With only a month to go before the big day, the Soweto Marathon organisers are still struggling to attract runners, with the numbers of registered participants still at an alarmingly low rate. The race is on November 5, and will start at Nasrec.
Organisers have had to extend the deadline with the hope that the numbers will skyrocket in the coming four weeks. September 30 was the deadline, and they could not reach the required 23, 000 runners target. The initial target was to get 25, 000 participants for all three races: the 10km, 21km and the full marathon (42.2km).
Still open and hopeful to reach target
According to the organisers, the number of registered runners on the initial deadline closure was 15, 000. And they were still hopeful of wooing the 8, 000 to reach their goal.
Spokesperson for the Soweto Marathon Trust, Thokozani Mazibuko, said that they will only close the entries once they reach their target. He was speaking at the sponsor activation event in Midrand. The race is sponsored by African Bank.
“If you follow patterns of runners entering races, runners have the tendency of entering at the last minute. Especially in Soweto. When we do our comparison to last year this time, we were just above in terms of numbers. We decided to extend the entries. And the numbers are picking up, and we will cap it at 23, 000,” said Mazibuko.
“We are on the ground marketing the event. Southgate Mall is our partner with goodie bags. We are also busy on social media and we are encouraging people to enter. I am encouraging people to enter while there’s still time.
More needed to be done to market the race
“And I would be lying to myself if I say we did enough in terms of marketing the race. There’s always room to improve on our marketing, and one day we hope to [have a full entries list] two months before the race,” he added.
However, last year’s winner, Ntsindiso Mphakathi, said that he is ready and on track to defend his crown. He won it when he chested the tape at 2:19:13.
“I have been working very hard. And I won the City to City and I am feeling good. Everyone has a good chance of winning. We run against each other, we motivate each other and we compete. It’s going to be tough but I want to win and defend my title. We are working on the finishing touch-ups and also looking forward to a beautiful day of running. There’s also a threat from the foreign runners from countries like Lesotho and Kenya. Those international runners motivate us a great deal,” said Mphakathi.
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The run is the 3rd of November NOT 5th
The race is on the 3 November
Soweto marathon organisers never took runners serious, if it’s not lack of refreshments on the road it’s something else, last year we were fighting to get t-shirts, there was no sizes, they promised lot of lies nje….
Runners are fed up with this non running organisers
True pplppl are fedup ppl ran with their own t shirts nd again the medals for 10km got finished nd ppl were given 21km medals it was bad poorly organised ppl still angry
One of the most Poor organized race with llot of lies and empty promise.
Since we have been waiting for our T shirts whole six months waiting and received big sizes what have been ordered will never enter that race again.
Very poor organized race
It’s a pitty, because the vibe of this race is next level in terms of support. For me, the biggest issue with the race is that the organizers don’t use the opportunity to help clean up soweto at least along the route. There is so much trash lying around and there is sewerage leaking in places. Charge R5 bucks more and get a cleaning crew in so the people also benefit. Our country is beautiful and needs to be kept clean (I know amongst a host of other priorities too).
I am not running Soweto again unless the organizers change their approach. Last year, I almost got injured jumping over a sewage. We pay so much for entries, a small portion can be used to clean up the routes and this could also motivate the people of Soweto.
The organisers have lies. They promised us our T shirts. Still today, nothing. The route is filthy of sewage.
It is because Soweto Marathon has become way too expensive. Hence, we end up supporting cheaper initiatives rather than the expensive Soweto marathon
I still think if they can host the Soweto Marathon a month after the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon they will get more runners. The week in between the two is insane. Even social runners are not that crazy to run two marathon in two weeks.
One race I will never run, I ran 21km and 42km years back and I found the races not properly organised. Who want to fight for drinks every 3km. According to me, it is expensive for nothing.
Very steep price tag, unfulfilled promises(no free to shirt as promised) and unhelpful agents when you call to enquire about last year’s to shirts are my reasons why I’m not gonna run this race again this year
I’m a social runner and this year I’ll be running “the Soweto” despite the poor organisation. My reasoning is to support our home race. I sincerely hope things improve, or else it’s the last time I’m running this race.
I’ll never recommend this race again. Thousands of runners including me didn’t get t shirts. When asked, they kept on sending us from pillar to post until they load Securities at their offices to make sure no one bothers them about t shirts. I registered two months earlier and came for collection a day before, but I didn’t get it. Youll hear the Officials saying tshirts are finished, but under the tables, you’ll see them still dishing them out to “others” Worse race with prominent name.
This used to be a very well organized race, but the standard has dropped no goodie bags, no t-shirts, the previous year 2022 we only got socks in a goodie bag. Poor organizing and no regard for runners.