Up To Speed

Athletics Ontario Weighs In

I first wrote about this topic a week ago, but frankly it’s been an issue raging in the southern Ontario running community for the better part of this decade.  Why it’s coming to a head this year… I don’t know.  I always figured it would take a violent road rage incident or some other high-profile news to extend the discussion beyond about 4pm on the respective marathon Sundays.  Despite both of this year’s races drawing huge fields and for the most part going off without a hitch, it seems the city is starting to respond to the debate.

Here is a letter from John Craig, the managing director of Athletics Ontario, to Toronto mayor David Miller and city councilors Brian Ashton, Glenn De Baeremaeker and Joe Mihevc.

Re: Two Toronto Marathons

I am the Managing Director of Athletics Ontario, the governing body for the sport of track and field and road running in Ontario. We are funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion and we are the provincial member of Athletics Canada which oversees our sport in this country and is responsible for international representation at sports competitions like the Olympics.

As part of our mandate, we are intricately involved in the hosting and staging of road running events in this province. In fact, Athletics Ontario was the original owners of the event property known as the Toronto Marathon, which we hosted for about 17 years. This event was traditionally hosted in the fall and eventually sold to Jay Glassman at a time when no other marathon event was held within the city.

I have worked closely with directors of both marathons currently hosted in Toronto, and consider them to be my friends. Both Alan Brooks and Jay Glassman have contributed much to this city and to our sport and we respect the rights of both of them to host the type and quality of event they currently are involved with.

Nonetheless, much of our roadrunning community operates – with the support of Athletics Ontario – on a traditional date and first claim basis. We have worked in the past to make sure date conflicts are kept to a minimum.

With that in mind, Athletics Ontario strongly supports Jay Glassman and the Toronto Marathon’s claim to a fall marathon date. If these two events cannot merge into a single strong event – something we have tried to mediate for many years – then allowing Jay’s Toronto Marathon to continue to hold its traditional fall date is the only reasonable course.

If one of these two events needs to be moved to the spring, Athletics Ontario firmly believes that the Scotia Bank Waterfront Marathon – the newcomer to the fall date – is the one which should be moved. The Scotia Bank Waterfront Marathon is a strong event under good leadership and it will be fine as a spring event, making a significant impact on the city, the sport and the welfare of the community. However, as the newcomer with no traditional claim to a fall date, this is the event which should surrender to the city’s wishes and move to the spring.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you and good luck.

John Craig
Support the 2015 Pan Am Games bid

Mayor Miller has already given an initial opinion on this, and I tend to agree with him.  Both races consistently draw good crowds (though the September race continues to grow while the October race has contracted a bit over the years), so there is a market for the status quo.

Is there any certainty that moving or eliminating one of the races would result in a single, grander event?

Does the fact that the Toronto Marathon is older warrant preferential treatment, even though the Waterfront race is more commercially successful and brings in more tourist dollars to the city?

By recommending moving the larger race to the spring, is Athletics Ontario giving the May Mississauga Marathon the bum’s rush?

Are the squeaky wheels (the city’s few but loud angry drivers) getting the grease?

Would a drastically altered route for one of the races make a difference to public opinion?

What’s your take on this?

1. Runshorts Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 am

   Interesting – thanks for sharing the letter.

   Although I do like the idea of one big marathon, just as I like the idea of a hometown spring and fall option, I respect that these races developed different traditions under different models and are reticent to change. Runners are not demanding a change, so my vote is to stay the course. I’m also not convinced change will make a big difference to the wave of traffic related complaints. The city has road closures most weekends in the summer/fall and I think the marathons, as the last major events of the season, are taking the brunt of weeks of pent up frustrations. I do, however, think some concessions can be made, such as earlier start times or slightly modified routes, as community good will is important.

2. Lesley Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 am

   Whether or not the City accepts Mr. Craig’s endorsement of the Goodlife Toronto Marathon over the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon, it’s a huge slap in the face to Alan Brooks! Ouch!

   I also find it kind of funny that his signature line includes “Support the 2015 Pan-Am Games Bid.” Can you imagine the traffic tie-ups that would result from that!

   From a practical perspective, the city needs to start running the subways before 9AM on Sundays to help with traffic, especially on days when there are road closures due to events.

3. RWS Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 am

   I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Craig. I think the Waterfront marathon and it’s backers would put on a great spring marathon which with the split seasons would cause more runners to attend both thus increasing each event’s numbers.

   The Mississauga Marathon would suffer slightly however and I feel bad for that considering I particularly like that event.

   Still, the idea of 2 major marathons in one city 3 weeks apart is strange and although the drivers need to chill, I do get where they’re coming from.

4. Will Huggon Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 am

   Why does it have to be a huge change? Why not just put the Scotia a week or two earlier and the Toronto a week or two later? It’s a small change for them (Scotia’s been as early as the 15th of September in the past) and that small change would cool the angry fringe. Plus it would be great for runners that didn’t quite meet their goal at Scotia to have enough time to retrain for the Toronto, and it wouldn’t squeeze in on the great Mississauga Marathon in the spring. See? Problem solved.

