Tokai Park – “Trail Running” with no climbing

Trail Running can be flat right? We decided to checkout Tokai Park on Saturday.

After a few weeks of mainly road running I was really starting to miss the trails and being in nature. I was quite exhausted from all the running and really dreaded the thought of climbing to find some enjoyable runnable trails though. After a bit of searching for flat trail running options, that were not on a wine farm, I remembered Tokai Park! I had ridden the outer trails (3.8/4km main loop) on my mountain bike here a few times but this would be the first time exploring it on foot.

The main route is a well maintained compacted dirt path. There are some sections with wooden board walks which can be very slippery when wet. You can also run on softer sand sections if the board walk is too full. We were able to add a few extra kilometres onto our run by exploring the different “single track” paths. There are loads of sign boards showing you the names of each path and how they connect. Make sure you also take a moment to read the information boards around the park sharing information about the variety of indigenous fynbos plants and animals that call the park their home.

Access to the trail and parking can be found on Orpen Road and Dennedal Avenue and there was a car guard watching the cars. 

Although it’s about 20 minutes from where I live, I really enjoyed running at Tokai Park. My running program includes soft flat trail running almost every week so Tokai Park has been added to one of my go to spots. I highly recommend this spot for runners, newbie mountain bikers and family outings.