ARD 3 Vlei Race 2026 is a 10 km race on Sunday 8 November, starting at 06:30 at Klip Road, Grassy Park, Cape Town. The course climbs about 32 m in total.
Grassy Park's own 10 km: from Fairmount Secondary on Klip Road past Princess Vlei, Rondevlei and Zeekoevlei, then home up First Road. Flat, fast and full of club buses.
06:30, Klip Road outside Fairmount Secondary School, Grassy Park. The 5 km fun walk starts at 06:50
Fairmount Secondary School. The 2026 cut-off is not published yet (it was 08:30 in 2019)
It climbs about 32 m in total. The highest point is 17 m above sea level, at km 0.3.
Water tables on the course; the organisers have not published where
Sportsmans Warehouse Rondebosch or Fairmount Secondary: Friday 6 November, 15:00 to 18:00, and Saturday 7 November, 10:00 to 17:30. Race morning at Fairmount only, 05:30 to 06:30
Online until 31 October or until full: 10 km R120 licensed, R180 unlicensed; 5 km R50. Limited entries on the day
A sub-60 shield for under an hour, medals for everyone else and a lucky draw. Trophies for the fastest buses and the biggest bus (10 or more runners in the same club colours who finish together), which also wins R3,000
06:30 · km 0
You start on Klip Road beside Fairmount Secondary, where you also finish. About 2,000 people run the 10 km, many of them in club buses: ten or more runners in the same colours who finish together. The biggest bus wins a trophy and R3,000. The course stays between 7 and 17 metres above the sea.
km 0.5 to 1.3 · Klip Road
West down Klip Road through Grassy Park, which grew up from the early 1900s on the old Montagu's Gift estate. Under apartheid, families forced out of areas declared white were resettled here. On this stretch a mosque and a church stand a couple of hundred metres apart.
km 1.3 to 2.7 · Prince George Drive
Left onto Prince George Drive, with Princess Vlei on your right. The legend says a Khoe princess lived in a cave on the mountain behind it, Elephant's Eye, and that her tears filled the vlei. From 1998 developers tried to build a shopping mall on its shore. The community fought them, with Desmond Tutu behind the campaign, until the City cancelled the sale in 2014. It is now a provincial heritage site.
km 4 · Perth Road and Fishermans Walk
Along the edge of Rondevlei Nature Reserve, past its gate on the corner of Perth Road and Fishermans Walk. It started as a bird sanctuary in 1952, and about 230 kinds of birds have been recorded here, among them great white pelicans and African spoonbills.
km 4.5 · Cape Town's only hippos
Hippos were hunted out of Cape Town about 300 years ago. Rondevlei brought two back in 1981 and two more in 1983, to keep down an invasive grass, and they are still the only hippos in Cape Town. Now and then one goes walkabout: in April 2024 a hippo called Scar was seen in the streets of Grassy Park.
km 4.7 to 6.8 · Peninsula Road
Out along Peninsula Road, a strip of land between two lakes, with Zeekoevlei on one side and Rondevlei on the other. Zeekoevlei is the largest stretch of inland water in Cape Town, about 256 hectares, and its name means hippo lake: seekoei is Afrikaans for hippo. Halfway is out here on the peninsula.
km 5.8 · Skipper's End
Out to Skipper's End and back, past the Zeekoe Vlei Yacht Club. It was founded in 1932 at a meeting on the veranda of a house called Skipper's, and four of its members sailed at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. The Alfred Rowing Club, founded in 1864, has shared the clubhouse since 1986.
km 7.7 to 9.5 · First Road
The long straight home: almost two kilometres up First Road, back through Grassy Park, where the neighbours come out to their gates to cheer. Our Lady Queen of Peace church, here since 1962, is on your right at km 8.8. If the wind is from the south, it is behind you now.
km 9.5 to 10 · Fairmount
Across Klip Road and round by Blou and Maroon Roads into Fairmount Secondary. In 2024, 814 of the 1,976 finishers came in under an hour for the sub-60 shield. Edward Jack has won the last four races, with a best of 29:18 in 2022, and in 2025 Nomvuyisi Seti won the women's race after kicking off her shoes at 2 km and running the rest barefoot.
Route: runners' race-day GPS tracks from 2023 to 2025 (Ride with GPS), matched to OpenStreetMap. Times, awards and race numbers: the official entry page