The Two Oceans marathon scheduled for Saturday 11 April, in Cape Town, has been cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the #StayAtHome lockdown won’t stop a Makhanda couple from completing their own event for a very important cause… all inside their own back yard.
Grocott’s Mail found Sally and Colin Price-Smith running up and down the driveway of their garden on Friday and interrupted them long enough to find out more.
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The ‘Two Streets Marathon’ (their property is enclosed on either side by two streets) – dubbed ‘The Most Beautiful Marathon in Makhanda’ – aims to raise R200 000 to help support Makana’s poor and vulnerable, who will be most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown.
Already, many of our town’s poorest whose families live hand to mouth are feeling the effects of a week without little or no income or means to get food.
The Grahamstown Residents Association, Grahamstown Business Forum, Makana Revive and other civil society organisations are working on a fundraising and support strategy for the community.
The Makana Revive Facebook page gives detail for donations to the Makana Revive Trust account. The fundraising drive is to both complement the work of other entities and provide funding and logistics for medical supplies, sanitiser, food for the vulnerable, accurate information to the public and face masks.
More details here: https://web.facebook.com/Makana-Revive-1678868485490869/
‘The Most Beautiful Marathon in Makana’, as it’s been dubbed, takes place on Saturday 11 April, starting at 6am. Sally will run 56km (224 laps of their garden) and Colin will run 21.1km which is 84 laps.
The event complies with Covid-19 lockdown regulations because the couple will complete it entirely inside their own property. They will have hundreds of supporters – but they will all be there virtually, tracking the couple’s progress through a live Facebook feed.
International donations are through GivenGain. More details about the 56K for Makana Emergency Relief are available on the Grahamstown Residents Association Facebook page:
https://web.facebook.com/GrahamstownResidentsAssociation/videos/2927438953983201/
