Why walk the 100km Amatola Hiking Trail, when you could run it?

Marianne Schwankhart 'road tests' The Hobbit 100 - a scenic two-day mountainous trail run from King William's Town to Hogsback oin the Eastern Cape

The Amatola Mountains in the Eastern Cape lie on an escarpment over 1 800m and are covered in ancient forests of yellowwood, white stinkwood and Cape chestnut. A 100km trail follows the dense canopy from King William's Town to Hogsback, with five overnight huts in between.

The trail can be walked any time but, once a year, you can run it over two days. Trail runners are like road cyclists who have discovered mountain biking. You do long distances over rugged terrain, breaking the monotonous motion of road running.

As it turns out, most of the field walk the uphills and only jog the downhills and easy flats. It is a lot of time on your feet with the trail split into two 50km days - anything from eight to 13 hours, but with some training it is a nice challenge even if you don't consider yourself a runner.

I skipped some stretches and hopped into the support vehicle to join the front-runners and get an idea of their speed and movements. There are the obvious hard men, chasing each other through the woods, focused on every step of the uneven ground. For them, the aim is to win and competition is friendly but certainly on everyone's mind. The field is spread out very quickly and often you wonder if you are still on track. Evidently, you'll come across yellow footprints marking the route. With so much time on your own, you have to keep your mind busy and focused. Algerian middle-distance Olympic winner (1996), Noureddine Morceli once said, "When I race, my mind is full of doubts - who will finish second, who will finish third?" In my case, I always wondered, "Who will overtake me next?"

DAY 1

The first day of the run covers the first three days of the hike to Cata hut, on a plateau overlooking the top of a waterfall. What makes this a tough race/hike are the hills. Even if you walked it over six days, you'd be tired at the end of every day. Luckily, in hot weather, most of it runs through indigenous forest and you often have a canopy of trees above. The huts are all comfortable with bunk beds, kitchen and ablution areas, some maintained better than others.

The race is well organised, with welcoming hotdogs when you get to the hut and a spread of hot drinks and biscuits before a proper hot dinner. All 40 runners also managed to get a hot shower before passing out for the night. A useful tip is to take earplugs if the hut is full.

DAY 2

The second day of the race covers days four, five and six of the hike on similar terrain but with a series of waterfalls and great pools for swimming. If you're not racing for a podium finish, it's worth stopping for a dip before you're slapped with the last and infamous hill up "the hog's back".

There are three of these and the biggest will leave you huffing and puffing at the top, where you can look down on the hamlet of Hogsback in the distance. They say from there it's all downhill, excluding a few hills past the Kettlespout Falls and the last slog to the finish at the Arminel Hotel.

On day two of the 100km race, there are also shorter runs of 5km, 16km and 38km that cover day hikes around Hogsback.

IF YOU PLAN TO RUN THE HOBBIT 100...

• Training tip: Train in similar terrain as the race, which is hilly and technical . You'll also run the race with a small pack with compulsory equipment such as a space blanket, water, phone etc, so training with weight would be to your advantage. Distances are long, so include long, two-day training in your programme.

• The next Hobbit 100 is on April 25/26, which gives you just enough time to start training. There is still space on all distances. For more information, click here.

• You can book to walk the Amatola hiking trail any time.

• We stayed at Laragh on Hogsback Cottages, very comfortable, newly finished self-catering cottages, starting at R600 per couple, you can also call 082-781-0470.