Runners surprised with a medal miracle at Calgary Marathon

Finishers of the Servus Calgary Marathon were awarded a pleasant surprise on Sunday morning after they were told on May 24 that the medals would not arrive on time due to global shipping challenges.

Run Calgary race director Kirsten Fleming ordered the medals several weeks earlier than usual, in anticipation of the ongoing shipping crisis. But 24 hours before the race, the medals were still stuck on a cargo ship in the Port of Vancouver.

“On May 23, I was told there was a one per cent chance,” says Fleming. “I held on to that one per cent and just kept trying.”

The Calgary Marathon medals arrived in the wee hours of Sunday morning but not without the help of race weekend volunteers and Westjet Canada. “We didn’t know what options we had,” says Fleming. “One of my volunteers suggested reaching out to the Canadian airline, Westjet, to see if they could help. So that’s what we did.”

On Wednesday, May 25, Fleming sent an email to Richard Bartrem, the Vice-President of Communications and Community Relations at WestJet, and the rest was history. The company said once the medals were unloaded from the cargo ship, they would try their best to deliver them to Calgary in time for race day.

#YYC runners, it's a medal miracle! With the incredible support of @GlobalTerminals and @WestJet, and SO many others – we're thrilled to announce your medals are waiting for you at the finish line: https://t.co/odqkmrVsi2 #calgarymarathon #yyc #westjet #globalterminals

— Calgary Marathon (@CalgaryMarathon) May 29, 2022

As a fallback plan, Fleming reached out to local baker Lynnette MacDonald from the award-winning Calgary bakery, Swirl, to bake 5,000 finisher cookies to substitute for the medals. MacDonald was up all hours of the day and night for four days baking cookies for Sunday. 

When Fleming found out the medals would be on time, she immediately contacted MacDonald, who was shocked to hear the news after baking 5,000 cookies. (The cookies were still offered to finishers in the post-race food area.)

“The medals showing up was the sugar on the cookie,” Fleming says. “It takes a village to put on a marathon and all pieces came together to create a successful and fun day.”

“I am so overwhelmed with gratitude, and finding it difficult to wrap my head around how many people, who have nothing to do with the race, went above and beyond to pull off this medal miracle,” Fleming says.

This year’s marathon provided an opportunity to put a spotlight on two local-area athletes. A familiar face and 2014 champion, Kip Kangogo of Lethbridge, Alta., crossed the finish line first with a time of 2:32:54. The first place women’s finisher was Maria Zambrano of Calgary with a personal best time of 2:46:49.

Zambrano, 51, broke the previous Canadian marathon record for the 50 to 54 age group of 2:49:15, set by Denise Robson in 2019. Zambrano was third in the Calgary Half Marathon in 2021.

In an interview with Calgary’s Global News, the mother of two credits her fast times to having more time to herself now to train. “I’m happy that I can inspire people my age,” Zambrano said. “I think there’s no secret. It’s just doing the training and being consistent and wanting to do it.”

Congratulations to all those who ran the Centaur Subaru 21.1km this morning (and all the races at @CalgaryMarathon )! It was awesome to see so many runners on the streets of Calgary today. ????‍♀️??‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/IbJ1ZXvg4N

— Centaur Subaru (@CentaurSubaru) May 29, 2022

Calgary’s Matt Travaglini won the Centaur Subaru Half Marathon in 69:06 after duelling it out with Ajax, Ont. runner Matthew Lozano for 15 km. Lozano finished second behind Travaglini in 70:13, while Scott Hill of Canmore, Alta. finished third in 1:11:45. In the women’s race, it was a close finish between Calgary runners Emily James and Makenna Fitzgerald. James created a gap on Fitzgerald with 2K to go, taking the win in 1:20:14, with Fitzgerald finishing closely behind in 1:20:38. Caitlin Vail of Edmonton was third in 1:21:46.

Here are the full results from the 2022 Servus Calgary Marathon weekend.