Coimbatore Marathon to go virtual this year

To be held from December 1 to 31

The eighth edition of the Coimbatore Marathon organised by the Coimbatore Cancer Foundation (CCF) will be held as a virtual event due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation from December 1 to 31.

According to the Race Director of Coimbatore Marathon, Ramesh Ponnuswami, the participants shall choose their date, start time, route, distance and run/walk from their preferred location and complete their race on any preferred date in December. As there will be no constraints regarding the route and timings in the virtual marathon, there will be four new event categories – a three-km run/walk, a 10-miler (16.1 km), a 20-miler (32.2 km) and a full marathon (42.2 km) – in addition to the usual 5 km run/walk, 10 km and half marathon (21.1 km) categories this year, Mr. Ponnuswami said in a press release.

A donation of ₹ 99 to the CCF will be applicable for participants based in India and $5 for participants based outside India for all the categories. CCF managing trustee T. Balaji said that the COVID-19 pandemic has left cancer patients at greater risk and that calls for more awareness initiatives. “This year, we hope to see the community becoming bigger and better, enabling us to provide cancer care, financial support and counselling to more patients and their family members,” he said, according to the release.

The theme for this year’s edition of Coimbatore Marathon will be ‘Run Smart’ and is expected to attract more than 25,000 participants. While the past seven editions of the event have been held in the first week of October, the marathon will be permanently moved to December from this year. The registrations are open for the Coimbatore Marathon.

Those interested shall register online at http://www.coimbatoremarathon.com