Running: The Toronto Marathon - a brief history

Sunday, October 15, 2006 - 02:20 PM

This scene was taken from the 2006 Scotia Bank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

In 1990, Shopper's Drug Mart entered a 5-year Title Sponsorship with the OTFA, hoping to finally bring "the Boston Marathon" to the GTA, and with a purported cash outlay of $500,000 annually over 5 years, the pot on the stove finally seemed to have found it's last, key ingredient. It was at this key moment, the stage was set, could Toronto finally get a World-Class Marathon???

Apparently, not in the fall, so in the middle of the 5-year deal, mid-stride, the race was moved to the second weekend in May, 1994, year #4 of the five-year plan, time to make it or break it...

Yours truly was actually supposed to wake-up at some un-godly hour that morning, and come out to watch. A good friend and sports-marketing colleague from York University, David Marci, was working for Arts and Communications Group, the Event-Marketing company hired to organize the race on behalf of the OFTA. I ran into him the night before, as I was crossing thru Metro Hall, on my way to bar of course. David gave me a V.I.P. pass, "get up and come out in the morning, check this thing out, you might get inspired". Wow I thought, a marathon, I've always wanted to do one of those, maybe I should watch, could be inspiring.

Of course, the next morning, on very little sleep, I looked outside at 7:00 am, it was pissing rain, so naturally I stayed in bed. Suckers, running in this weather I thought... did I miss anything?

Only the "$24,000 handshake" between Olympians Peter Maher and Peter Fonseca, two combatants who, on camera, in the pouring rain, decided to split the first and second place prize money, and cut back on the pace, so both could be fresh afterwards and race for money sooner. Maher would end up winning, in a pedestrian time above 2:20, and the brouhaha ensued. Many thought this was truly un-inspiring, and Race Organizers threatened to hold prize money for both (second place was $12,000).

So, despite two home-grown talents duking it out (Maher lived in Thornhill, Fonseca in North York), creating a rivalry that could spur extra attention among the press, things backfired terribly (Maher never did pay Fonseca the difference, so that didn't bring the two Olympic rivals any closer).

Not exactly a great show for the sponsors....

Fast-forward to May, 1995, your intrepid reporter's first-ever marathon, great race day weather, another World-Class Field, including the previous year's runner-up, Peter Fonseca, now a bona-fide contender looking for his second big win, following a first-place win in the January Houston Marathon. It was another world-class field, ....

Ah, but the damagae was done, the plug pulled, "word on the street" that this May 7th, 1995 would mark the end of the modern-day era of the Toronto Marathon. Shopper's was bailing, and the local race promotions scene in dis-array. Materials were already circulating, a new Marathon, the Canadian International Marathon, to surface back in the fall, October 1995.

The last edition was a great day, take it from me, the weather perfect, no wind, maybe a little warm towards the 2+ hour mark, but the quality of field excellent, 20th place was a 2:35:38, 89 runners in total would break 3:00 (3:01:28, my debut, 98th place...):

In 2006, the best fields were in the Ottawa Marathon, 2:29:36 for 20th place, and Scotia Bank Waterfront, 2:31:07 for 20th.

There was music along the course, lots of water stations, even a decent amount of admireres throughout the city, including the many Italian and Portuguese by-standers along St. Clair West, cheering us on in foreign tongues (or was that shouts of anger, "Offa the streeta, I gotta getta my mama to church"). I'll never forget the bands and announcer at Danforth and Victoria Park, the 30km mark, telling us that the winners had just crossed the finish line, and here we were, still over 10km to go...curses!

The finish line atmosphere was pretty good, I recall many balloons, tents, music, and SSOOO much food in the post-race tent, I scarfed 2 Mars Bars (presenting sponsor) instead of bagels and oranges, and soon after had to leave with an upset stomach, so I didn't get to enjoy the post-race festivities!

Our scapegoat from the last year, runner-up Peter Fonseca, would crush his demons and win in a sprint to the finish, out-kicking stalwart Kenyan William Koech, winning in 2:11:34 for a 16-second victory, confirming an Olympic position in Atlanta the following summer, the 6th fastest time for a Canadian male marathoner.

The day was great, but it was the end of an era in Toronto road racing, until 2004.

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