KINGSTON, Jamaica … October 2017 – The 2017 staging of Reggae Marathon, Half
Marathon and 10K is set for Saturday, December 2 in Negril.
In making the announcement at a Media Launch on October 24 at the Alhambra Inn,
Race Director, Alfred ‘Frano’ Francis noted that last year’s staging of the annual
sporting event by the Jamdammers Running Club of Kingston received the most
recognitions from runners and walkers over the 16 years of staging. In addition,
there were accolades from international professional sporting magazines and
associations as a calendar event of high international standards.
The Reggae Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K race event was selected among the
Best Half Marathons around the world in 2016. The award was the result of a survey
among members of the 100 Half Marathons Club, based in the USA. This is a racing
club of members who have completed 100 lifetime Half Marathons, with some
members completing up to 300.
In addition, the annual event received the nod from more than 24,000 readers of the
UK-based Women’s Running and Men’s Running magazines. They decided that
Reggae Marathon was the Men’s Running International Race of the Year and a
‘Highly Commended’ event in the Women’s Running International Race of the Year
category.
Votes were invited by the combined Women’s Running and Men’s Running
magazines’ Reader Vote Awards 2017, which covered the best products and best
brands in the sport. Social media commendations were also received earlier this year when the event’s
Social media commendations were also received earlier this year when the event’s
blog was selected by the prestigious blog.feedspot as one of the Top 50 marathon
blogs on the worldwide web. Thousands of top marathon blogs on the blog.feedspot
index were judged using search and social metrics.
“We are very pleased to advise that to-date runners and walkers from over 32
countries have registered to participate on December 2 and we are looking forward
to an even more outstanding staging,” Mr. Francis said.
He noted that the 2017 Reggae Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K has been chosen
as the culmination race in the successful national Jamaica Moves Corporate
Challenge, led by the Ministry of Health.
“This choice by the Ministry validates all our previous efforts to have Corporate
Jamaica use the event as a platform to build a healthy workforce, while increasing
productivity through camaraderie and team building at the workplace, thereby
reducing the pressure on the island’s health system,” Mr. Francis noted.
He announced plans to move the staging of the annual event in 2018 to a Sunday,
instead of the usual Saturday race day.
“We took the decision to host next year’s sporting event on Sunday, December 2, to
ease the effect of the road closure in Negril and also to allow more persons to attend
by giving those who have to work up to Friday the opportunity to arrive in Negril on
the Saturday”, he said. The event’s
The event’s world renowned Pasty Party is back at the Swept Away Sports Complex
this year. Also, runners and the general public can enjoy the sounds of the awardwinning
reggae band Raging Fyah at the Beach Bash Victory Party at Long Bay
Beach Park, on December 2.
Reggae Marathon’s charity partner is the Heart Foundation of Jamaica and the event
continues to encourage runners and walkers to raise funds for the organisation
through participation in the event. In addition, the donation of six computers to the
winning schools in the 10K High School’s Championship is on-going.
Mr. Francis also announced that as of this year, the event will each year award the
Chairman’s Trophy in honour of the late Barclay Ewart to the winning Negril hotel
team in the 10K event. He also revealed that no Jamaican has been able to break
the event’s race record in all race events of the Marathon, Half Marathon & 10K and
the organisers, the Jamdammers Running Club’s offer to double the prize money of
any Jamaican breaking those records still stands.
