Run in Mandela’s honour
The race follows the last 42.2km Mandela made before his imprisonment.
The third edition of the Mandela Day Marathon is set to take place in KwaZulu-Natal on August 31.
This is a 42.2 kilometre race from Pietermaritzburg’s Imbali township, where Nelson Mandela made his last speech as a free man, to Howick, where he was finally captured.
Organisers believe it gives South Africans an opportunity to honour the great man’s legacy through sport.
“Each marathon has a personality, and ours is unique,” uMgungundlovu District Municipality Mayor Yusuf Bhamjee said at the official launch.
“We have a race dedicated to the father of the nation, and via the AIMS-sanctioned Mandela Day Marathon, a world-class sporting event, we are championing understanding among all South Africans of where we come from and what Mr Mandela stood for.”
The marathon will take place on a Sunday but supporting events have been scheduled throughout the weekend including a children’s race, a 4.6664km run (commemorating Mandela’s prison number, 46664), a 10km road run, a 21.1km road run, and a 21km and 42km mountain bike dash and trail run.
The total prize purse for the marathon is valued at R1.3-million. The overall male and female winners will each receive R50 000, while the first South African and first KwaZulu-Natalian home will also be rewarded.
Twenty percent of all entry fees will accrue to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to be donated to charities and institutions in KwaZulu-Natal that serve disadvantaged communities.
Bongumusa Mthembu, the 2014 winner of the Comrades Marathon, will join veteran long-distance running stars Bruce Fordyce and Willie Mtolo and a number of radio personalities who have been chosen as ambassadors for the race.
