Oar inspiring
PUTTING IN THE EFFORT: Nicole van Wyk in action at the under-23 world championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, last month, when she came second in the lightweight women’s single sculls
And all in the cause of 8 000 runners making it from the start to finish points, which are both in Green Point.
Not that moaning about not being able to use your car to go buy the paper is what today’s race is about, even for those too lazy to run it or its shorter versions: the 4.2km fun run, 10km run or walk, or the 12km or 22km trail runs.
What the 42.2km main event is about is putting Cape Town, a beautiful, runnable city, on the world marathon map.
An important step towards that happening is the International Amateur Athletics Federation ON THE RUN: Organisers hope the Cape Town marathon can match the Two Oceans and Comrades awarding the race a gold label. It has hovered at silver since 2014.
“If you look at the estimated 10 million marathon runners in the world they choose one or two marathons to run and they go from city to city to do so,” race director Janet Welham said.
“We want people to have to decide whether they’re running Berlin or Cape Town. We’re not there yet, but that’s where we want to be.”
But Cape Town is not trying to race against those twin peaks of South African road running, the Two Oceans and the Comrades ultra-marathons.
“We believe that (the Cape Town Marathon) is not necessarily encroaching on that territory, but is adding value to running in South Africa,” Welham said.
“There’s definitely space for all of them. They’re not competing against each other, but certainly we’ve got a chockablock, sold out event.”
In money terms, Comrades wins with its R400 000 prize for the men’s and women’s winners.
Cape Town’s champions will each earn R265 000, while winning the Two Oceans will bring you R250 000.
Not that the kind of runners who trawl the Sea Point Promenade are going for that kind of gold today. For them, it’s about
We want people to decide whether they’re running Berlin or Cape Town
celebrating their city.
“(The field) was supposed to be 7 000,” Welham said. “We extended it to 7 500 and then we closed it at 8 000 because of T-shirts and medals and safety protocols in particular.”
So although 1 000 more people than planned are traipsing past your door today, be thankful that you don’t have to put up with 11 000 or 18 000 who started the Two Oceans and the Comrades this year.
And, if you’re reading this and you live on the marathon route, well done for taking a walk to the shops.