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Up To Speed

Toronto’s Marathon “Solution”

February 19th, 2010

The news today is that the Toronto Marathon, facing a city-mandated death sentence, will be moving from its longstanding mid-October date to a yet to be determined May date in 2011.  The October 17th 2010 date is still in effect.

Normally I’m not one to join in the “those clowns in city hall” chorus, but this adjustment makes absolutely no sense and is a response to a perceived problem that was never backed up with any actual data.

The two arguments in favour of any change at all were always specious.

The first was that two marathons three weeks apart created an unreasonable hardship on drivers.  However, no data was released suggesting these traffic disruptions were ever even measured, let alone compared to a “reasonable” threshold of traffic disruption.  More importantly, the two marathons are discrete events, and it’s irrelevant whether the races are three weeks or six months apart.  The traffic disruption of the second race (now September’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon) will not be any less because the preceding marathon will now be four months earlier.

The other argument was that two marathons in one city held either one back from becoming a “world class” event.  However, this was never more than a hunch and there are many examples (San Francisco, Washington) of similarly-sized cities sustaining a very large marathon as well as a second smaller one.  I guess it’s a moot point now anyway.

If, and it’s a big if, there was ever a problem in the first place, this new schedule doesn’t solve anything.  The issue now is how this new May race will affect the growing Mississauga Marathon and Ottawa’s race weekend, which draws hundreds of Toronto racers each May.  Is the fledgling Whitby International North Marathon (an eastern Toronto suburb) dead in the water?  We shall see.

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7 Responses to “Toronto’s Marathon “Solution””
  1. Stewart Says:

    I think the traffic problem is helpfully solved for Toronto drivers. Four months between events will be a welcome break in terms of disruption to city streets. However, I agree that Toronto’s solution is Mississauga’s new problem.

  2. Boris Terzic Says:

    When it comes to the Mississauga and Ottawa they are in different cities and seem to be getting a great deal of support from their respective cities, unlike here in Toronto.

    I will be running the Toronto in spring 2011 and possibly try the Hamilton, PEC or Niagara as a fall alternative.

  3. AirForceRunner Says:

    As always, you make some VERY good points. Ottawa Race weekend was the first to come to my mind. A lot of folks are very loyal to this race.
    I’m curious to see how this all pans out.

  4. Jo-Jo Says:

    As usual…you make some good points. My hunch tells me that Whitby’s race will suffer.
    I love NCM as do many runners…I have a hard time believing that the Toronto race will draw people away from NCM…we shall see!

  5. Runshorts Says:

    Even though Mississauga may have hometown support, if the race dates are close I suspect their numbers will suffer. A lot of people from Toronto seem use Mississauga as a closer to home alternative to Ottawa.

    I’m really, really curious as to when the spring marathon will be held. I’d like another early (April, like Waterloo) spring alternative to Boston, but that is probably too early in the season for the masses.

    I wonder if there will be a Goodlife Toronto bump this fall, this being a runner’s last chance to run the course in the fall?

  6. Chris Says:

    Dave, I agree that not having studies to back up this move, I think this move will solve nothing.

    I think Sporting Life 10km and the spring marathon will get drivers all upset in May. I know its only a 10km and Yonge St will only be closed until 9:30 or 10 AM, the downtown area will probably be closed closer to two hours (until 11 AM). Small disruptions from this race will surely make the news and then assuming the marathon falls a week or two after that, the news media will again report road closures due to another race. Some non-runners dont know the difference between a 10km and a marathon so to them there will be two marathons in May now. (One year on 3 traffic reports on the Sunday morning, 680 news said that there were road closures for the Sporting Life Marathon down Yonge St. I am not making this up, because my wife and I had a good laugh over it. )

  7. Lesley Says:

    I totally agree with Chris. Drivers only know that there are road closures because people are running. They don’t know (or care about) the reason why, how far, etc.

    The complaints will not go away by moving this race to the spring.

    For the record, if I’m still alive the next time the Leafs win the Stanley Cup and they want to close the streets for a “parade,” I will complain!

    ;)

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