Trucking along at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon
Everyone was asking the same thing. “Did you hear about Haile Gebrselassie?”
It was 7:30 in the morning. We scribes were hanging off the back of the media truck. Thirty metres behind us, 12 of the fittest men on the planet were cruising along at a cool 21 km/h. Of course, everyone on the truck had heard all about Haile. We were sportswriters, after all. Not only did we know that the great Ethiopian marathoner had shaved 17 seconds off his world record in Berlin earlier that morning; we were fully expecting that his performance would inspire some of his countrymen and women to kick butt in this race.
We weren’t alone. Organizers of the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon were counting on the strong men’s field to set a new record for the fastest marathon ever run on Canadian soil. That’s what happened here last year, when John Kelai of Kenya crossed the finish line in 2:09:30. Kelai was back amongst the leaders again this morning, notching three-minute kilometres one after the other. As the media truck shambled west along the shore of Lake Ontario, the course record looked increasingly vulnerable. The Official Race Measurer was in the truck, calling out the splits as we passed each kilometre marker. “That’s another 3:02,” he’d say.
Question: Is it possible to snag a cup of Gatorade while travelling on the media truck at 21 km/h?
Answer: Yes. But it is definitely not encouraged.
The Toronto Waterfront course suffers from ADD. After starting at Nathan Phillips Square, it drives west towards Etobicoke, swings around and heads for the Beaches, and then reverses direction yet again to end at City Hall. While all this zippering back and forth causes whiplash in some runners, it also leads to some dramatic moments. Each time the leaders doubled back past the middle-of-the-packers, massive cheers went up – and continued kilometre and kilometre. It’s a charming thing about our pastime: Running is one of the few sports where the participants actually enjoy seeing themselves get beaten.
“Uh-oh,” said the Race Measurer. “That’s a 3:06.”
Stiff winds slowed the runners on the return trip down the Leslie Street Spit, and the Canadian record quickly fell out of reach. No matter – the real story was unfolding a few minutes behind the lead men, where Mulu Seboka, Haile Gebrselassie’s 22-year-old compatriot, was crushing the women’s course record by more than four minutes. We later learned that Seboka’s victory was well deserved. Her training schedule included 280K of roadwork each week.
***
Nearly 15,000 runners participated in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, half-marathon and 5K races. Kenneth Mungara of Kenya won the men’s marathon in 2:11:00, while Dylan Wykes was the top Canadian finisher in 2:16:20. Susan Evans was the fastest Canadian woman in 2:44:20.
–David Carroll
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