Christchurch Marathon Makeover

It’s official … when the 41st Christchurch Marathon lines up on April 16th, it will be at a new venue, on a new course, with a new sponsor and a totally new look.

For 40 years the Christchurch Marathon had been the South Island’s premier marathon event. But after two covid cancellations, organisers ordered a marathon makeover for 2023.

Nationwide sports footwear specialist, The Frontrunner, will headline the new “Frontrunner Christchurch Marathon”. But the biggest changes will be the venue and the course. Based now within Hagley Park, the event will revolve around a 10k lap that stays closer to the CBD.

The famously flat, fast and scenic course will condense itself to a much more central city vibe. Gone is the tired redzone, replaced with more spectator opportunities and more iconic landmarks, with Canterbury Museum and Oxford Terrace added to the popular Hagley Park and Avon River sections.

At the same time, the event will take on a more inclusive feel with fun new categories for best costume, school teams and corporate teams that race director, Chris Cox, says will add more to the festival feel.

“That’s what we’re aiming for,” says Cox. “Much less of a race and much more of a festival of fitness.”

The changes,” says Cox, “are a result of the covid experience forcing the event to take a hard look at itself.

“The cancellations in 2020 and 2022 were tough, but they also allowed us the time to analyse the Christchurch Marathon and the thing we kept coming back to was that we had to make it more sustainable.”

“Over the course of four decades it had become too tough to organise, too removed from spectators, too focused on racing and too focused on a traditional course that was too inconvenient for the community. These changes fix all those problems at once and actually make the course flatter, faster, more achievable while providing a foundation for the next 41 years.”

Continuing with the inclusive theme, this year’s Frontrunner Christchurch Marathon will benefit Mental Health. Participants are encouraged to make their run mean more by signing up to fund raise for Canterbury’s mental health awareness and support services.

Scheduled for Sunday 16th April, options include the classic 42.2k marathon, a half marathon, a quarter marathon and the Kids’ Mara’Fun.

Full course info at www.christchurchmarathon.co.nz/the-course.

Entries are open at www.christchurchmarathon.co.nz.

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