Christmas Trail - Groundcover
Dear Trail Runners and Walkers,
Our final event of 2025 is here, and we couldn’t imagine a better place to close out the year than Groundcover, tucked along the winding Currys Post road. If you know the venue, you already know the charm — rolling lawns, handcrafted leatherwork, views that settle the soul, and trails that feel like home.
Expect festive vibes, friendly faces, a beautiful mix of runnable singletrack and gentle climbs, and a post-run hangout that’s become a tradition in itself. Bring the family, bring the cheer, bring your trail legs — we’ll take care of the rest.
Let’s celebrate the year we’ve shared, the trails we’ve travelled, and the KZNTR community that makes it all possible.
See you on Sunday — one last adventure before Christmas!
NB: Lucky Draws go to the Best Dressed!
Quick Info
Date: Sunday, 14 December 2025
- Registration: 06:00 onwards
- Distances 3km (Santa Dash), 5km, 10km (No long course)
- Race Briefing: 15min before each race
- Race Types: Loop
- Venue: Groundcover, Currys Post rd (Directions on website)
- Unfortunately no pets allowed
- Standard entry fees apply
Accommo and Transport to DNT
UGO2DNT – Your Ride to the Mountains
Skip the missioning and jump straight into adventure — UGO2 is running a special for the upcoming DNT on 7 March 2026, bundling travel, accommodation, and your race entry into one smooth, no-stress package.
Meet the crew in Gauteng, hop on the mini bus, and let the mountains do the rest.
What You Get
- Return transport
- Weekend accommodation
- Marathon or Long entry
- Good vibes from start to finish
Gauteng Pick-Up Spots
OR Tambo • Rhodesfield Gautrain • Seattle the Verge
Dates
Roll out Fri 6 March 2026 • Return Sun 8 March 2026
Cost
Marathon – R2,750
Long – R2,450
If the Drakensberg is calling and you don’t feel like driving — this is the way to go. Run wild.
What It Means to Be Back in Trail Running
By Andrew Booth
Coming back to trail running after two years away has felt a bit like stepping onto a familiar trail you once knew every stone and contour of — only to realise it’s grown, shifted, matured, and changes in your absence.
For 14 years, trail running wasn’t just my work. It was our rhythm, our community, our creative outlet, and the way we connected with the world. Week after week, year after year, we stood on start lines, walked new routes, worried about weather forecasts, celebrated finishers, and poured ourselves into building spaces where people could experience the wild in a meaningful way.
And then, we left, thinking that was it. But the universe had other plans… and 2 years later we were back.
Those two years away were necessary — a chance to breathe, rebuild other areas of our lives, and spend more time in the wilderness without a stopwatch or start banner waiting. But they also gave us perspective on what this sport actually means. You can step away from operations, from racing calendars, from the endless details… but you can’t really step away from the feeling of trail running. It stays in you.
Coming back in August to take the reins at KZNTR again has been equal parts surreal and grounding. Surreal, because so much has shifted: new faces in the community, new energy, new challenges, new opportunities. Grounding, because at its core, the heartbeat of trail running in KZN hasn’t changed at all.
What’s struck us most is how seamlessly the community and KZNTR team welcomed us back. It wasn’t dramatic; it wasn’t ceremonious. It was familiar — a nod at registration, a laugh on the mic, a conversation on course, a moment at the finish line where you remember why you started doing this in the first place.
The soul of trail running is carried by the people, and the people never left.
Being back as an organiser again has reminded me of the magic behind the scenes — the early-morning headlights pulling into a venue, the team tightening arch straps while dawn breaks, route markers returning with stories, watching runners transform through the sport, the tired but content pack-up at the end. It’s messy and chaotic and full of moving parts, but it’s alive. And it’s where I belong.
I didn’t realise how much I missed the responsibility — the privilege — of shaping these experiences. Of creating mornings that will stay with people for years. Of offering something honest and wild in a world that often feels anything but.
Trail running has changed. I’ve changed too.
But the essence — the reason we do this — remains untouched.
Being back with KZNTR feels like reconnecting with a part of myself I didn’t know was missing until I stepped behind the mic again, until I watched those first runners crest a hill, until the community wrapped around me with that steady, unspoken acknowledgement: Ah, you’re back. Let’s get to work.
I’m grateful for the years away, and even more grateful for the road back. The next chapter feels exciting — not because it looks like the past, but because we get to build something new on the foundation of everything that came before.
Here’s to early starts, muddy shoes, loud finish lines, quiet moments on course, and the beautiful, relentless pulse of trail running in KwaZulu-Natal.
It’s good to be back.
Explore KZN with us!
See you on the trails,
Andrew, Lauren, Colin, Sanele, Dane and the rest of KZNTR Team.
