The Ottawa Marathon turns 50 in 2024, and there’s no higher strategy to rejoice than to be part of Canada’s largest and most historic spring marathon, which is able to happen on Might 26. Via the years, the marathon has seen every part from heat temperatures to course information and Olympic desires, to not point out all of the Boston qualifiers. However there’s loads you won’t learn about Canada’s capital metropolis marathon.
1975: Solely 3 ladies ran the primary Ottawa Marathon
Ottawa has all the time been one among Canada’s premier operating cities, and on Might 25, 1975, a 42.2 km route was designed, beginning and ending at Carleton College. The race’s beginnings have been modest, with solely 146 runners ending the inaugural marathon. In comparison with latest registration numbers (30,000 plus), it’s subsequent to nothing, however in 1975, it was already Canada’s greatest marathon.
The race was known as the Nationwide Capital Marathon and was received “accidentally” by Quebec middle-distance runner Mehdi Jaouhar, who entered the race along with his roommate. Solely three of the 146 finishers have been ladies.
1976: The Ottawa Marathon champion had lunch with the Queen
This yr was a particular one for athletics in Canada, because the nation hosted the 1976 Summer season Olympics (nonetheless the one Summer season Olympics our nation has hosted thus far). The marathon quadrupled in dimension from the earlier yr, and the stakes and competitors rose accordingly. The race was chosen as the situation for the 1976 Olympic Trials for the Canadian marathon crew, attracting a few of Canada’s prime marathoners.
Toronto’s Wayne Yetman set a brand new course file of two:16:32, incomes a spot on the Canadian Olympic crew for Montreal. Additionally included in his Olympic second was lunch with Queen Elizabeth. Eleanor Thomas received the ladies’s marathon for the second yr in a row, but she didn’t soak up any water or electrolytes on the course. Thomas was a smoker on the time, and famously mentioned “quitting smoking was tougher than operating a marathon.”
1983: Man in Movement Rick Hansen raced the Ottawa Marathon
In preparation for his well-known Man in Movement World Tour, Rick Hansen received the inaugural wheelchair division on the Ottawa Marathon in 1983. Beforehand, wheelchair athletes competed within the open area. Hansen was the pioneer of the wheelchair division in Canada after successful gold, silver and bronze medals on the 1980 Paralympic Video games. He grew to become the primary Canadian Para athlete to win the wheelchair division on the 1982 Boston Marathon.
Between 1985 and 1987, Hansen wheeled greater than 40,000 kilometres around the globe by way of 34 nations to lift consciousness about folks with disabilities. The world tour began and ended on the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver.
1986: The marathon virtually ended
After a significant decline in numbers in 1984 and 1985, race organizers and the board of administrators voted to cancel the occasion. The marathon confronted new competitors with the Montreal Marathon earlier within the spring, and Ottawa was having hassle attracting sponsors. Nonetheless, after the cancellation announcement new sponsors emerged and organizers have been in a position to transfer ahead and add a 10K race.
The primary Ottawa 10K attracted simply fewer than 1,000 contributors, however by 1988, that quantity doubled and continues to develop right now because the premier occasion on Saturday of Ottawa Race Weekend.
4: Montreal’s Jean Lagarde received 4 straight marathons between 1993 and 1996
Lagarde had come to Ottawa to cheer on his pal within the marathon, however when he received there, the pal persuaded him to enroll. Lagarde thought, “Why not?” By eight kilometres, Lagarde was out entrance and on his personal, and he held on to win his first of 4 straight Ottawa Marathons. Lagarde skilled for the marathon by operating 35 km each Sunday.
Lagarde’s greatest time in Ottawa was in 1994, when he ran 2:19:00. He additionally holds one other spectacular file, successful each the warmest and the coldest Ottawa Marathon thus far (25 C and 1 C). Take into account that the date of the marathon on the time was the second week of Might. He’s nonetheless the one man to win 4 consecutive Ottawa Marathons.
Russian-Canadian runner Lioudmila Kortchaguina has additionally received the marathon 4 instances, holding the file for essentially the most ladies’s titles. She has raced the Ottawa Marathon greater than 20 instances, and she or he was the final Canadian girl to win (in 2007) till Kinsey Middleton received in 2022.
1995: The race weekend had an inline skating race
To spice up registration numbers and add a Canadian twist to Ottawa Race Weekend, organizers held the inaugural inline skating 8K on the 1995 Ottawa Marathon. A whole lot of contributors signed up with their skates, gloves and helmets to skate a timed portion of the course.
The inline 8K race didn’t final lengthy; it was cancelled the following yr resulting from frosty circumstances.
1998: Ottawa was the primary Canadian marathon to have tempo bunnies
The place did tempo bunnies come from? Properly, the Chicago Marathon was the primary race to implement tempo bunnies in North America. After Hilda Beauregard of Ottawa participated within the 1997 Chicago Marathon, she seen that the race had offered tempo bunnies within the mass area to assist runners obtain their objective instances. The runner introduced the concept again to Ottawa, and the 1998 Ottawa Marathon grew to become the primary Canadian marathon to make use of tempo bunnies.
Yearly since, tempo bunnies have been a daily part of the marathon, sporting caps with rabbit ears whereas holding marked indicators with the projected ending time, serving to runners hit their objectives.
1996: There was a blizzard through the marathon
Although temperatures are sometimes heat for the Ottawa Marathon, which is in late Might, there was snow for the 1996 race. 4 thousand runners skilled below-zero temperatures and 35 km/h winds, with snow squalls. The 1996 race nonetheless stands because the coldest marathon within the occasion’s historical past.
2010: Paralympian Rick Ball achieved a single-leg amputee marathon world file in Ottawa
On the 2010 Ottawa Marathon, Rick Ball of Orillia, Ont., grew to become the primary single-leg amputee athlete to run a sub-three-hour marathon. Ball clocked 2:57:48 to interrupt the world file. He held onto that file for seven years, till it was damaged in 2017 by Lebanon’s Eitan Hermon on the 2017 Vienna Marathon, who completed in 2:56.53.
49 years of Ottawa Marathons
Ottawa’s Howard Cohen has accomplished his native race yearly because the inaugural marathon in 1975. The retired doctor has by no means missed a race, overcoming varied challenges such because the 30 C warmth menace that just about canceled the marathon in 2016, enduring a snowstorm in 1996, and even finishing the 42.2K race with canes resulting from a torn hamstring damage.
Cohen has constantly discovered a strategy to make it to the beginning line and cross the end. At 73, he has participated within the occasion just about for the previous 4 years, along with his final in-person race courting again to 2019. Cohen was the primary runner to register for the 2024 Tartan Ottawa Worldwide Marathon just about, which is able to mark his exceptional fiftieth race.
You may nonetheless register and be a part of the historic fiftieth version of Ottawa Race Weekend, scheduled for Might 25-26, 2024. Seize your trainers and join a memorable weekend stuffed with custom, achievement and vibes within the nation’s capital.
