Fish Hoek is a town in Western Cape, formally part of Cape Town but the other side of the mountain to Cape Town’s downtown. It’s coastal, though the parkrun is inland a couple of miles (not quite) from the sea. The course is flat, though the terrain is ever changing, with berms, molehills, rough terrain and longer grass. Most find it a minute or two slower than other flat courses. For me, it was my fastest run of the year, but so much depends on how my duff leg happens to be on the day that no one should read too much into that. I was pleased, though.
The event runs over two different laps; an inner loop of about 2km, then an outer one with a few extra bits for the other 3km. It’s easy to follow, even on your own at the front, following one colour arrows for the inner loop, then the other colour for the outer, with several marshals waving us on. It’s even easier with regulars to follow, so I just got on with running. There are hazards, low bollards, changing height of terrain, a couple of short steeps slopes, so if you’re right behind them, it’s best to follow their line unless you’re on one of the wider sections.
I was staying 4 miles away and got an Uber to the start, which took me to the cricket and hockey club (until I asked him to drop me short of there, in the car park on the other side of the road - you can see the parkrun flag, cones and so on from the road). It was a dry start though I was to get pretty wet when run/walking back.
The setting is very scenic, with those mountains (the highest is over 500m) giving a great backdrop in the distance. The course, with undulating ground, keeps shifting perspective and you should be alert to what’s coming up underfoot. It’s not the most difficult, but there are plenty of places to get slightly the wrong position - a slight up will break your stride, a momentary bit of indecision as to the best way down a small slope will slow you, and so on. It’s a great, thoughtful course.
I had offered to volunteer if needed, which gave me an excuse to chat to the event team beforehand, though a runner and scanner was not needed in the end. I was given a warm welcome, which became even warmer when I whipped off my long-sleeved top to reveal a 500 shirt underneath. A few runners had enough puff to comment on it while we were running which was entertaining and helped motivate me to keep some sort of effort going round the course. One of the youngsters said “500! You should be at the front with that!” which was a nice thought, though I could only offer “I wish!” in return.
People hung around to cheer people in at the end, albeit from the partial shelter of some trees at the edge of the course as the rain ebbed and flowed. There were plenty of walkers, and 8 first-timers. I hope everyone felt as welcome as I did.
The walk back was also lovely, particularly the grassy path that continues from Riverside Road and the paths by the Silwermynrivier. On the latter was the constant burble of (I think) frogs, with the mountain vista to keep an eye on. From the name you can guess what people attempted here, but in fact there was no silver to be found. The name sticks, and the nature reserve is now part of Table Mountain National Park. It’s a great place to enjoy the fynbos.
Results from Fish Hoek parkrun #399, 22/4/23; 189 finishers