The 2026 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is now exactly twenty days away, and organisers spent the weekend confirming logistics for what is shaping up to be the biggest single edition in the race's 14-year history. The May 24 race will be the first stop on Eliud Kipchoge's Eliud's Running World tour, a seven-continent project he announced in February that is built around running a marathon on every inhabited continent across two seasons. Cape Town gets the opener largely because, as the two-time Olympic champion put it at his launch press conference, most spectators in Africa have only watched him race on television. South African organisers have responded by lifting the elite field cap and extending the public field to absorb additional demand triggered by his entry.
The race route is unchanged from 2025, starting and finishing on the Green Point Common with a single loop that takes in Sea Point, the V&A Waterfront, the Bo-Kaap and a long stretch along the foot of Table Mountain. The course is generally flat by World Marathon Majors comparison, with a high point of around 80 metres above sea level and a single late climb on Hospital Bend. Cape Town is bidding for full Abbott World Marathon Majors status, and the 2026 race will be the second of three editions used to assess that application. Anyone who finishes will receive a provisional WMM star that converts to a full one if the race passes its Stage 2 evaluation in May 2027.
Kipchoge's preparation block has been split between Kaptagat in Kenya and a short coastal phase based out of Iten, a pattern he used ahead of his 2023 Berlin run. He arrives in Cape Town with a 2026 record of one road appearance — a tune-up half on the South Cape coast — and has not raced a full marathon since his ninth-place finish at the London Marathon in April. He will not be paced for a time and the field will not feature competing time-trial groups; organisers have framed the day around a single elite mass start and a community-led pace tone. Kipchoge himself has played down personal-best ambitions, saying instead that the priority is to enjoy the day and inspire local runners.
The supporting elite list is being filled out by a mix of South African distance veterans and East African contenders looking for an early-season hard effort before the autumn block. Local interest is heavy on Stephen Mokoka, the long-standing South African marathon record holder, and Gerda Steyn, who has expressed interest in a Cape Town run between her ongoing Comrades preparation. Comrades itself follows three weeks later on June 14, and several Comrades-bound elite runners are using Cape Town as a final tempo block — a planning pattern Cape Town organisers have leaned into when negotiating elite contracts.
Public registration for the 42.2km closes on May 11 and current numbers put total entries past 25,000 across the marathon, 10K and Trail Run events. The host hotels and the Cape Town airport have both warned of unusually heavy bookings around race weekend, and the city has expanded its road-closure window to the largest footprint in the race's history. Television coverage is being produced jointly by SABC and the Eliud's Running World production team, and the broadcast plan includes a live feed in eight languages, the largest international rights package the Cape Town race has ever sold.