Vineyard half-marathon bought by keen fan

A beloved half-marathon that was put into liquidation after the coronavirus pandemic caused the cancellation of this year’s run has been bought by a long-time fan of the event.

Founding company The Grape Run went into liquidation during the Covid-19 lockdown, after the company was forced to cancel the Saint Clair Vineyard Half Marathon scheduled for May 9 due to the restrictions on large events.

Not Just Events owner Sheree Stevens has purchased the Marlborough vineyard half-marathon event, saying that while it was still very early days she was hopeful the 2021 race would go ahead as planned.

‘‘The first step is making sure all the stakeholders are as keen as me. With sponsors, landowners, [the Marlborough District] Council, service providers and volunteer groups, there are more than 200 people involved in making this event happen. So I need to chat with every group and get their take on where the event might head from there,’’ Stevens said.

‘‘But I’ve run it four times, and from a participant point of view it is one of the best in the country. So you won’t see much change in the short term because runners and walkers clearly love it.’’

Stevens described herself as ‘‘a farmer’s wife’’ from North Canterbury who had been organising major events for 25 years.

She was the sponsorship and event manager for the ASB Christchurch Marathon, and owned cycling event Le Race and back-country cycle tour 5Passes, and had organised expos, festivals and conferences.

‘‘The vineyard half is a destination event, so it has to be a reflection of that destination. It has to represent everything that is amazing about Marlborough.’’

After seeing the liquidation advertised, Stevens said she began ‘‘scrambling to make sure the event had a future’’.

‘‘Because I love the event ... People often don’t realise that for the most part, event organisers love the sports as much as participants. Probably more. We are runners and cyclists and walkers and triathletes or whatever, just like the participants.’’

Stevens said she also hoped to retain all the same staff members who had worked the event in previous years. Founders Chris Shaw and Anna Polson had handed over ‘‘a fantastic template’’, she said.

‘‘I really feel for them – they created a fantastic event and I know they will be hurting. Event organising has never been harder or more expensive than it is right now. In the last 10 years the cost of putting on big events has almost doubled, but what participants and sponsors are willing to pay hasn’t kept pace, despite the market getting bigger and bigger.

‘‘It’s a risky business. You know what your costs will be, but entry fees never match the cost of the event and you don’t know how many participants are coming until about a week prior.

‘‘So you don’t really even know for certain what your budget is until almost race day. So it’s not an easy industry. But I am pretty confident I can make it work.’’

Shaw said last week that they were several months into preparations when they were forced to cancel this year’s event, shortly before alert level 4 began in March.

After calculating money already spent and partial ticket refunds, they had no choice but to go into liquidation, he said.

‘‘Basically it’s the perfect storm of wrong year and wrong time of year. This pandemic hit when we were at our most exposed and the rest is history,’’ he said last week.

Liquidator Tom Rodewald said he was still working through the process this week, with about 200 claims received from creditors so far. People still waiting for ticket refunds were likely to receive a ‘‘small dividend’’, but he could not make any guarantees, Rodewald said.