Top 10 Highlights of Canada Running Series 2016

By December 31, 2016General

December 31, 2016 – By Alan Brookes, Race Director

Thank you all for another remarkable year with Canada Running Series! More than 53,000 of you ran in this year’s Series. Another 5,000+ were volunteers and area managers. Tens of thousands more came out to cheer loved ones and friends. Together, you produced so many great moments. Of course, great moments are intensely personal: setting and achieving new personal goals; going the distance for a charity that is a vital part of your life, or in memory of a loved one; returning from a major injury, or coming back from childbirth to top fitness; qualifying to represent your country in the Olympic Games. What follows, then, is my own personal list of highlights from our year together. Even that has been enormously difficult to pick, so apologies to those I’ve missed!

My highlights, I think, reflect 3 key aspects of our 2016.

2016 was an Olympic year, and the exploits of our Canada Running Series stars featured prominently for me: our super-nice, fellow runners like Eric Gillis or Krista DuChene regularly lit up our races, and then went on to represent us and our country so proudly on the world’s greatest athletics stage.

Our ongoing, shared commitment to “building community through running” was another outstanding feature.

Finally, change was another important aspect of 2016. Just as we see an astonishing rate of change in the broader world around us, so our Series is caught up in this, driven by technology and the need to be fresh, new, innovative, to create a leading-edge, international-class running experience.

Here then, are my top 10:

  1. The unquestionable top story for 2016 was Ed Whitlock’s new M85 age group World Record of 3:56:34 set at Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 16th. Ed has amazed and inspired us, has challenged us to do better, so many times since 2003 – when he became the first septuagenarian to go under the magic 3 hours at STWM – but this year took the cake! To say Ed’s remarkable achievement went viral would be the understatement of the year. From The New York Times to The Times of London, from Australia to Roumania, the silver-haired, 105 lb Milton-maestro captured the headlines.  Two days after the race, the Olympic Channel posted a video clip on their Facebook page. To date, it has 7,703,611 views! The clip on BBC Sport has another 595,797.  For me, to be right there, and at the post-race press conference where Ed with his usual sublime modesty chatted about the merits of his 20-year-old shoes and 30-year old singlet, was a very special moment. “They don’t make shoes like they used to,” said Ed. And as he continually reminds us, “Don’t Limit Yourself!’
  1. “Never give up!” Just two years after fracturing her femur in the same race, Krista DuChene, at age 39, came back from the glue factory to win the Banque Scotia 21k de Montréal in 72:30, and with it “prove fitness” to seal her final selection to the Rio Olympic Marathon team. Her unrestrained joy at the Finish Line was only equaled by the one she gave at that Rio Finish Line in August. Krista remembers, “When I crossed the finish line [at Montréal 21k], the memories of the last time I participated in this race came soaring back. In 2014, with 500m to go, I broke my leg. I was limping along and in the crowd I heard someone shout ‘Crawl if you have to, but finish your race.’ I knew at that moment the injury was serious, but had no idea how serious it was. The race organizers were fantastic. They are like my family. They helped me and supported me. The care I received at the hospital was also extraordinary. Two days after my surgery, I told myself that I could make the Olympic standard in one year and that’s what I did.”

  1. The other side of what we do at CRS, besides athletic performance, is building community through running and your combined performance for community in 2016 was nothing short of spectacular. Together, you raised $5,595,834 and created vital awareness for a record 342 mostly-local charities. To put that in perspective, that’s an average of $104 raised for every participant across the entire Series! I could fill all of this Top 10, certainly a Top 100, just with stories of great courage and achievement amongst our charity runners. As examples, let me mention two, both in the Scotiabank Charity Challenge at STWM.

    Four years ago Robert MacDonald fell 30 feet while vacationing in Los Cabos, Mexico. He dislocated his spine in two places, fractured nine vertebrae, broke eleven ribs and his scapula, and punctured a lung. The fractured vertebrae pinched his spinal cord, obstructing vital blood flow; the longer the obstruction went on, the more extensive the damage. He was given a 5% chance of ever being able to walk again. Cared for by the physios at Toronto Rehab Institute, maniacally determined, Robert worked tirelessly, one step at a time. Last year, he completed the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half-marathon. This year he formed Team “I Will” and together they finished the full STWM 42k, raising a fabulous $90,000 for the institute (see header photo at top). The journey: “First patient. Then fundraiser. Now Board Member. Always a Believer.”

    Last year JP Bedard astounded us by running a Triple STWM – that’s running the Waterfront Marathon 3 times, back to back to back, the final time with every else from the mass Start – to raise awareness for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This October JP went a few steps more, forming “JPs Team”, successfully completing four x STWM, or a total of 168.78 kilometres, and raising funds for Gatehouse and Little Warriors. JP began his journey at 2pm on Saturday and it was a special moment to be at the Finish line his final time around on Sunday afternoon with his family, friends and JPs Team.

