The Dunedin Marathon is usually a key date in runners’ calendars.
But back in March, the marathon organising committee opted to cancel the September event — for the first time in its history.
For the past 42 years, the marathon has been an "iconic Dunedin" event and one participants spent months training for, organising committee chairwoman Maria Sleeman said.
The committee was disappointed to can the event, but due to Covid-19 the future was too uncertain.
A lot of planning goes into the event behind the scenes and the committee thought it was best to make the decision early rather than "get the ball rolling" and pull the pin later.
"I think people really accepted that the decision needed to be made and that given the circumstances, that was the only one that we could really make," Sleeman said.
The event is run by volunteers and the Caversham Harrier & Athletics Club.
Even if they had decided to go ahead, with the city still in Alert Level 2 at present the event would have still had to be cancelled.
"Considering the parameters of all the Covid levels, we’d have to be in at least Level 1 to even be able to hold it just because of the numbers."
When the city was moved down into Level 1, committee members briefly thought about hosting a smaller event but opted against it.
"The whole club and the organisers were quite sad to have to make that decision because we see it as an iconic Dunedin event.
"It’s just a wonderful celebration of coming into spring."
The committee was set to meet to talk about the potential of next year’s event and how to prepare for it if Covid-19 was still present.
