Landmark Quebec events ‘feasible’

The Lévis Half-Marathon will be held as a two-day event this year and moved to later in the season than usual, the weekend of 28–29 August. And the flagship Beneva Quebec City Marathon, a healthy invitation from Brunet, is on the calendar as planned for 1–3 October 2021.

“We conducted a feasibility review for each and every one of our races,” said executive event producer for Gestev, Marianne Pelchat. “Our findings showed that as things stand, it’s feasible for us to present two of the events on our regular calendar safely in 2021 if the public health guidelines will allow. We’re confident that by 2022, we’ll be able to present a full calendar of five races again as usual.” If it is not possible to hold [the other] events in 2021, all registered participants will receive a refund.

As well as moving from May to August this year, the Lévis Half-Marathon will be held over two days instead of one to comply with public health regulations stipulating how many participants are permitted to be in a given place at one time. This change will make it possible to accommodate a maximum of 4,575 entrants for the 21.1K half-marathon, 10K, 5K and 2K Kids Race distances.

A number of changes will be made ahead of the 2021 Beneva Quebec City Marathon to comply with public health requirements, including a whole new schedule and more staggered starts. “We’re doing everything we can to keep the heart and soul of the marathon running strong,” said Marianne Pelchat. “You’ll find all the races you know and love, everything from the Kids Race to the 5K, 10K, 21.1K half-marathon and the full 42.2K marathon.” Long-running Marathon partner SSQ Insurance recently joined forces with La Capitale. The name of the new entity formed by their mutual merger is Beneva – hence the new name for the flagship event: the Beneva Quebec City Marathon.