The 8th Edition of Coimbatore Marathon will be held as a virtual event this year due to the prevailing pandemic situation. The marathon’s announcement was made by the Coimbatore Cancer Foundation (CCF) on Sunday. It is scheduled to be held from Dec 1-31, 2020.
The past editions of the event have always been held in the first week of October.But, taking into consideration experience with adverse weather conditions prevailing during that time of the year and the clash with festival and public holidays, the event will henceforth be permanently moved to December from this year onward. Registration for Coimbatore Marathon 2020 Virtual Event is now open, and participants can register through www.coimbatoremarathon.com.
Ramesh Ponnuswami, Race Director, Coimbatore Marathon, said, “…Since the event is a virtual one, we are not constrained to conduct it on a specific date and time. Participants can choose their date, start time, route, distance and run / walk from wherever they are and complete their race any time during the month of December. Another advantage of the virtual run is that we are not constrained in terms of the route, timings and so on, so we have introduced 4 new event categories – a 3 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) events.”
Dr. T. Balaji, Managing Trustee of the Coimbatore Cancer Foundation said, “The pandemic has left cancer patients at greater risk and that calls for awareness initiatives bigger than before. Coimbatore Marathon, this year, strives to attract runners from across the globe and continue to support our Foundation…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…”