This weekend’s popular Urban Run Festival hosted by the Mandela Bay Development Agency, which is traditionally a fun charity obstacle race through the historic City Centre, has been extended this year to include a 12km Urban Mountain Bike race along a similar course to that of the runners. Cyclists will be thankful that the route doesn’t include all 24 of the obstacles which the runners will face on Sunday morning, but they are expected to be blown away with the route which they’ll be racing on Saturday afternoon as they ride through town, down stairs, into Fort Frederick, through the Valley, through the Tramways Building, St Mary’s Cemetery, the ruins of St Peter’s Anglican Church and through the harbour.Whether you enjoy Aerobics, obstacle races, Running, Mountain Biking, watching your kids playing, browsing vendors and food stalls or just chilling in a beer garden soaking up the atmosphere of an awesome sports event, this year’s Urban Run Festival has something for everyone. Come to town this weekend and witness the urban renewal which is taking place in the heart of our City under the direction of the MBDA. Port Elizabeth is going places and just one look at all the changes in the city over the past 12 months will convince you of this fact.
The festival takes place on the Donkin Reserve between 9am and 5pm on Saturday and 8am and 1pm on Sunday – see website www.urbanrun.co.za for program details. The KFC Rotary Kids Zone will be open throughout the festival with a daily entry donation of just R30. All children will receive a KFC cricket cap and ice cream voucher. All proceeds from the Kids Zone and a percentage of sales from the Castle Lite Beer Garden go to the Rotary Club of Port Elizabeth Sunrise for their local community projects.
Metrogym’s open air aerobics class starts at 9am on Saturday morning and is free to all. The Kids Urban Run (open to children under the age of 13 years) starts at 3pm with all proceeds going to the Reach for a Dream Foundation, the Urban MTB 12km race, managed by Mountain Events, starts at 4pm whilst the feature 8,5km Urban Run takes place on Sunday morning starting at 8am with Gino Fabbri on the Coca Cola stage, the best dressed at 8,30am and participants called to the start line at 8:45am for the batched start. Best vantage points for the public will be the Donkin Reserve (Start, Foam obstacle, SkipGo obstacle and Cerebos’ Slip and Slide), Fort Frederick (Orb Signs/ADT climbing obstacle), Lower Valley Road (Bo’s plant hire river crossing, Dynamic Express Truck obstacle, Caltex carry obstacle), MBDA Tranways building and the adjacent St Mary’s Cemetery and the ruins of St Peter’s Anglican church.Registration, collection of race packs and late entries open between 10am and 2pm on Saturday – no entries or collection on Sunday. Online registration before Thursday is highly recommended. See www.UrbanRun.co.za for further information or contact Michelle on 041 484 7860.
Alan Straton
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