I know this is not a running blog, but running is a big part of my life, and since I posted news of the upcoming Nike 10km night race on Twitter, a lot of novice women and moms asked me for more details, or said they’d like to do it, but didn’t feel fit enough.

I’ve included the details below, and if you’re feeling you can’t do this, well, you can. You can walk it, you can walk-run it, or you can jog it slooooowly. Last year, a few of my online and real-life friends ran or walked their first 10km races at one of the Nike races, and not only did they finish, but they loved it.

I can’t rabbit on enough about how life-changing and enjoyable these events are…

So here’s what you need to know:

– Nike’s We Run Jozi night race will take place on 12 October in town – there will be a route split. So half of the field will do “Move Uptown”, while the other half “Move Downtown” for the same distance of 10km. They will then merge towards the end for the finish line at Mary Fitzgerald Square (Note: I don’t think the “Uptown” part implies that there uphills only. Ditto “Downtown” for the downs).

– During registration, runners must select which part of the split route they will run – ‘Move Uptown’ or ‘Move Downtown’. They will then receive a unique race day tee, colour coded to the split section on route.  Every runner who crosses the finish line will receive a medal and get access to the race village.

– Entries cost R200 per person (R100 if you’re a student), and portions of the fee goes towards the development of Alex Butterflies, a running development programme for children in primary schools.

– The online registration for Nike’s WE RUN JOZI 10 kilometer night race opens on Tuesday, 17 September at 10h00 via the official race page www.werun.co.za. 

Good to know:

The Nike+ leader-board is a digital challenge on www.movejozi.co.za encouraging runners to run more and to collectively reach the South Africa target of 375,000 kilometres by race day.  The Nike+ Running app and chat features further enables runners to encourage each other in the lead up to race day.  Runners must use the hashtag movejozi (#movejozi), to have their run captured on the leader-board.