Sanlam Cape Town Marathon 2027 is a 42.2 km race on 23 May 2027, starting at 08:00 at DHL Stadium, Green Point, Cape Town. The course climbs about 190 m in total.
From the stadium at Green Point past the V&A Waterfront and below Table Mountain, through Woodstock, Salt River, Observatory, Rondebosch, Newlands and Claremont, back past the Castle and City Hall, up through the Company's Garden and out along the Sea Point seafront to the finish on Vlei Road. 42.2 km, the course of the first World Marathon Major in Africa.
Two starts, as in 2026: Fritz Sonnenberg Road beside DHL Stadium, and Beach Road in Mouille Point. In 2026: wheelchair 07:50, elites 08:00, then five waves until 09:06. The 2027 times come closer to race day. Sunrise is about 07:40
Vlei Road, Green Point, beside the stadium, with a grandstand for spectators
It climbs about 190 m in total. The highest point is 41 m above sea level, at km 31.6.
15 stations about 3 km apart: water in cups, Coke, Coke No Sugar and Powerade (stations 11 and 13 water only). Woolworths food at 23.4 km, NamedSport gels at 32 and 38 km. Places here are estimated from the 2026 map
km 2.6 · 7.1 · 9 · 11.9 · 16.1 · 17.6 · 21.3 · 23.6 · 27.1 · 30.3 · 31.9 · 33.1 · 34.4 · 36 · 37.8
15 hydration stations about 3 km apart, as in 2026. Their places here are estimated from the official 2026 map (about 0.2 km either way); the 2027 stations are not published
6 h 30 from the last runner over the start mat: 15:50 in 2026. Ten on the road, from km 7.0 at 10:30 to km 41.4 at 15:45 (2026 times)
The 2027 ballot closed in June 2026. Two-thirds of entries are kept for African runners
42.2 km. The 2027 route is not published yet: this is the 2026 course, from the organisers' own GPX. About 215 m of climbing; the highest point is 41 m, at the top of the Company's Garden (about km 32)
Mediclinic and ER24 along the route, and a hospital at the finish
Men: Mohamed Esa (Ethiopia), 2:04:55, 2026, the fastest marathon run in Africa. Women: Glenrose Xaba (South Africa), 2:22:22, 2024. Wheelchair: David Weir 1:30:20 and Manuela Schär 1:43:25, both 2026
Title sponsor: Sanlam. Technical partner: adidas. Sponsors: Powerade, City of Cape Town, Mercedes-Benz, Southern Sun, Woolworths, NamedSport, Castle Lite, Kfm 94.5, Mediclinic, Red Bull, Runna, Carrol Boyes, Europcar. Abbott World Marathon Majors from 2027
08:00 in 2026 · km 0
Two starts, one race. In 2026 the wheelchair racers left at 07:50 and the elites at 08:00 from Fritz Sonnenberg Road beside the stadium, and five waves followed until 09:06, taking turns between here and Beach Road in Mouille Point. The stadium was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and seats about 55,000.
km 1.3 · Portswood Road
South Africa's oldest working harbour: 123 hectares of quays, fishing boats and superyachts. It is named after Queen Victoria and her son Prince Alfred, who as a 16-year-old midshipman tipped the first load of stone for the breakwater on 17 September 1860.
km 4.3 · Nelson Mandela Boulevard
One of the organisers' own view points. Past the Convention Centre on the Foreshore, land won from Table Bay in the 1930s and 1940s, the road lifts onto Nelson Mandela Boulevard and the mountain fills the view: about 1,085 m at Maclear's Beacon, and one of the New7Wonders of Nature. The first rise of the day follows, about 20 m between 5.5 and 6.5 km.
km 6.3 · Woodstock
Off the N2 at Searle Street and into Woodstock. On 24 May 2026 Eliud Kipchoge ran this road: two-time Olympic champion, winner of 11 Majors, in his first marathon on African soil and the first stop of his tour of marathons on every continent. He finished 16th in 2:13:29, and said afterwards: "I feel I am leaving a part of myself here in Cape Town." He believed that day would make the race a Major. Seventeen days later, it was.
km 8.5 · Victoria Road, Salt River
Victoria Road climbs gently through Salt River, about 24 m over 2.6 km, past Rex Trueform, the clothing factory the organisers list as a landmark of a working city. The wheelchair racers come through first: in 2026 David Weir won in 1:30:20 and Manuela Schär in 1:43:25, both course records. In 2022 this became the first top-flight wheelchair marathon in Africa.
km 9.6 · Main Road, Observatory
Up the slope on your right, below Devil's Peak, the chief teaching hospital of the University of Cape Town. On 3 December 1967 Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant here, on Louis Washkansky.
km 10.6 · Mowbray
Behind the trees on the mountainside is the Groote Schuur estate, bought by Cecil John Rhodes in 1893 and the official Cape home of South Africa's prime ministers from 1910 to 1984. On 4 May 1990 Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk agreed the Groote Schuur Minute here, the first formal step in the talks that ended apartheid. Devil's Peak rises to about 1,000 m above it.
km 11.7 · Main Road, Rondebosch
The Baxter Theatre opened on 1 August 1977 on the University of Cape Town's campus, paid for by a former mayor's bequest, and in the apartheid years it welcomed audiences of every race. Above it, Sarah Baartman Hall looks down from the university's upper campus.
km 13.3 · Main Road, Newlands
Main Road rises again through Newlands, about 17 m between 12 and 14 km, past the oaks and the famous cricket ground below the mountain. This is where the organisers' "long steady middle" begins: 13 to 30 km.
