Running Room, supporters save the day for worlds team after airline loses luggage
Canadian mountain running team supporter deliver new Running Room team uniforms, as a set was lost in transit, to Italy with hours to spare before the world championships
Canada’s mountain running team was stranded without its men’s singlets in Italy this weekend. Enter the Running Room and a supporter with a well-timed flight to Milan to connect with the team overseas.
On route to Milan for the World Mountain Running Championships in nearby Premana, Aer Lingus lost the team luggage, still yet to be located, according to team manager Adrian Lambert. “Thankfully there were some women’s singlets that were travelling separately from the other uniforms,” Lambert explains. “However, there were no men’s singlets at all.”
RELATED: Canadian results from the World Mountain Running Championships.
With a Sunday race date, time was limited to get either a new set of singlets or locate the lost goods. “The men would have either needed to re-wear the women’s singlets (a logistical nightmare) or wear cotton T-shirts which would have been heavy and hot to wear,” Lambert says.
Fortunately, the mountain running team, made up of two senior and two junior teams competing over 6.5K and 13K, had a supporter, Marie Grenon, who was flying to Italy from Calgary on the Friday of the championships. Running Room, the original suppliers of the uniforms, had no supply at the Country Hills and its nearby locations in the Calgary-area. With a flight to catch, there was no time to go to nearby stores.
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“The manager at the Running Room suggested that they try to get uniforms in Toronto and have them bring them to Marie at the airport during her brief layover in Toronto,” Lambert explains. Toronto Running Room employee Bryan Smith spoke with Air Canada staff and met Grenon, after trading photos of each other, just outside of the domestic security during the layover. “They did the transfer and thankfully the security line was short so Marie got into the international security smoothly,” says Lambert.
Grenon, and the uniforms, arrived in Premana less than 24 hours before the start of the race. “When Marie joined the team at the hotel they gave her an excited round of applause,” Lambert notes.
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The races went off early Sunday morning. Recap and official results can be found here.
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