News

Plot thickens in tale of two Toronto marathons

February 3, 2010
By Michal Kapral

City officials in Toronto are giving the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon and the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon two weeks to negotiate a deal to move one of the races to the spring.

Toronto’s public works and infrastructure committee heard depositions from supporters of each marathon yesterday. The two marathons are currently run three weeks apart, and the city wants the race directors to come up with a solution that spreads out the events into different seasons to avoid traffic complaints and to foster the growth of one signature race.

If no deal is reached before a city council meeting in two weeks, the city will open up a bidding process for a single fall marathon. Despite neither side budging on a date over the last two years, GoodLife race director Jay Glassman now appears open to moving his run, with a caveat. “If we were to move to the spring, I would like to see the city give us some concessions,” he said.

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