Cape100's Founding List Closes This Week, and the Qualifier Is a Sub-5 Marathon
Cape100's Founding List closes on Wednesday, 23 September 2026 at 23:59, and the qualifying standard is now published: an officially timed road marathon in 4:59:59 or faster. Priority entries for Founding List athletes run from 25 to 29 September, public entries open on 30 September, and the field is limited and first come, first served.
What's happening
If you read our first Cape100 briefing and thought you would look at it later, later is this week.
The Founding List closes on Wednesday, 23 September 2026 at 23:59. Priority entries for everyone on that list open two days later, and public entries follow on 30 September.
The organisers have also published the thing everyone was waiting for: the qualifying standard. You need an officially timed road marathon in 4:59:59 or faster.
The dates that matter
- Wednesday, 23 September 2026, 23:59: the Founding List closes
- Friday, 25 September, 08:00 to Tuesday, 29 September, 23:59: priority entries, Founding List only
- Wednesday, 30 September, from 08:00: public entries open
- 1 January 2026 to 31 May 2027: the window your qualifying marathon has to fall in
- 1 October 2026 to 7 June 2027: when you can submit that result
- Sunday, 5 September 2027, 05:00: race day, starting in Hermanus
Being on the Founding List does not guarantee you a start. It gets you into the priority entry window ahead of everyone else. The field is limited and entries are first come, first served, so the list is access, not a place. You can join it at cape100.com.
Founding List or Founding Member
These two names are easy to mix up, and they mean different things.
- Founding List: a signup list on cape100.com that unlocks priority access to entries. It closes on 23 September 2026.
- Founding Member: anyone who starts the inaugural race on 5 September 2027. That status is for life, with a permanent Cape100 number and a distinctive black race number every time you come back.
So you can be on the Founding List and still miss an entry. You can also enter in the public window and still become a Founding Member, as long as you make the start line. The black number is for the inaugural field only.
What it takes to start
- Age: 20 or older on race day
- The race: 100km on the road, Hermanus to the Stellenbosch Winelands
- Elevation: roughly 900m of climbing, with the detailed profile still to come
- Cut-off: 15 hours, so you need to be home by 20:00
- Qualifier: an officially timed 42.2km road marathon in 4:59:59 or faster
Trail marathons, ultras and GPS or Strava files do not count. International road marathons do, as long as the results are published and can be checked.
You do not need the qualifier before you enter. You can take an entry first and run the marathon later, inside the qualifying window. Just remember that a confirmed entry is not a confirmed start until your qualifying result has been accepted.
Here is the useful part if the centenary is already on your calendar: the same sub-5:00 marathon qualifies you for both. Comrades 2027 asks for a marathon under five hours run between 15 June 2026 and 3 May 2027, which sits inside the Cape100 window. One good marathon, two ultras.
The rules already locked in
- No headphones of any kind, including bone conduction, because the race is on open roads
- Seeded start batches, with a Contender Batch for the competitive field
- Intermediate cut-offs will be fixed times of day, with no grace period
- An optional paid shuttle to the Hermanus start, which is not included in the entry fee
- A two-part payment option is planned, half at registration and half the following month
- Entry fees and what they include will be shown on the entry platform
Why this one is worth the trouble
South Africa already owns Comrades and Two Oceans. What the calendar has never had is a big 100km road race, single distance, point to point, from the coast to the winelands. That is the gap Cape100 is going after.
Race weekend still centres on Blaauwklippen Wine Estate in Stellenbosch for registration and the expo, with the Black Carpet finish precinct built to celebrate the whole field rather than only the front of it.
The event was founded by Ruan Eygelaar, who is behind the Pass2Pass Ultra-Trail. The rest of the inaugural team, including the race director, is due to be introduced in October 2026, and the field size is still to be confirmed before entries open.
For the full race weekend picture, the brief, the expo, the buses and the afterparty, see our Hermanus to Stellenbosch overview.
What to do this week
- Join the Founding List before Wednesday night if you want priority access. Use the email address you actually check, because that is where the entry link goes.
- Decide whether you are racing. With a limited field and first come, first served entries, hesitating is the risk here.
- Book a road marathon under five hours if you do not already have one from 2026. Submissions open on 1 October.
- Build the year properly. Cape100 falls exactly 12 weeks after the 100th Comrades on 13 June 2027, which is enough room to recover and build a second peak. If Comrades is not on your list, you have a clear winter build into September.
That last one is the part most people get wrong, and it is the part we can help with. Cape100 is now in the race plan builder, with 100km on the distance list, so you can build a plan straight to 5 September 2027 and get your weeks laid out for you.
The order we would suggest: build the plan for your qualifying marathon first, then add Cape100 once your entry is locked in. If you still need a qualifier, the race calendar has what is coming up.
We will keep covering the route reveal, the field size and the entry fees as they land. For now the news is simple. The Founding List closes on Wednesday.
Happy running.