km 14.9 · Claremont Boulevard
Claremont Boulevard at 14.9 km is the southernmost point of the course. From here the route turns back north through Rondebosch, on Palmyra Road, Camp Ground Road and Sandown Road, with crowds at Palmyra Junction (15.3 km) and Rondebosch Park (17.2 km).
km 17.2 · Rondebosch Park
Rondebosch Park on Camp Ground Road was the adidas Activation Zone on race day in 2026. adidas has been the race's technical partner since 2022, as it is for Boston and Berlin. In 2026 it made a Cape Town edition of the Adizero Boston 13, with a print pattern and the race's flame logo, and runners who finished in adidas shoes earned an R2,000 voucher.
km 20.3 · Rondebosch Common
About 40 hectares of open ground, declared a National Monument in 1961, and one of the last places where critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos grows. It was once a military camp, which is how Camp Ground Road got its name. Across the Common the organisers mark a view point: the University of Cape Town on the slopes of Devil's Peak. Just ahead is the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, opened in 1956, and halfway.
km 22.5 · Liesbeek Parkway
Sanlam has carried the race's name since 2014: through the first IAAF Gold Label for a marathon in Africa in 2017, and on to Major status. In February 2026 it renewed for five more years. "For 13 years, Sanlam has been part of this journey," said Group CEO Paul Hanratty when the Major news came. After wind cancelled the 2025 race, Sanlam paid for every entrant to come back free in 2026 or 2027.
km 24.3 · Observatory
Sanlam and adidas lead the list. Powerade fills the cups at every full station, Woolworths feeds you at 23.4 km, NamedSport hands out gels at 32 and 38 km, Mediclinic looks after you on the road and at the finish, and Kfm runs a cheer zone in Green Point.
km 26.7 · Salt River Circle
One of the loudest spectator points of the day. Just past the circle, the Old Biscuit Mill baked for Pyott's from the early 1900s until 1946 and is now a design and food hub, home of the Neighbourgoods Market since 2006. The organisers also list Castle Brewery, founded in the 1890s, along Albert Road.
km 28.4 · Newmarket Street
The first Cape Town Marathon was run in February 1994 from Mutual Park in Pinelands. It moved to September, then October, and in 2026 to May, for cooler weather and less south-easter. In 2016 Asefa Negewo ran the race's first sub-2:10. Wind cancelled the 2025 race at 04:45 on race morning, after it damaged the race village. In 2026 it came back with course records.
km 29.7 · Sir Lowry Road
Built by the Dutch East India Company between 1666 and 1679, it is the oldest surviving colonial building in South Africa. It once stood on the shore of Table Bay; reclaimed land has left it inland. The race's main climb starts at the Grand Parade, a few hundred metres on.
km 30.1 · Darling Street
On 11 February 1990, hours after his release, Nelson Mandela gave his first speech as a free man from this balcony to a huge crowd on the Grand Parade. A life-size bronze of him has stood on the balcony since 24 July 2018. City Hall opened in 1905. In 2026 this was a hydration station and cheer zone.
km 30.8 · Government Avenue
The main climb: about 27 m from Darling Street up Adderley Street and Government Avenue, through the Company's Garden to Orange Street, in the shade of the oaks. The organisers call it the longest and steepest of the day. You pass St George's Cathedral, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, led marches against apartheid, and the Iziko South African Museum, the country's first, founded in 1825. The top, at about 32 km, is the highest point of the course: 41 m.
km 32.3 · Long Street
From the top of the course at Orange Street it is mostly downhill for the last 10 km. Long Street drops you back through the city centre, past its Victorian balconies, with NamedSport gels at 32 km and a cut-off at Wale Street.
km 34.5 · Main Road, Green Point
Somerset Road and Main Road carry you back to Green Point, with Signal Hill and Lion's Head above you on the left. Kfm 94.5 runs its cheer zone at about 34.2 km. The rest is flat.
km 36.4 · Beach Road, Sea Point
The organisers' own nickname for the out-and-back on the Sea Point seafront: about 2.4 km out to the turn and 2.7 km back, flat, beside the promenade, past Winchester House (built in 1922, a hotel since 1958) and the Sea Point Pavilion pools, a swimming spot for more than a century.
km 38.7 · Queens Road circle
The turnaround loops around the Queens Road circle by the MyCiTi station, the westernmost point of the course, below Lion's Head. In 2026 it was cut-off 9, at 15:20.
km 40.6 · Beach Road
Ahead, the red-and-white Green Point Lighthouse at Mouille Point, first lit on 12 April 1824, the oldest working lighthouse in South Africa. The organisers list it as a view point. The last cut-off is at 41.4 km, where Beach Road meets Helen Suzman Boulevard.
km 41.5 · Helen Suzman Boulevard
On 10 June 2026, 17 days after the race, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon passed the final stage of its Abbott World Marathon Majors assessment and became the eighth Major and the first in Africa, joining Tokyo, Boston, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago and New York. Two-thirds of the 2027 entries are kept for African runners.
km 42.2 · Vlei Road
The finish is on Vlei Road beside the stadium, with a grandstand for spectators. In 2026 Mohamed Esa of Ethiopia won in 2:04:55, a course record and the fastest marathon ever run in Africa. Dera Dida of Ethiopia won the women's race in 2:23:18; the women's course record is still Glenrose Xaba's 2:22:22 from 2024, also the South African record.
Route: the 2027 route is not published yet. This line is the organisers' own GPX, which the 2026 race followed (checked against six public race-day tracks of 24 May 2026). Water stations estimated from the official 2026 route map. Race facts: capetownmarathon.com. Results: World Athletics. Independent preview made for the organisers, not affiliated with the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon