Join the marathon party

IN JUST five short years, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon has become Africa’s first International Association of Athletics Federations Gold Label standard marathon. It has grown into a “must-do” event for able-bodied residents and visitors alike, promoting athletics excellence, health and wellbeing and environmental consciousness.

Cape Town has hosted many standard 42km marathons, but until 2014 lacked a big city marathon which could one day have the same transformative impact as a New York, London or Berlin marathon.

That changed when South Africa’s athletics icon Elana van Zyl, shared her dream of a world-class city marathon in Africa with 1995 World Cup-winning Springbok rugby captain Francois Pienaar.

Big city marathons have exploded around the planet since the last quarter of the 20th century, a social phenomenon that few predicted. Even fewer guessed the extent to which they would impact the economies of those cities.

More than 50 000 people participate in the New York marathon, the world’s largest, and 2 million line the streets of its five boroughs through which it passes. London marathon is the biggest single-day charity event in the world. Berlin attracts tens of thousands to the start line, all wanting to race the fastest marathon in the world.

That Cape Town can be mentioned in the same sentence as the iconic New York, London and Berlin events is a tribute to Meyer, Pienaar and the many people who have made this event so successful. The marathon is organised with skill and verve and, we as a country and a continent, should feel proud.