PE City Marathon & 10K

The Crusaders PE City marathon has been run on a number of different routes in and around Port Elizabeth since the early 90’s, and has always been a major event on the EP Road Running calendar having been run as the SA Marathon Championships on a few occasions. The race was originally started by Charlo Athletic Club in the early 90’s and was taken over by Crusaders Athletic Club in 1996 when it became the Bonnita PE City Marathon. When local dairy company Bonnita was taken over by Parmalat in 1999, the race was renamed the Parmalat PE City marathon and continued as such until international problems forced Parmalat to withdraw as sponsor in 2005. Despite approaches to a number of different companies in 2005 and 2006, no sponsorships were forthcoming and Crusaders were forced to carry the costs of staging the race themselves until 2007 which saw Aspen Pharmacare come in as race sponsor. The race has, since inception, always started and finished at Kings Beach, Port Elizabeth. However, in 2004, due to increasing traffic volumes and residential developments, Crusaders decided to move the race to the relatively quiet residential suburb of Lorraine which is close to the outlying, ‘rural’ smallholdings on the edges of PE. Race venue was the Lorraine Primary School. This provided both a far safer and faster, flatter route. An added benefit was that the race – due to the fast, flat course and the time of year – attracted increasing numbers of up-country runners looking for a fast qualifier for the Two Oceans and Comrades. An ASA (Athletic South Africa) requirement for any event over 21km is that at least a 10km is run in conjunction with the main event so this race also has a 10km event which starts just after the main race. In 2011 & 2012 we also staged a 5km ‘Fun Run’ (sponsored by Nando’s) which proved extremely popular. The race venue for 2012 was moved from Lorraine Primary School to the NG Kerk Lorraine, which is right next door to the school, so directions to the venue remained the same as did the route. This was done for a variety of reasons, the main one being the much larger undercover facilities available, venue parking and catering facilities which the church provides as part of the package. This has negated the hire of a marquee tent for both physiotherapists and prize-giving and the organisation of outside caterers. The venue provides overall better access and facilities for all facets of the race – registration, prize giving, parking, finish area, results area and medical area. This has, however, incurred additional costs for the hire of portable toilets at the finish. Crusaders AC expects all members to help at this event. Helpers runs for both the 10km and 42km are staged a week before the race which enables all members to participate and frees them up to help at the race.