think I may of PB’d some of that segment.

Passed two more runners and onto the long Devils Peak contour for the home stretch. The blast up to blockhouse had my feet on fire and I could feel how the blistered skin was moving around under my feet. Excruciating pain, but so close to finishing so I absorbed that pain and turned it into positive thoughts and reminded myself you are about to finish you debut 100miler! I managed to run a large part of the contour and watched my second sunrise!

Rounding the corner of Table Mountain, Deadman tree was insight and only some tar and rocky jeep tack left. Passed another runner who was limping on blister feet and reminded myself of my own pain, ruing what this effort will look like when I take my shoes off!

Down the boardwalks of Deerpark and up the steep bank at the finish.
I ran that grass section and saw a few familiar faces, lotsa high fives and then the unbelievable feeling of crossing that finish line with my family waiting there!
As you would have seen in my finish video, I even managed a little jump over the line!

It was a brutal race, so stoked to have ticked this box, which wouldn’t have been possible without my seconds, Tash and Ashton and all the friends on route who believed in me finishing when I at times didn’t and my poles which I carried the entire race as one got stuck and could fold away!