  1. Fun, combining tradition and innovation! With the support of our new partners Race Roster, we added an entirely new twist to our 38-year old Race Roster Spring Run Off with the “Kill The Hill Challenge”. A complete set of results were generated for everyone’s time running the last 365 yards up the (in)famous Spring Road Hill for both 8K and 5K. Our inaugural winners were Luka Senk (79.7 seconds) and Pascale Gendron (1:34.9) in the 8k; to Miles Avalos (79.0) and Jenni Dwyer (1:40.2) in the 5k. We’re gearing up to challenge those High Park Hills and #killthehill again on April 8th, 2017. Can you take those records down?
  1. Running crew support was everywhere in CRS 2016 and the energy, passion, caring and “crew love” enormously helped bring our races alive. From The “Montréal Mile” hosted by East Laurier Running Club and the RunTOBeer fun run with La bière St-Ambroise brewery to launch Banque Scotia 21k weekend; to the Tribe Fitness paddling pool with pink flamingoes on the Toronto Waterfront 10 course; the Parkdale “Tunnel of Love” at 41k into STWM; to the Fraser Street Run Club vs East Van RC community challenge to raise funds for Watari & the Breakfast Club in the rain at Eastside 10k, you guys were super-dope! Through the rain, monsoon! You ran, you cheered and you volunteered to make it happen. Better weather planned for next year.
  1. The success of the 1st annual Toronto Waterfront 10. It was a celebration of running! As many of you who’ve been part of the Series for a while know, we’ve always had a major Spring 10K and STWM in the Fall to anchor CRS in Toronto. After several years of discussions and finally collaboration with the City and Mayor John Tory’s office, a butterfly emerged and took flight with the Toronto Waterfront 10. An enormous thanks to the 6,200+ who came out to our fresh, new, urban Toronto race, and to all the running crews and clubs who were a vital part of the design, planning and execution of the event that is a definite keeper! It also provided a wonderful platform for a Rio send-off for 3 of our Olympic marathoners, Eric, Reid and Krista, complete with Brazilian drummers, samba dancers, the Consul General of Brazil, the Mayor, the Canadian Olympic Foundation, and MP and former Olympic marathoner Peter Fonseca.
  1. The strength and depth of women’s distance running in Canada, that we saw month after month in CRS 2016. Besides trailblazers Krista and Lanni Marchant, we had the great pleasure of racing with Rachel Hannah, Natasha Wodak, Dayna Pidhoresky, Rachel Cliff, Leslie Sexton, Tarah Korir, Erin Burrett, Neasa Coll, Erin McClure, Bianca Premont, Sandra McLean, and more, from coast-to-coast and all year round. The injuries, setbacks, and battles many of them had to face, particularly Natasha, Rachel Cliff and Lanni, as well as Krista, was especially inspiring. I also had the added pleasure of seeing some of the outstanding performances from our strong women at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff in March, at the Run Barbados Festival in December, plus Rachel Hannah’s 2016-top-ranked 2:32:09 in Houston in January, as our regular CRS stars represented us so proudly on the world stage.
  1. Innovation and design. Symbolized by our 2016 race t-shirts and medals, especially the Eastside 10k and the STWM 2016 participant shirt; the latter designed by Parkdale Road Runner and artist Mango Peeler. From our beginnings in 1990 we aimed to provide “t-shirts you want to wear not wash the car with!” Many of you, including Reid Coolsaet commented on the STWM shirt, as a serious keeper. It truly was artwork at the races. On the same theme of innovation and design, our image to the world, I’d want to add our beautiful new websites, RunCRS.ca and www.STWM.ca, our first-ever app, for Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, available from the App store, and our STWM “live” broadcast that was watched by more than 70,000 people in 129 countries!
  1. Eric Gillis and Krista DuChene delivered outstanding, professional performances once again on a tough day at STWM, to claim the Athletics Canada National Marathon Championship crowns and become CRS 2016 Overall Champions.  “Toronto (Waterfront Marathon) was the icing on the cake after coming back from becoming an Olympian and winning a national title. I couldn’t ask for a better season really,” said Krista. Eric’s 10th place in the Rio Olympic Marathon was truly outstanding – the best placing by a Canadian since Drayton’s 6th in 1976. He then came back just 7 weeks later to cap it off, with us, on October 16th.
  1. I’m a bit embarrassed by this one, but want to include my own induction to the new City of Toronto Sports Hall of Honour in February as a “Builder”. Last year was my 30th year of getting permits to organize road races in Toronto [before expanding to Montreal and Vancouver in 1999]. I wasn’t sure if I’d get an award or a ride to the airport. The smart money was on the latter. But life is full of surprises, and I truly appreciate the recognition, along with the likes of Milos Raonic, Marilyn Bell (Legend) and Archie Allison (Builder) from Variety Village. This one was for ALL of us. If its one thing I’ve learned in 30 years, its that you can’t do it on your own. Thanks. Let’s make the next 30 years even better. Together.