Kinetic Night Trail Running Series

Pitch dark, nearby and tons of fun.

It was my first time at one of the Kinetic Night Race Series in Johannesburg. The concept is really well thought out; a night trail run on golf courses around the city once a month. There are two distances 4 km and 8 km. The race is nice because its during the week and you don’t need to travel outside the city to find the trail run. They utilise the clubhouse on the golf course to do registrations and prize giving. This means after (or before) the run you can grab a nice meal and a few beers.

This one on Wednesday evening was hosted at Parkview Golf Course close to where I live. I did the 8 km which cost R70 because I pre-entered with an EFT (R100 for on the day entry). The shorter 4 km cost the same so you may as well do the longer version. The 8 km started at 19:30 with the 4 km following 15 mins later. It was really pitch dark so make sure you have a headlamp, I got a basic energizer headlamp from Sportsmans Warehouse for R129 which worked brilliantly. The route wasn’t very challenging being on a golf course, but you needed to concentrate because it was dark.

They put out reflector pegs in the ground for you to follow, so there is not much chance of getting lost. There is no water on the route, but for 8 km do you really need water? I did see people with camelbacks and bottles so if you need it you won’t be the odd one out. I must say the race did knock me out a bit, I managed a 42:12 which is slower than I would have like to finish. But being on dirt and grass makes it a little harder to run fast. I recommend this night series to everyone, it is like the parkrun but at night. Here is the link to the website: kineticgear.co.za

My phone was running on fumes so I didn’t record the route and the pictures I took were blurry and in the dark. A interesting view is the snaking headlamps moving through the golf course when you look out from the finish at the people still coming in.