Pauanui Half Marathon among events still going ahead

Organisers of the Pauanui Half Marathon on March 19 say participants are gun-shy, but they still have 250 committed so far. Photo / Pat Courtney

The Pauanui Half Marathon is among events going ahead this month - on Saturday, March 19.

There is a 21km event and 10km and 5km courses, with the option to walk all distances, starting and finishing on the beachfront by the Pauanui Surf Life Saving Club.

Organisers say they have made changes to reduce the number of people gathering, such as not allowing spectators in the race HQ area, but supporters can still cheer on from the beach where the course takes entrants, along with Pauanui Airfield, Pauanui Waterways and the off-road forest and estuary-side track of the Pauanui-Tairua trail.

"Our numbers are down to about half what they normally are, we have about 250 people committed but I think there'll be more at the last minute as people are worried they'll have to be self-isolating and won't be able to make it," says an organiser, Amanda Iggulden.

She said no more than 400 would be allowed, but she expected not to hit that number.

The first event, in 2020, achieved 780 entrants.

"We haven't run an event now without Covid. The original one was stopped in March 2020 and we rescheduled to December that year, then ran another in March 2021, but people were already gun-shy about events."

She said the group believed they were getting clear and helpful advice from the Government's Covid-19 website.

"Small events that attract 200-400 people are a whole different ball game to larger events that are getting cancelled, like the half ironman, the Tarawera Crossing and the Queenstown Marathon."

• For more information, go to www.pauanuihalfmarathon.co.nz.