Road runners take to the streets of Stellenbosch

The streets of Stellenbosch will be taken over by hundreds of enthusiastic runners on Wednesday evening when the annual Moore Night Run takes place to and from the Stellenbosch Primary School on the outskirts of the scenic town.

While a sprinkling of the province’s top athletes are dicing up front for the prize money in the 10km event, there will be hundreds more enjoying the combination of a well-organised event and a beautiful evening setting in one of South Africa’s most picturesque towns.

The weather predictions are for a perfect spring evening as a reward for participants taking part in an event that is about a lot more than simply providing a road race for runners looking for a personal best 10km or 5km times.

The Stellenbosch sunset provides a perfect backdrop for the Moore Night Run on Wednesday.

The event is sure to attract the barcode-thin speedsters as they battle the clock and their rivals in the chase for prizes, but behind them will be a much bigger selection of participants simply enjoying the opportunity to get some exercise. This group of entrants will range from children in prams and their parents happily pushing them around up to the grey-haired grand masters showing off the benefits of a lifetime of exercise.

Besides the pleasure of jogging through some of the oldest neighbourhoods in the Winelands, participants can also bask in the knowledge that their healthy evening out is helping develop future athletic stars. A portion of each entry fee is donated to support the athletics development programme of the Stellenbosch Athletic Club, and the event also benefits the Stellenbosch Primary School which hosts the start and finish.

“We are just putting the final touches to the Moore Night Run,” said event organiser Nicola Collins on Tuesday morning. “We have done just about everything we can at this point although there is still a lot that we can only do on the day, but all the plans are in place for that.

“The route is looking good as always and we are relieved the weather predictions are for a clear and relatively warm evening, so there is no excuse for the top runners not to set their PBs while the backmarkers should be able to enjoy their evening as well.”

Online entries have closed and the final late entries will be taken at the Moore Stellenbosch offices next week on Tuesday afternoon. There will be no late entries on race day.

The 10km starts at 6.30pm on October 23 and the 5km runners set off 10 minutes later.