The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon (SCTM) has travelled a long road over three decades and next year’s race 23 May 2027 is set to become a high point in African athletics history – the date for the continent’s first ever Marathon Major.
SCTM became a member of the exclusive Abbott World Marathon Major (AbbottWMM) in May this year and CEO Clark Gardner and his team are putting plans in place to deliver Africa’s biggest and best marathon to date.
While runners who completed this year’s SCTM were granted an official Abott WMM ‘star’ in their quest to secure an eight-star badge, representing participation in each of the majors (Tokyo, Boston, London, Cape Town, Berlin, Sydney, Chicago and New York), next year’s race will be Africa’s first fully fledged AbbotWMM.
“We are certainly going to be bigger,” SCTM Head of Marketing and Communications, Renata Bossi, said. “We will be increasing the number of entries in the marathon by up to ten thousand, making it the biggest standard marathon on the continent.”
Given the strong overseas interest in racing in Cape Town next year, the marathon could likely have been filled with off-shore runners alone. But the race organisers have resisted that temptation and are determined to retain an African flavour.
“Our aim is to keep the race two thirds African (is that South African or African?) and one third international,” Bossi continued. “We feel strongly we want to protect our South African runners who have supported us over the years.
“We are here for the journey – it was always about bringing the major to Africa and not vice versa. It was never about being a major just with internationals, even if we could fill the race exclusively with off-shore entries.”
But wouldn’t they be tempted to do just that, given the potential for greater income to the race and the city that the internationals would bring?
“No!” Bossi was emphatic. “We are committed to South Africa and its runners because we think it’s the right thing to do! We want to ensure our focus is on local runners – it wouldn’t be a race without them. It’s a priority to keep locals feeling that they are part of it – it’s not just about the money.”
To underline their commitment to local running, SCTM will be retaining some of the popular outreach elements from the last two years, in spite of a full house being virtually guaranteed. These include the club captain’s programme and a road show to take SCTM to other parts of the country.
“We had 240 club captains in our programme for this year’s race,” explained Bossi. “They help us promote the race from within their club. It’s a special appointment – it could be an existing captain or someone else from within the club – and they will be given special privileges, such as an invitation to the Friday night concert at the DHL Stadium before the race.
“We will be launching a movie of the last five years at the SCTM and will be taking that on our road show. We want local runners to come and watch the doccie with us, not to get more entries but to enable us to connect more strongly with our South African runners.”
But hosting thousands of distance-running tourists has spin-offs for Cape Town, South Africa and Africa and Bossi is eager to leverage that opportunity. “Our aim is to educate international runners about everything on offer in Cape Town,” Bossi said. “Not only in respect of accommodation, dining and entertainment, but also about South Africa’s history and heritage.
“We also want to partner more strongly with the other marathon majors and establish a level of credibility and trust between us so they will promote Cape Town and South Africa in a positive light, as a destination of choice.”
Following the announcement that Cape Town had been accepted as an AbbottWMM, Gardner had seen the opportunity as a chance to correct negative perspectives on Africa which might persist. “We want to use the marathon to tell stories,” he had commented. “We plan to accentuate the African spirit to counter any misinformation about the continent.”
The link to Cape Town’s heritage is important. “We loved integrating the Khoisan emblem into our logo to celebrate the World Age Group Championships,” Bossi recalled.
“Although we will not be hosting the championships, which received ‘best ever’ rating, again (they move to the Tokyo Marathon next year), we will retain the logo and celebrate our heritage through a poem or dance or song at the Friday evening concert.”
Another element from the age group championship which received acclamation and could be retained is the Sunday evening awards function. “We are still toying with having such an awards evening after the marathon, weighing the pros and cons,” Bossi said.
Following positive feedback on the ‘race village’- the space and facilities provided for post-race mingling will see its retention and even expansion to fill the entire Green Point Common, making it a distinctive feature of the AbbottWMMs.
“The other majors don’t provide this,” Gardner pointed out. “They encourage finishers to move off home as soon as possible, due to limited space at the finish. We did the opposite, encouraging athletes to pause, linger and share their race stories over refreshments in the ‘Chill Zone’ or ‘Club Zone’. Our post-race hospitality was phenomenal.”
Bossi is enthusiastic about taking on board lessons learnt to build an even stronger SCTM in the future. “Having Eliud Kipchoge at the race provided important lessons on how to host a global super-star. We had to manage his training runs, his security and his schedule, maximizing his value to Cape Town but giving him sufficient rest. That was a huge lesson.”
Bring on the super-stars, Cape Town is ready for you!
Bossi had to think hard before identifying elements that had not worked well this year. “We acknowledge that the tog bag zone was not up to scratch and we will improve on that significantly,” Bossi said.
“And while we are proud to be the only AbbottWMM to feature a trail race as part of the event, we found that hosting the 43km trail marathon is not feasible. It stretches throughout the Saturday, extending time pressure on our team when they should be focusing on preparation for the Sunday road marathon.
“So we are dropping the 43km next year, but the 22km and 11km trail races will remain as proud elements of our SCTM weekend festival.”
Bossi admits that the enormous high of this year’s race and its exciting build-up in anticipation of AbbottWMM status presents a challenge to their marketing team to match the ‘major magic’. “There were so many highs this year,” Bossi related.
“After being on a five- year journey to achieve marathon major status, now that we have it, we need to work hard to maintain the momentum to prevent any post-event blues! And we also need to manage the increase in numbers without compromising the value-add we have given locals in the past.”
Bossi recognises the unique marketing opportunity which next year’s SCTM provides. “We only have one chance to deliver Africa’s first Marathon Major! We’ve never had a marathon major in Africa before. It’s a big deal – we want this story to be all over the media, including radio, television and social media.”
Bossi sees SCTM as providing a platform to promote African winners and give them a stage. “Language is a major challenge,” Bossi admits. “Often when African athletes win at overseas events they struggle to communicate and many events fail to promote them as strongly as they deserve.
“These athletes have interesting stories to tell but lack language skills. The challenge for us is to find ways to promote them on African soil. Rugby PR has been a huge success in South Africa, but that’s because it’s humans we are buying into – real people, such as Rassie and Siya.
“How can we make our winners come alive and become heroes in running? Other marathon majors are not good at doing that, but we must find a way in Cape Town, on African soil.”
What would a successful 2027 SCTM look like for Bossi?
“Growth must come alongside maintaining those elements which have previously been the driving force behind the SCTM’s success, adding value with choice items in the race goody bag, such as the high-quality adidas shirt.
“Runners will have a really positive experience with no long queues at the Expo or at hydration stations along the route. Participants will enjoy a regal African experience, celebrating African culture. If that remains true, for me that would be a successful outcome.”
