Welcome again to the CENTENARY MARATHON in Adelaide South Australia.
First we had Ian Hill's re-enactment of the 1920 original marathon on Fri 21st August 2020, followed by the ENCORE on Sun 15th Nov 2020 for those who may have missed the August event as it was held on the original date which was a Friday.
This was followed again in 2021 on Sun 16th May as the CENTENARY MARATHON 2021 and now again on the 15th May as the CENTENARY MARATHON 2022.
This event will more than likely be the last in this series as we only have 18 of the original medals remaining (which will be engraved with this years date).
There is no requirement to purchase a finisher medal but if you do want one you would need to get in quick before they are all claimed.
The event is FREE and self supported but you will still be required to register and it does incur a $5 fee to have the medals engraved with the 2022 date.
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MARATHON RUNNING IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
CENTENARY 21 August 1920–2020
RE-ENACTMENT of the FIRST EVENT
This event is a free self supported continuation of the re-enactment of the very first Adelaide Marathon of Aug 21st 1920. The re-enactment took place on Fri Aug 21st 2020.
To celebrate the occasion runners and walkers were invited to a re-enactment of this event over the same course used in 1920, which is still intact but with modern innovations such as traffic lights, public
amenities and shopping centres.
This will be the only repeat (encore) of the re-enactment for those who were unable to attend previously and also for those who expressed a desire to run the course again.
You can provide a gear bag at the start to be transported to the finish. Please label it. (PLEASE CONFIRM a few days BEFORE THE EVENT DATE THAT WE HAVE VOLUNTEERS TO LOOK AFTER AND TRANSPORT YOUR GEAR)
The social nature of this event means participants look after their own refreshment needs. There are plenty of shops available as well as some taps suitable for drinking from.
Everyone will finish at the Uni Loop, just after the 400m post at Graduates Oval.
Your centenary marathon finisher medal will be given to you at the finish.
We may have volunteers to record your time but please record your own time which will be "moving" not elapsed time. Please advise of your time at the finish so it can be recorded.
For those wanting it to count towards 100 Marathon Club status you will also need to provide your "elapsed" (total) actual time"
The Course
Measurement of the course by wheel has now been completed and the marathon distance of 42.195km is guaranteed. In fact the finish post is 35 metres past this mark but the wheel always measures a little short because of the uneven nature of the road and footpath surface. A detailed set of section maps and accompanying photos will be provided.
Although it’s a marathon it is a social event only, and therefore everyone takes part at their own risk.
Other safety factors are concerned with the logistics of the event itself – the nature of the course being on city and suburban main roads with many traffic lights and major road crossings between the lights to be negotiated. All running must be on the footpath or shared cycle/walking paths in the parklands. All traffic lights must be obeyed as you would on a normal training run (ie use common sense).
To facilitate this requirement while bearing in mind that people are competitive, the recognised time taken for all participants will be “moving time” only. Therefore no-one is disadvantaged by traffic light or toilet stops.
Hugh Wolter was the first South Australian State marathon champion in 1920 when he finished second to Percy Collins of Victoria in a time of 3:44:40. Collins’ time was 3:18:23. The only other finisher from seven entrants and six starters was Thomas Byrnes from Queensland in 4:28:20. Wolter, aged 36, ran for the South Australian Walking and Field Games Club while Collins was with Carlton Harriers and Byrnes with Boonah Harriers in Brisbane.
Wolter was born at Knightsbridge on 4 May 1884 and started school at Broken Hill and later moved to Mount Pleasant before living with his parents in Adelaide at age 11.
CENTENARY MARATHON, 21-23 AUGUST 2020 Organised to celebrate 100 years of marathon running in South Australia, the event was a re-enactment of the first marathon held on 21 August 1920 in Adelaide. The original course is still fully intact and only a small portion of it near the original finish at University Oval was altered for safety reasons to avoid having to cross busy Frome Road on a Friday afternoon with less than a mile to run. Instead the last 1500 metres wound its way around some of the Uni Loop and crossed behind the grandstand of the old Teachers College Oval before reaching the final 400 metres of the home straight to Graduates Oval.
The above history and info courtesy of Ian Hill.
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The run will start from Victoria Square at 8:00am Sun May 15th.
Maps and registration to be provided soon.
