Benoni Northerns Athletic Club (BNAC) marathon recap

Benoni Northerns Athletics Club (BNAC) successfully hosted its first road race on July 3 after two years of hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year’s race, proudly sponsored by Kwikscaff, saw a total of 4 308 runners entering the event which offered 42.2km, 21.1km and 10km races.

There were 2 827 marathon participants, 960 half-marathon participants and 521 10km runners. 1 924 of the marathon finishers qualified for the Comrades Marathon. Runners must complete a full marathon in under 4 hours and 50 minutes to qualify to run the Comrades Marathon. The Benoni Northerns Marathon was the final Comrades Marathon qualifying event in Gauteng.

At the time of launching the race in January, there were several unknowns including if and when the Comrades Marathon would take place this year and the closing date of the Comrades qualifying period.

We were also planning a race in the face of government restrictions on gatherings of just 2 000 athletes across all race distances. Entries to the race were slow and steady until about two weeks ago when the restrictions on gathering were lifted and athletes who had failed to qualify for Comrades began scurrying for entries to the Benoni Northerns Marathon.

The past two weeks have been adrenalin-filled to accommodate double the number of participants than originally anticipated. It meant more race numbers, more medals, more toilets, water and refreshments had to be secured in a matter of days.

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Preparing for and hosting an event of this scale is a lot of hard work and there are strict requirements to be met in terms of the Safety in Sport and Recreations Act (SASREA). From organisational and operational perspectives, it has taken a dedicated race committee and the help of our club members who assisted with marshalling, race number collections and late entries.

There were no less than 140 of our club members marshalling on route with the support of EMPD officials and CPF patrollers, who must be graciously thanked, for keeping runners safe and managing traffic flow.

The Benoni Northerns has always been the marathon of choice for thousands of runners who keep returning because of the fast and flat route, friendly marshals, well-stocked water tables and its perfect timing on the race calendar as one of the last Comrades qualifiers in Gauteng.

The event was first hosted in 1981 as the Gold Reef Marathon, which started at the Johannesburg Town Hall and ran to Benoni. In 1994, the event was changed to a double lapper course in Benoni and has been held on the streets of Benoni every year since then, barring the two years when it could not take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has also become a much-loved community event, drawing people from their houses to cheer on runners passing by. Seeing families out on their driveways and waving is a tremendous source of encouragement for runners, especially those trying to qualify for the Comrades Marathon.

Benoni is known far and wide for its great sense of community and spirit. This is clearly reflected in the feedback from race participants, which is flooding in on social media, email and WhatsApp today. The Benoni Northerns Marathon is also a proudly-local event, with members of the club working together to make it happen, local people volunteering to host water stations, and local people showing their support.

Benoni can be proud of the great spirit and sense of community shown to visiting runners on July 3.

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