2004 Soweto Marathon Route Map  Click on the map for a larger version

RELATED LINKS: People's Race entries now open Entries for South Africa's richest standard marathon, the Old Mutual Soweto Marathon - more popularly known as The People's Race - are now open. Read more Soweto Soweto is the most populous black urban residential area in the country and also the most metropolitan township - setting trends in politics, fashion, music, dance and language Read more

Soweto marathon takes historic route THE Old Mutual Soweto Marathon, the richest standard marathon in the country, will take a more historic route on Sunday to celebrate South Africa's ten years of democracy. November 5, 2004 By Jonews Reporter THE Old Mutual Soweto marathon route has been changed to celebrate ten years of democracy. The revised route will take runners past former president Nelson Mandela's old house along Vilakazi Street in Orlando West. Vilakazi Street is famous for being the only street in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners once resided - Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Here how the new route will flow: The marathon starts in Nasrec road and from there runners will climb gradually to the New Canada Station (14 km), Orlando and follow the old route up to the 18 km mark, where they will turn left into Vilakzi Street. The route takes runners past Nelson Mandela's house, now a museum, and from here turns right at Lembede Street towards Khumalo Street. At Khumalo Street, runners will turn left towards the Hector Pieterson Memorial. 250m from the memorial, the route turns left into Maseko Street and then rejoins Vilakazi Street. At the corner of Vilakazi and Butshingi Streets, the route then turns left to rejoin Mtipa Street. Runners reach the halfway mark in White City and from here the running is fairly flat and easy as runners pass the Jabavu Power Station and the Mapetla Bridge at 28 km. The traffic on this stretch can prove troublesome in parts and runners are advised to run in single file and with to exercise extreme caution. Runners run along the Potchefstroom Road, which is also fairly flat and easy, then past the Soweto College of Education. From here, the runners need something extra in reserve to help them up Soweto's own Heartbreak Hill, which comes at a difficult part of the race - the 36 km mark. Once over this obstacle the run to the finish is relatively flat and forgiving in parts. There is a gentle downhill of just over a kilometre and then it is onto the soft green grass at the National Exhibition Centre's Arena (Nasrec). Marathon runners are encouraged to park in the parking area adjacent to gate 5 at Nasrec where a tog bag facility and toilets will be available in time for the 06h00 start. Entries can be dropped off at hall 10 at the Nasrec Expo centre on Saturday and organisers say no entries will be taken on the day of the race For more information contact the ASA office on 011 880 5800. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za