Cape Town gears up for Sanlam Marathon as City eyes World Major Status

Residents along the Atlantic Seaboard, surrounds, and beyond, stretching as far as Claremont, are gearing up for this weekend's Sanlam Cape Town marathon running events.

The running festivities start with an expo and number collection at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday, October 17; a 10km Peace Run, three different trail distance runs on Saturday, October 18; and then ending with a 42.2km race being run by 24 000 runners, from across the world, on Sunday, October 19.

While councillors, ratepayers, and residents' associations are supportive and understand the magnitude of such events, they have been hard at work mitigating noise complaints, traffic congestion, and planning to minimise the impact of the two-day event. 

This is the final stretch for the marathon to achieve Abbott World Marathon Major status.

Passing the assessment would see Cape Town join Berlin, Boston, Chicago, New York, London, Sydney, and Tokyo as part of the series of the largest and most renowned marathons in the world next year.

To attain this status, the marathon, host city, participants, spectators, residents, and organisers have to meet a 104-point criteria that requires excellence in operational standards and participant experience. 

The City's mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said that the City of Cape Town remained committed to supporting the marathon in its journey to achieving international status.

"Joining this prestigious group would be an incredible milestone not only for Cape Town and South Africa, but for the entire continent. Over the past few months, our City teams have been working closely with marathon organisers on the race route, coordinating logistics, and finalising plans to ensure a safe and successful event for all," he said.

Mr Smith said that a key focus area for this year’s evaluation was ensuring that no vehicles were parked along the route and asked for the public’s support in maintaining this standard.

Jane Meyer, from Mouille Point Ratepayers’ Association (MPRA), said that while the event showcased the Mother City and has shown huge amounts of revenue for tourism, thereby creating jobs and return visits to Cape Town, the event negatively affects residents and businesses due to traffic congestion and road closures.

For the marathon on Sunday, October 19, there is a new start on Beach Road for four batches of runners, approximately 7 000 people.  

This will create noise from 2am, for all those beachfront residents, while the event sets up and then again when the runners line up to start at around 6.30am and 6.50am. 

“People tend to stay away from Mouille Point when there is an event in the precinct, as they know they will more than likely be stuck in traffic - this negatively affects business turnover,” she said.

Ms Meyer said that the fencing would be lined up on the Beach Road pavement, before the event, ready to be erected on Sunday morning.

This will negate the noise that would have come from loud trucks and their reverse beeping when delivering.

Alternative parking areas have been secured for residents who will not be able to park on Beach Road, and the organisers have produced 'resident access maps' showing the best routes to come and go while the various events are taking place.

Ms Meyer said that the marathon was good for the greater Cape Town, but that local residents and businesses did not necessarily reap any rewards.  

“They are subjected to many events each year and therefore are often inconvenienced with road closures, traffic congestion, crowds, and noise,” she said. 

Steve Massey, from the Green Point Residents' and Ratepayers' Association (GPRRA) events committee, said they fully support this international event. 

"The GPRRA has had numerous interactions with the Cape Town Marathon organisers and they are doing everything possible to minimize the impact of the two day event,"  he said. 

He said there would be disruptions to traffic flow in the mornings as certain roads would be closed.

"The closure of Buitengracht Road will affect many city residents, as will the closure of Beach Road in Mouille Point and Sea Point," he said.

Mr Massey said that there would be a highly qualified sound consultant at the event ensuring acceptable sound levels were adhered to.

"This is something we insist on for all events. Communications have been sent via WhatsApp groups to residents with details of road closures. The traffic department will be monitoring bottlenecks at intersections as well as fining illegal parking," he said.

He said that residents agreed that the real inconvenience of having events in and around the stadium was that there were too many events with little respite. 

Fresnaye and Bantry Bay (SFB) Residents and Ratepayers’ Association said that the race had a unique route, which highlighted the city’s natural beauty but also the welcoming nature of its local community.

They said that it also promoted healthy outdoor activity and brought a young, energetic vibe to the area.

According to the association, Sea Point was not as affected as much as Green Point and Mouille Point as the runners entered and departed the area quite quickly and mostly early in the morning.

“With so many events happening in our area during the year, most of our community accepts this as being part of the energy and excitement of our neighbourhood,” said the association.