After more than a half-century of hosting competitors, New Zealand’s longest running road race, Monteith's Clyde to Alexandra 10km, has fallen victim to post-Covid complications, increased compliance costs and reduced enthusiasm for pounding the streets. 

However there is the chance of another organiser lining up for the starter’s gun from next year.

Previously the primary fundraiser for the Alexandra Harriers and Walkers Club, the road race was no longer financially viable because of the cost of traffic management, club captain Jo Wilson said. 

Race numbers had dwindled over the years, with two unprofitable years post-Covid and increasing compliance costs. Covid-19 scuttled the 2020 event and caused the following year’s race to be postponed and numbers reduced.

Runners cross the Clyde Dam during a previous Clyde to Alexandra 10KM race. PHOTO: The Central App

“We’re not getting a huge number of people who are interested in road races anymore,” Jo said. 

“There are not a lot of people pounding the pavements these days.

“After 53 years, it has run its course.”

The Harriers loss may be an opportunity for avid runner Tom Heath, who has lived in Clyde for less than a year.

“When I heard the Clyde to Alexandra 10k had been cancelled, I started thinking about creating my own event in conjunction with Clyde School as a fundraiser for them,” Tom said.

He reached out to those concerned and others in the community to discuss the idea and talk about the consents required, and to the Harriers for advice.

“Everyone I have spoken to, the school, Contact Energy about the dam, the Alexandra Harriers has been positive.”

Although the event is still in the early days of planning, Tom would like to run a half marathon (21km), a 10km and 5km race and a children’s event.

Rather than being only on the road, he hoped to have a trail race that would go through Clyde but also on local tracks, without being too strenuous an off-road event.

“It would sit in between a road race and an off road event,” he said. 

“I would be looking at the main target audience as mums and dads with kids.

“I’m 100 per cent committed to putting it on. We’re definitely aiming for a 2024 date.”