Midsummer Night’s Run to take year off

Announced on their website in early February, the organizers behind Toronto’s popular Midsummer Night’s Run have decided not to host the event in 2015, though they’re not moving away from the race completely, planning to return the event to the race calendar in 2016.

Mark Trenton, who formerly held the position of race director, stepped away from helping with organizing the race last fall, though Steve White explains it was always a team effort getting everything ready. A few months later the announcement came the race would not be held in 2015.

“There are three principals in the event” says White. “We all had different chores, so to speak. Since we needed an official race director, Mark was the official race director for the last eight years because somebody had to have that title. Mark has since stepped down from the event. So it’s not a matter of designating a race director. We’re owners of this event, the three of us.”

But nobody involved in the organization makes any money from the run. White explains that, though it’s technically a private company and not a non-profit or charity, all the money raised is donated to the SickKids Foundation and nobody makes a salary or any profit.

The Midsummer Night’s Run, though not one of the city’s largest, had grown into a notable event in the race calendar around Toronto. This summer would have been the race’s 10th running and with hosting about 3,000 runners each summer came more work involved for those organizing. Setting standards high, White says they pulled the plug on 2015 with the plans of returning in 2016 for an event that meets the expectations of their runners.

“Our plans were to make it something very special except we do not live in the Toronto area and, just like Mark in the past and the both of us for the last ten years, we have lives and our own businesses. To try and pull something off to the level that we’re expected to we decided to take a breath, regroup,” says White. “We have some structural changes that we’re going through, so we want to make it special and move the tenth running to next year to deliver the product that we’ve delivered in the past.”

Though nothing is confirmed yet, White says the race is planning to make some major announcements in August of this year, though he won’t mention what those are. Still, those who enjoy the race can expect it to return in 2016. The cancellation this year is not planned to continue into 2016.

“It’s been a magical experience for us. We’re passionate about this and I won’t say the passion wasn’t there but the passion evolved only in that it became, for lack of a better word, a bit of a chore for us over the last couple of years,” says White. “Giving back is great and that’s what we want to do.”