After a three-year hiatus, New Zealand's only Pay What You Want running event is back in town this Sunday, April 2 – and the organiser says it couldn't have come at a better time!

'Our number one goal is to remove cost as a barrier to entry; and with recent cost of living increases, entry fees to events like this may be more of a challenge for even more people,” says Luke Garea of the PWYW Tauranga Half Marathon.

Established in 2005, the Tauranga Half Marathon relaunched in 2018 as New Zealand's first Pay What You Want running event.

The PWYW Tauranga Half Marathon is on this Sunday 2 April with 15km, 10km, 5km and the Matua Mile events. Registrations for the event are at Fergusson Park clubrooms from midday-4pm Saturday, April 1 and from 6.30am race day, Sunday, April 2.

Events begin with Half Marathon starting 8am, the 15km at 9am, the 10km at 10am, the 5km at 11am and the Matua Mile at 12 noon.

Luke says returning from a three-year hiatus is a challenge for the event. 'We're thrilled to have support from Tauranga City Council as we re-emerge in a very changed event landscape.

'Entry reluctance is a very real thing. First there were Covid-19 cancellations and more recently, the extreme weather events caused multiple events to cancel,” says Luke.

'People are rightfully cautious and slow to enter now – and this changed entry behaviour puts new stress on events.”

Luke says PWYW continues to be a popular option for entrants, with a surge in groups attending from all over the Bay of Plenty.

Josh Te Kowhai and Tairi Ford from Waikite Gym have organised a large group to come through from Rotorua. They say with events slowly starting to trickle back into our lives 'it's great we have the Pay What You Want Tauranga Half Marathon back as it gives a lot of our newer (and old) members an affordable-yet-first-class event to participate in and offers so many distance options”.

Of the expected 1400 entrants, more than 200 will be part of the Workplace Shout – another wellness initiative to engage employers to ‘shout' entry to their staff.

The event also offers a finish-line song request, with an unprecedented 856 requests received to date.

There's still time to request your finish line song when you enter the PWYW Tauranga Half Marathon, 15km, 10km, 5km or Matua Mile. Enter online at: www.taurangahalfmarathon.co.nz