5. Toronto Runner Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 4:17 pm

   this may sound off the wall but what about a July marathon? I know the conditions are hot but at least there are no other marathons during this period making it much more unique. It might be a good tourist draw as well.

   This past year I ran the Mississauga Marathon (May), San Francisco (July) and Scotiabank (Sept) and I loved having the middle marathon in the summer to keep my endurance up.

   In terms of which one should move? I’m still on the fence….

6. Bob Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 6:52 pm

   Having run both races numerous times, I agree their models are unique and for this reason I believe both deserve our continued support.

   If the decision is made to run with only one fall race, my support is for Jay and the Toronto Marathon. Another good turnout this past weekend shows the grassroots approach can remain successful.

   Run well.

7. Runs with Spatula Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm

   I came from out of town for the STWM, so I don’t know a lot about what sparked this. But if it was in response to angry drivers, the city of Toronto can make things easy on themselves by not doing anything. Drivers will get angry with runners, no matter how far apart the races are. Especially in Toronto, where you can’t close 42km of streets without blocking a major artery. Few drivers will take solace in the fact that it’s only the first time this fall when they’ve decided they have to get where they’re going NOW.

8. McTrouble Says:
   October 23rd, 2009 at 7:24 pm

   1. I agree that if one race should move it should be SWTM. It is a far better managed race and will be fine as a spring marathon, our Toronto spring weather is cooler than September. Moving it up in Sep or in the summer would see people dropping like flies, not everyone trains properly unfortunately. I suppose Toronto marathon wasn’t happy enough ripping off part of SWTM’s route, maybe if they gave out more prize money to those hard working elite, they might actually attract high calibre runners. Start with getting a real sponsor with the cash to invest. Look around, all the big races are sponsored by financial institutions. If in 10 years GoodLife is still sponsoring this race, or for that matter still in business, I will retract. Scotiabank has faithfully stepped up for 10 years now. When you have a race known by it’s sponsor name, you’ve done a good job.

   2. Drivers will still complain, even if only one race. Drivers will complain if they have to wait for 5 minutes for a 10 person 2km fun run, so no need to appease that lazy self important lot.

   3. Brian Ashton? he’s a councillor for Scarborough, an area of which neither race has a route through. He’s done nothing out here, don’t let him be involved.

   4. Philly and New York are 3 weeks apart, I am sure Mississauga can survive Toronto spring marathon. Besides, Missy marathon will always be lame while they run part of it over those shared public park pathways and road curbs. Sorry Hazel, I know you say every year that some day your race will be bigger than Boston, but having run both marathons myself, I can say Mississauga marathon is no Boston.

   5. Sadly, neither Toronto marathon will ever be considered a world class marathon, when the vast majority of the self centred, self important residents can not be bothered to get off their butts to go support and cheer. It’s a disgrace and an embarrassment.

9. Rungirl Says:
   October 24th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

   I definately agree that if the city really, truly wants to support running races in TO- which usually occur on Sundays, the subway has to start earlier… 6:30 a.m. Make it easier for the runners!!! I know people who live in the burbs who won’t travel to TO for a race, because it is so hard to get to TO and find parking without shelving out lots of $$$.

   Marathons occur either in the fall or spring to accomodate training seasons (which are usually 4 -5 months) and because the weather is optimal at those times for runners. Who wants to run in humid, sticky weather and/or through a snow storm?

   Having said that, The Toronto Marathon is at a better time of the year than SWTM. The humidity has always broken and the cooler temps. prevents overheating.

   You may think that the SWTM does get more publicity than the Toronto Marathon, but who do you think pays for all of those ads? and sends out the media releases to the press? and how do you think the elites get to TO to run SWTM?

   The Toronto Marathon has a different mentality. It’s a run for the average, typical runner- not for the handful of elites. It’s a grassroot, community run that showcases TO- that’s why it runs through the heart of TO. The Toronto Marathon tries to give the most value to it’s runners- high quality shirts, lots of water and entertainment stations, baggage check (for no extra charge) and accuarate KM markers.

   That’s the kind of run that has my support. If only the city would wake up and put it’s support behind the Toronto Marathon.

10. LongTimeRunner Says:
    October 28th, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Even though the Toronto Marathon has had some glitches in the past; like eliminating the women’s category in the half the year after Sarah Hunter won the half outright one year; I think both should be allowed to continue. THey are both successful and you will NEVER make lazy, self important torontonians happy. More emphasis should be put on the millions raised for charity.
    It should be noted that the Canada Running Series / Scotia Race was a around as a half well before toronto started. All was good until the Toronto Marathon added a half, that was when the ‘line’ was crossed with respect to dates/events. The Toronto ‘Half’ gets double what the marathon does. Why not drop the Toronto Marathon, Scotia drop it’s half and the whinners can’t say there are two marathons? The funniest thing is that a guy out west, John Stanton, keeps the Toronto race alive by promoting it in his clinics which has become increasingly unpaletable due to organization that is a bit rough around the edges.
    Scotia in now an IAAF Silver race and is world class; the four fastest times ever run in Canada were run on it.
    I still say the best is to keep both and tell the smokers to get their butts ahead of time.