Inaugural Longboat ‘Ekiden’ a simple success

Editor’s note: On Wednesday, Sept. 5 in Toronto’s Tommy Thompson Park a group of Toronto’s running clubs came together to compete in a Japanese style relay race called an ‘ekiden’. The following is a report by race organizer Dan Way of the Longboat Roadrunners.

2:26:46. 2:30:15. 2:34:55. Not too bad as far as marathon results are concerned. And considering the humid weather that greeted the runners on Wednesday night, some would say they were actually quite good.

However, there’s a catch. Those times weren’t merely the result of one runners legs and lungs. Rather, six runners combined into a single team and runners competed over three separate distances to make up the 42.2K that comprises a marathon.

It’s called an ‘ekiden’, a Japanese style relay race in which teams of runners cover various distances in order to complete the standard marathon distance (42.195K). Last night, the Longboat Roadrunners, led by club vice-president Dan Way, organized an informal ekiden on the Leslie Street Spit (i.e. Tommy Thompson Park). Fifteen teams of 90 runners toed an imaginary start line just inside the gates and at approximately 6:45 p.m., they set off into the lingering daylight on a hot and humid evening, in order to complete their respective legs of 5, 6.1 and 10K. Two runners per team complete each leg as fast as possible and individual results are calculated to get a team marathon time ((2x5k) + (2×6.1k) + (2x10k) = 42.2k). The runners ran ‘out-and-back’ on the mostly flat ‘Leslie spit’, meaning they ran to the half-way point of their respective leg (2.5, 3.05 and 5K) and returned to the same place they started.

A number of local running clubs, including the host Longboat Roadrunners, the Runway, the Runner’s Shop and Marathon Dynamics, were all present with a variety of male, female, mixed and master’s teams. They competed with and against each other, mostly for club bragging rights, but also for personal bests and individual victories. The top male team was the ‘Longboat Samurai Splits’ in a time of 2:26:46. The top female team was from Marathon Dynamics Dynamos, in a time of 2:51:15. ‘The Runner’s Shop’ was the top mixed team in 2:50:02, and top Master’s (40+) honours went to the ‘Longboat Killer B’s’ in 2:34:55.

Best of all, the event was free to enter! It was a bare-bones event that provided only the basics: an accurately measured course and a time result at the finish. The organizers hope to build on their initial success and repeat the event in the future.