Timbercity Red Hill Marathon 2027 is a 13 km race on Saturday 30 January, starting at 06:00 at Fish Hoek Sport Fields, Cape Town. The course climbs about 172 m in total and has 1 water point.
The 13 km of Fish Hoek AC's 50th Red Hill: west on Kommetjie Road, over Black Hill on the Glencairn Expressway, down to Glencairn and home along False Bay to Fish Hoek.
06:00 on Kommetjie Road at the Fish Hoek Sport Fields, an hour after the marathon and the Classic 36 km (2026 times). Prize-giving at 09:00 (2025)
It climbs about 172 m in total. The highest point is 142 m above sea level, at km 3.
Plastic-free: no sachets and no cups. Carry your own bottle or cup, fill it at the fill table at the start, and refill at Manzi's Tap 'n Go water point at Glencairn (km 6.1) and at the finish
km 6.1
1 Manzi Tap 'n Go water point
2025: R110 seniors and R65 juniors, plus R60 (R45 juniors) for a temporary licence; age 15 and up. Medals for the first 2,500 finishers across all the races. No headphones on the route
Saturday 30 January 2027, as listed on the running calendar; Fish Hoek AC has still to confirm it and open entries
Timbercity is the title sponsor; water by Manzi; a #RunClean race, the first in South Africa to go plastic-free
06:00 · km 0
The 13 km starts on Kommetjie Road beside the Fish Hoek Sport Fields, home of Fish Hoek Athletic Club, an hour after the marathon and the Classic 36 km have gone (2026 times). The club was founded in 1977 and runs in old gold and black. In 2026, 600 runners took on the 13 km, its biggest field yet. Juniors run it too: entrants must be 15 or older. The race is plastic-free, so bring your own bottle and fill it at the start.
km 0.8 to 3 · Glencairn Expressway
Left at Sun Valley onto the Glencairn Expressway, and straight up: this is Black Hill, the climb that gives the 13 km its name. It rises about 107 m in 2.3 km, from 35 m to 142 m at km 3, the highest point of the course. When the sea was higher, the valley behind you was a channel and the south of the peninsula an island, and this hill was part of it.
km 3 · 142 m
The top, 142 m up at km 3, and from here it is downhill or flat. Ahead, the Glencairn Expressway drops down the valley of the Else River to False Bay, with Elsie's Peak on your left and Simon's Town round the coast to the right.
km 3.6 to 5.6 · Glencairn Expressway
About 135 m of descent in three kilometres, down the valley of the Else River, with Glencairn Heights above you on the left and Elsie's Peak behind it. Let the hill do the work, and keep something for the flat road home.
km 5.6 to 6.4 · Glencairn
At the bottom of the valley is the Glencairn wetland, home of the endangered western leopard toad; R10 from every race T-shirt goes to the toad volunteers of ToadNUTS. Then left at Glencairn beach onto the coast road, where the expressway meets False Bay. Manzi's Tap 'n Go water point is here at the junction (km 6.1): eight taps on one side of the road, where you refill your own bottle. The marathon and the Classic 36 km pass the same taps near the end of their races.
km 6.1 to 8.7 · Simonstown Road
North on Simonstown Road, squeezed between the mountain, the railway and the sea past Sunny Cove. The Simon's Town railway has run along this shore since 1890. Below, Jager Walk follows the rocks round to Fish Hoek beach: it was finished in 1933 and named after H. S. Jager, Fish Hoek's first mayor.
km 8.7 to 9.4 · Main Road
Into Fish Hoek on Main Road. When the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, granted the farm here in 1818, it came with a condition: no liquor was to be sold on it. Fish Hoek stayed a "dry" town for two centuries, until its first bottle store opened in June 2019.
km 9.4 to 12 · Fish Hoek
Off Main Road and round a loop through Fish Hoek's quiet back streets, flat all the way. In the rocks above the start is Peers Cave, where Victor and Bertie Peers dug up the skeleton known as Fish Hoek Man in 1927.
km 12 to 13 · Poplar Road
Down Poplar Road, along the footpath and across the sports field to the finish. The first 2,500 finishers across all the races get a medal, with three flames on it for 2008, when a veld fire closed the roads and the committee redrew the route on race morning. Fill your bottle again at the finish. Prize-giving for the 13 km is at 09:00 (2025).
Route: Fish Hoek AC's own 13 km GPX, matched to OpenStreetMap; the run across the field to the finish is the long races' 2026 race-day track. Water point: Fish Hoek AC's Tap 'n Go hydration map for 2027 (the spot is approximate). Times: the 2026 race information