At 54, I Raced And Finished The Full UTCT – Here’s How

Of Cape Town’s many challenging races, none is more formidable than the UTCT – Ultra-Trail Cape Town. The flagship distance, 100 miles through Cape Town’s treacherous mountains, is one few have finished. 54-year-old runner Robyn Noble decided to take on UTCT race training and conquered the hills. Here’s how.

“After finishing the Comrades… What’s next?”

Robyn had been a runner for years: she’d earned medals for Two Oceans Ultra, Comrades, all the big guns. Having done it all, she began to grow bored and had maintained a strict rule to never run the same race twice. Robyn decided to branch out and explore trail runs casually: small weekend jaunts around Table Mountain, then a 12km run, then 25… Her curiosity and newfound wonder for running somewhere different would lead her over the finish line very few have crossed: the toughest race in the Ultra-Trail Cape Town (UTCT) roster, 100 miles (160km).

What planted the seed for something bigger was witnessing ordinary people do extraordinary things. While supporting runners at the UTCT, Robyn watched exhausted athletes stumble towards the finish line after 100 kilometres or more. “I saw this guy, he had 10km until the end; he was a big dude, all bandaged up… and I was like, ‘You are amazing!’ I was so inspired by him,” she recalls. A switch had flipped; it occurred to Robyn that if he could do it, injured and sapped but still going, then so could she. She reasoned that “it’s just about putting in the block of training and being extremely determined,” she says. 

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UTCT Race Training – In Menopause 

The journey from casual trail runner to 100-mile finisher (overnight and non-stop, no less) came with its share of obstacles. Robyn is the first to point out that her navigation skills are “not [her] strong point”; the race itself is expensive to enter, and the required tools (good running shoes, nutrition packs) add up in rands (Robyn says she had to get new runners every three months). Added to that, Robyn was in her 50’s. “I’d been wanting to do it for years, and it’s not easy when you’re 54 because the body’s starting feeling it,” she says.

Menopause brought new challenges: overheating, slower recovery, and the need to rethink everything from nutrition to gear. She started hormone replacement therapy, invested in strength training, and became meticulous about preparation. “There’s no magic formula but you,” she says. “If you’re tired, if you’re cramping, if you’re sore, you have to decide whether you carry on and tough it out or you can’t.” To prepare, Robyn logged 100km a week with 5000m elevation, did strength and conditioning sessions and “didn’t actually lose too many toenails”. 

On the day of the race, Robyn started – like everyone else – in the dark, at nightfall. Against gale winds and tricky terrain, 155 runners started the race, only 25 of which were women. Out of 155 starters, only 25 were women. Only 15 finished. Robyn was one of them. Running the full 100 miles took Robyn “just under 44 hours with no sleep – and oh, it’s amazing,” she reminisces. Now at home, her UTCT finisher’s medal is a reminder to Robyn of her grit earned, proof that she’s capable of anything. 

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