Running: The Toronto Marathon - a tale of Two Cities....

Sunday, October 15, 2006 - 01:30 PM

Dickens' would not be proud...






These gals are NOT standing on the streets of Toronto with another couple of hundred thousand, or, million citizens cheering their marathoners on...

Inspiration for this series' of articles came from trip last summer to England and France, witnessing first-hand the bitter rivalry between these countries. Whether it's social, personal, sport-related, business or cultural, there exists a deep-rooted animosity between these two super powers. Often friendly and innocent, the insults are hurled wherever you go, usually in good, poke-in-the-ribs kind of fun, but there is an underlying nastiness here that won't go away.

So, it got me thinking, here we are in 2006, and STILL people in the running community don't really know much about the INTENSE rivalry between the Sept. and October Toronto Marathons, a story almost as compelling as those that surfaced when the great English King's and Queens lopped off heads faster than David Beckham switches hairstyles, or more recently when Napolean and Churchill ruled their countries thru war and hostile times.

I'd like to share with you some of the interesting facts, figures and body-blows (!) that have traded hands over the years...

This is fascinating stuff....

History:

Unlike Boston, Chicago or New York, Toronto and the Marathon have not grown and prospered. Think back to the mid-seventies, when the New York Marathon was in it's infancy, a crazy idea to run thru the 5 boroughs. From simple beginnings, it has now become one of the toughest marathons to gain a race entry, a sophisticated and some would call cruel lottery system that yearly denies more entrants (35,000+) then it accepts. Last year, New York celebrated the 35th running, another sold-out show for 35,000 lucky individuals. Boston of course has history and tradition on it's side, but it was not too long ago when the number of race entries was never above 2000 (1970's), and as recent at the late 80's, the entry lists never topped 7,000.

Today, the race now attracts close to 20,000 runners, worldwide, even with a tough qualifying standard. Boston celebrates it's 111th anniversary this next April.

Want a comparison closer to home?

Don't feel like it would be fair to compare any marathon success story with the tradition and history that affords Boston?

How about Chicago, where a roller-coaster ride in the late 70's until early 1994 saw participant numbers fluctuate dramatically from under 5,000 runners in 1977, to over 10,000 in 1985 and 1986. Wolrd-class fields, record prize money, media coverage - these attractions weren't enough to prevent out-right cancellation of the event in 1987 due to a lack of sponsorship, and then in 1991 more sponsor problems led to smaller prize money fields and far less participants than expected. At this time, the race was officially "sold" (more on this later) to La Salle Banks, and the rest as they say is history.

This year, the race field capacity was reached for the 2nd year in a row, in late July, 40,000 runners!

So of course, this begs the question, why can't Toronto even get 4,000 runners in a race here???

The research and history for these articles has come from various sources, especially the folks at the Ontario Track and Field Association, who have some impressive records going back to the 1950's. For the purpose of the History of the Toronto Marathon, we'll start in 1978, when some decent documentation was recorded. Heck, we even had World-Class winners, Bill Rodgers (1980), Benji Durden (1983), Steve Jones (1992 - 2:10:06).

According to John Craig, this was the first year that the OTFA started organizing a certified, official, world-class event. Remember, marathons for the better part of the 1900’s were limited to Boston, the Olympics and some rare events scattered around the world. It was pretty much a fringe endeavour for the select few. In fact, it was after the 1908 London Olympics, when the brits were embarrassed by their performances in the marathon, that a race called the Polytechnic Marathon was established, and from 1909 it would become the only recorded, competitive marathon outside of Boston and the Olympic Games.

It was not until after the Second World War, that races in Japan and Holland would join the annual Kosice Marathon, offering the die-hards a few extra choices to compete against other marathoners. The “Polly” known today dates back to 1924, and is Europe’s oldest, continually run marathon. Another member of the “originals” club and the most famous, competitive marathon race is in Japan, Fukuoka (1947), where elite men and women are invited, no age-groupers thank you! Until the Big Five (Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin and London) created a “World Marathon Majors” consortium in 2005, outside of the World Championships and Olympics, Fukuoko was THE choice among the best in the world. Canadian Marathon Legend Jerome Drayton, Boston Marathon Champion, Canadian record-holder and 6th place in the 1976 Olympics has three titles to show for his amazing marathon career here from Japan.

http://www.asahi.com/fukuoka-marathon/fukuoka_e/results/champions.html

Despite the growing popularity, very few marathons prior to the 1970’s had more than several hundred participants. Today, there are hundreds of marathons who get that many last-minute, race day registrations!

Okay, back to Toronto, sorry for the history lesson here…

1978 also coincided with the beginning of a North American-wide running boom, and co-incided with the start of good corporate sponsorships of road races in general, and marathons in particular. Assembling a World-Class field, putting up some prize money, generating media attention, all key ingredients when mixed together, can generate an event worth celebrating.

Oh, but there is one more ingredient, certainly the most important…support from the city in question, the politicians who ultimately vote to allow street closures. With a city’s backing, and the local media covering the event, Race Organizers can often rally the community and put on a worthy show.

The Toronto Marathon would continue a good run of support, from 1978 – 1995, with but two interruptions, in 1981 due to the lack of a Title Sponsor, and in 1993, when the Toronto Marathon changed from a fall to a spring race date. This is where the story gets interesting…


Stay tuned for more on this wacky history...


Readers, don't forget to submit your race story, view our Canada and USA race calendars, find your next triathlon, submit a marathon or half-marathon re-cap, cycling adventure, triathlon journey, or any other race-related story about yourracing,, event experience. My Next Race .com. A series of articles, races, maybe there is an ultra-marathon magazine article you like, or half-marathons worth reporting to our readers? Ultra-marathons, in 2006 or 2007 are worth writing about – 2006 or 2007 event information.

Canada Race Calendar – Marathon, Triathlon, Cycling.