Date: Sunday, September 28th 2008
Location: Nathan Philips Square, Toronto, ON
Events: Marathon, Half-marathon, and 5km Distances
Website: www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com
Well, given the time of year, it was a very good day for these races. Yes, it was more humid and windy than most runners would prefer but at least it wasn’t raining, cold or worse, extremely hot.
First of all, I would like to thank Harold Mah for the VIP access. It was great to have a quiet area to prepare for my event as well as a great view of the other events I was spectating.
Let’s start off with the event that bears the day’s name, the marathon. I ran this event in 2006 and know how the sun, wind and humidity can take it’s toll on the body. This is a very wide-open course with the exception of the tall towers at the start and finish. It was a fairly steady wind for the better part of the day so I’m sure most of the runners were feeling it in their calves by the 35km point. The winner, Kenneth Mungara, finished in a very respectable time of 2 hours and 11 minutes. The top Running Free marathoner was Anthony Davey in 63rd place with a smokin’ hot 2:57!! First sub-3 for Anthony if I’m not mistaken. Ricardo Theoduloz ran a 3:36 chip-time for 279th place in a field of 2532 runners. This was also a 4 minute personal best compared to Ottawa this year.
Now for the half-marathon distance. In a field of 6372 runners, Pius Korir won in a very fast 1:04:42. Our top Running Free athlete was Scott Mcdonell in 23rd overall and second in his age group in a very fast time of 1:18! Congrats Scott. Eman Ronchin was 269th overall in a time of 1 hour 36 minutes.
And last but not least the 5km event saw a field of 2958 runners and was won by Cameron Maclean in a time of 16:27. Our first Running Free runner was Mike Bosch (yes, me) in a time of 17:56 which was good enough for 11th overall and 3rd in my age group. Ben Kong also did a good job of representing the Team in a time of 25:42 for 254th place overall.
Congratulations to all!
Great weekend report Mike! You all did a fantastic job out there and at the expo representing Running Free. I wish I was able to join this year but there is always 2009. All three races had some crazy fast times by our RF racers. Great for inspitration.
Best of luck.
Larry
Hey Mike,
nice report and thaanks for the mention.
Actually it’s my 2nd sub 3hr marathon,I ran a 2:55 at the Toronto Marathon in 06.
Cheers
Anthony
Thanks for the mention Mike, and sorry I missed you guys at the VIP tent. That was one of the best organized 5km races I have ran in a while, it’s the first 5km run I have done that incorporated a starting corral.