Building community with the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon

Ten years after starting the Toronto Waterfront Half-Marathon and 5K in 1990, race director Alan Brookes decided the city needed a marathon. “It was important to me that we have a big city marathon in Canada,” he says. “All of the media is focused on Toronto–it’s a hub. We wanted to build the running community, but also build the broader Toronto community. We wanted to encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle and show that we’re a community who cares, with our charity programs.”

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS! ?

The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is back on Sunday, October 16th, and we would love for you to be a part of our amazing volunteer team!

Check available positions here: https://t.co/EUjr3L51mK#ChooseTOrun #TOwaterfront42K pic.twitter.com/FetLc41of8

— TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon (@TOwaterfront42k) October 5, 2022

The Toronto Waterfront Marathon looks very different in 2022 than it did in its first iteration in 2000. “What started as a race for a few hundred people is now a city-wide event for 25,000 runners with more than 100 charity partners,” says Charlotte Brookes, national event director at Canada Running Series (and Alan’s daughter). “The country comes together for this race.”

“The city really comes to life,” Charlotte adds. “This happens in a bigger way for the Waterfront Marathon than any other event of ours.”

Thousands of people will line the streets of Toronto over the weekend of Oct. 15, and beyond spectators, this year’s TWM has organized 22 dedicated cheer sites. “We have 24 run crews and seven more community groups coming out to do these cheer sites,” says Charlotte. “Each site gets a budget, and they’re all competing to see who puts on the best show. We’ll present awards following the marathon, then donate their winnings to a charity of their choice. This ensures that runners are encouraged every step of the way, brings the community together and adds to our charitable impact.”

The Waterfront Marathon was where Ed Whitlock became the first 70-year-old on the planet to run under the 3-hour mark. “The start-finish was on Wellington Street back then,” Alan says. “Ed had fallen at home the week before the race, so he was a little banged up, but he came down Wellington Street, and we saw him push to get to the line. He ran 2:59:10–he did it!” In 2003, at age 92, Fauja Singh, a British runner, ran 5:40.

The event has grown so much over the years–both Alan and Charlotte mention Whitlock and Singh as integral contributors to that growth. “When we started, I had goals of Toronto becoming like a Boston Marathon,” says Alan. “I wanted the city to care about it as much as the runners. When we were trying to get the marathon on the map, it was Ed and Fauja, these masters athletes defying aging, that really helped,” says Alan. 

A few weeks later, Runner’s World had a headline that read ‘A day for the ages, World Records set in Toronto and Berlin.’ “We were getting international recognition, which felt amazing,” Alan says. TWM went from hundreds of finishers to thousands within a year, thanks to the master’s world records. 

With the marathon growing, in 2010 Alan turned his attention to the elite fields. “I invited Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis, and I offered more appearance money to Eric, since he’d run faster than Reid at the time,” says Alan. “Reid complained a bit before the race about the money. Then when he ran a huge personal best, he stormed through the finish line, came right up to me and said, ‘See, I’m not a 2:16 marathoner anymore.’”

From there, TWM would see both Coolsaet and Gillis qualify for the Olympics in 2012, and Lanni Marchant and Krista DuChene run under Silvia Ruegger’s Canadian record in 2013. “We wanted to develop the community,” says Alan, “and with that, Canadian distance running and Canadian marathoning. Krista and Lanni’s accomplishments were an inspiration that changed women’s distance running for Canadians. The Canadian record has fallen another five minutes since Marchant and DuChene’s historic run in 2013–it now sits at 2:23:12, lowered just a few weeks ago at the Berlin Marathon by Vancouver’s Natasha Wodak.

Beyond the runners, TWM wants to make a positive environmental impact. “We are the first marathon in Canada going for Evergreen Certification from the Council for Responsible Sport, thanks to our new partnership with TCS,” says Charlotte. This means TWM is aiming for a 90-per-cent waste diversion rate across all of our event venues. “All our cups on course are compostable, and there are no single-use plastic water bottles,” she adds. “We also plan to donate all leftover race food to local food banks and charities.”

Beyond these day-of measures, TCS is developing a first-of-its-kind environmental calculator called the Sustainability Scorecard. “Our participants will have the opportunity to answer some questions and see what their impact is by participating in the event,” says Charlotte. “They will then have the opportunity to donate to one of our two new sustainability charity partners–Trees for Life or Trans Canada Trail, to offset their environmental impact by travelling to the race.”

TWM is planning for 2022 to be their biggest and most exciting year yet. With a few spots left on the start line, check out their website if you’re interested in participating. “The marathon starts at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 16, and I’m so excited to see what happens,” says Alan.