ICE COMES TO URBAN CHARITY FESTIVAL

Caley Chaplin and Natalie Marais enjoying a previous Urban Run in the City.

Port Elizabeth’s unique Urban Run charity event, hosted by the Mandela Bay Development Agency,  returns to the CBD at the end of September and is boosted by the addition of South Africa’s first Inner City Enduro (ICE).

Capturing the imagination of the Extreme Enduro Riders and spectators alike all over the world, much like the Urban Run concept, the event uses the natural and man-made obstacles of the CBD and lets loose a bunch of professional extreme enduro riders, including three-time world enduro champion, David “Knighter“ Knight from the Isle of Man.

This will be the Knighter's first time in SA and to have a rider of this magnitude competing in the inaugural ICE event is going to be a guaranteed crowd puller. Being billed as the David vs Goliaths, Knighter will take on 19 of SA’s best Enduro riders in a last man standing elimination format race on Saturday 26th September starting and finishing at Fort Frederick.

A weekend of festivities is being planned for the Donkin Reserve with the Kids Urban Run taking place at 12 noon on the Saturday and followed by the feature Urban Run event at 9am on the Sunday. A full program of exciting entertainment, sponsored by Caltex Eastern Cape, has been planned for the weekend.

The Urban Run is a charity based fun obstacle run through the CBD to highlight change and beautification of our city whilst making a huge difference in the lives of those less fortunate. This year all the proceeds from the kids (6-14 years) Urban Run run will go to the Reach for a Dream Foundation whilst the proceeds from the Adults run will go to Cheshire Home. Organisers are hoping to raise around R250,000 from this year’s Urban Run.

The Urban Run is a celebration of change in our city, mostly brought about by the efforts of the MBDA, and the event encourages local businesses and organisations to get involved through the sponsorship and branding of the various obstacles along the route. The Urban Athletes are also incentivised to raise as much money as possible with 4 categories of entry being offered with each  category offering an increasingly exciting Goody Bag and also determining the starting batch for the race. All done in good faith and fun, the batching of the participants according to charity donations has been well received over the years. Another incentive this year is the donation of two bicycles from leading Port Elizabeth cycle shop, Cyclopro. These will be used as prizes for the event to help bring out the Philanthropist in each of us.