THOUSANDS of athletes are expected to participate in the Benguela Weskus Marathon which takes place on Saturday, 17 March.

 

The marathon is an unforgettable run in the West Coast National Park and is organised by the Langebaan Strandlopers in association with the West Coast Honorary Rangers and is run in accordance with Athletics South Africa (ASA) and Western province Athletics (WPA) rules. Apart from the marathon, there is also a half marathon and a fun run/walk. Entries for the marathon close on 8 March.

The Weskus Marathon started in 1999 when the local Honorary Rangers organised the first marathon in the West Coast National Park. Until 2001 less than 100 athletes participated annually in both the 42.2km marathon and the 21.1km half marathon.

Langebaan Strandlopers, the local running club, was started at the end of 2001 by a group of energetic local athletes. Discussions between the Honorary Rangers and Langebaan Strandlopers started immediately and the Weskus Marathon 2002 was organised by the Strandlopers in conjunction with the West Coast Honorary Rangers, under the auspices of WPA. In 2002 124 athletes finished the marathon and 242 finished the half marathon.

The event took place every year in December and by 2006 had grown until in that year there were 204 finishers in the marathon and 434 finishers in the half marathon.

In order to increase the number of participating athletes, the organisers decided to change the date of the event to March and to change the route of the marathon. Originally the athletes ran from Langebaan to the Park and back to Langebaan. The new route starts at Tzaarsbank on the Atlantic side of the peninsula inside the park and athletes run the full 42.2 km in one direction back to Langebaan. This change meant that every athlete has to be taken by bus to the start before 06:30.

With Langebaan Spar already a main sponsor of the event, Heinrich Koorts, then from Seeff and now Benguela Group, also joined the event as title sponsor, which made it possible for the organisers to pay for the buses that transport the athletes.

With these changes and very hard work from a small dedicated organising team, this event has grown and has been voted second and third best marathon and half marathon by the readers of SA Runners World for the last three years.

In 2011 1154 athletes entered the marathon, 1132 the half marathon and 650 the 5km fun run/walk.