Toronto to host Midnite New Year’s Eve Run

Toronto, Canada – All Sports Marketing Inc. and MyNextRace.com have announced another fun sports property for runners and athletes.  Save the date, and BOOK your trip to Toronto, North America’s fastest-growing running market.

The inaugural New Year’s Eve Midnite Run and Party will take place in Hip, Cool Liberty Village, a vibrant and growing community adjacent to Lake Ontario and steps from Queen West, King Street and the Entertainment District.  Currently home to several thousand condo dwellers, Liberty Village has more Cranes and Construction sites than anywhere else in Great Toronto, which is still North America’s hottest Real Estate market. Peter Donato, owner of MyNextRace.com, is excited to bring the first organized run to the community.  “I used to have an office 100 yards from the Start and Finish line, and always wanted to bring a race to this funky, film-savvy collection of entrepreneurs, artists and independent creative minds.  With over 30 restaurants and bars within a 3 square mile radius, a run that served alcohol at the finish line was a no brainer”.

The run is also supporting a good cause, the Fort York Food Bank, which Peter also raised money for years earlier running on behalf of Liberty Village in the 2007 Scotia Bank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.    The inaugural 5km run, walk and party will also have live music, entertainment, a video review of the year’s running highlights and of course fireworks at Midnite when the gun goes off.  The first run is capped at1,000 runners and for the party1,000 revelers.

MyNextRace.com / All Sports Marketing Inc. started in Canada but has since grown and expanded internationally. The website and member communication informs athletes about races in key markets around the world.  The web-site has just re-launched this fall.   The primarily North American audience is facilitated through the MyNextRace.com website, providing information for members of Generation Active, including runners, cyclists, adventure racers and triathletes.

The company currently organizes the 11^th Annual Boston Tea Party, Team Canada Brunch held at the Boston Marathon.  The only Brunch in the world with a web-site, an annual tradition for Canadians running Boston.   www.bostonteaparty.ca

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MEDIA CONTACT:         

Chelsea Vanderkamp Merritt

416-441-1492    c 647-927-4255                                                                                           info@allsportsmarketing.ca

Peter Donato  

901-297-9264   (USA) or    416-707-5944 (Canada)

peter@mynextrace.com

A mediocre athlete, whose goal was nothing more than joining his girlfriend in qualifying for the provincial high school cross country championships, Coolsaet finished 18th in the 1997 race. In the absence of scholarship offers he joined coach Dave Scott-Thomas at the University of Guelph. The partnership has certainly paid off.

A year ago he dipped under Athletics Canada’s Olympic qualifying standard with a time of 2:11:23 to finish 10th in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. At this point he is the only Canadian to have achieved the standard but there’s a catch. The IAAF announced after the race the qualifying period wouldn’t start to January 2011.

Now all he needs is a strong effort at this year’s Toronto race October 16th - anything under  the IAAF standard of 2:15 will do - to earn his place at the London 2012 Olympics. And, he must ensure he is amongst the first three Canadians capable of achieving the standard. The competition for the three Olympic spots with Simon Bairu, Dylan Wykes and his Speed River Track Club teammates Eric Gillis and Rob Watson is something he welcomes.

“It definitely motivates me and keeps me on top of it because I have goals to run faster this fall,” he reveals, “I want to improve upon  2:11:23 like anybody would want to get a p.b. But having guys to keep me in check definitely raises the bar a little bit and gives me incentive and motivation.”

With the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfrot Marathon scheduled three weeks later than in previous years Coolsaet is in the midst of a fourteen week block of training which has seen him put in 210 kilometres a week. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though.

In July as he began the buildup for Toronto he caught a cold, experienced a flare up in a shin problem then had to have a broken tooth extracted. A course of antibiotics also wore him down. Now he says training is going well. He drives up to Guelph twice a week to run with Gillis and Watson.  The remainder of the time he runs alone near his parents’ home in Hamilton or with Kenyans Josephat Ongeri and David Karanja who are also Hamilton residents.

Despite Coolsaet’s success last year he admits his decision to run in Toronto was by no means automatic. He was expecting to go for a faster time at the London marathon last spring but he stepped on a rock during a training run last fall and the resulting injury  caused a lengthy interruption.  Last March he went through with a month of high altitude training in Kenya although he spent the first weeks running alone until he could get fit enough to join the Kenyans. Nevertheless the experience was enough for him to plan a return trip.

Coolsaet also considered running at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea (the men’s marathon is scheduled for September 4th) but decided against it because of the expected heat and humidity. He does have experience in hot weather championships having represented Canada in the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin where he ran a then personal best of 2:16:53 for 25th place.  All things considered he believes the decision to run in Toronto was his best option.

“Its really nice to run a marathon where people are cheering for you and you hear your name and you don’t have to travel far,” he explains. “The big advantage for us in Toronto is that (race director) Alan (Brookes) will cater to our pace and he’ll listen to how fast we want to run and provide rabbits at that pace. If we went to another North American marathon we probably wouldn’t get that sort of attention from that marathon.

“If we went to New York or Chicago we would probably be asking other people what they were doing and trying to figure out what pacemakers to go with versus here where, if you want to run 2:09:45, you can get someone running that.”

Coolsaet is not one who is easily distracted from his goals. Minor injuries that would send other straight to the tipping point are glossed over. He cycles or swims when necessary and gets his physiotherapy between workouts. Indeed, his good nature has come in handy during a career that has seen him win nine Canadian titles from 5,000m to the marathon - including, most impressively,  the 2009 marathon and 10000m championships with six weeks between them. Sometimes he has been involved in practical jokes.

As a student he walked in to the University of Guelph athletics centre to discover a Hall of Fame portrait of him had been doctored to enhance the size of his ears, lips and nose then hung back on the wall. Hundreds of students writing exams in the centre enjoyed a laugh at his expense. But Coolsaet says it goes with the territory.

“It was actually in retaliation for a joke I had played,” he says laughing. “ A girl had left her number on my roommate’s desk. I called her and pretended to be him. So she approached him in class the next day thinking she had talked to him. It was a really awkward conversation. At that point he got me back.”

On another occasion he passed through customs with an electronic device which gave unwitting victims a shock when they shook hands with him. Fortunately the customs agent had a sense of humour and he wasn’t arrested.

When he lines up in Toronto the Olympic qualifying will be first and foremost in his mind. Achieving a personal best is also a goal. And he is fully aware that Scotiabank and Alan Brookes, in their unlimited attempts to raise the standard of Canadian marathoning, have put up $36,000 in bonus money ($1,000 for every year) for any Canadian who can break Jerome Drayton’s longstanding national record of 2:10:09.

“Obviously we are trying to make a living out of the sport and that would be a huge pay day for a Canadian marathon,” he admits, “But it’s not something I think about. As much as I want to run fast you can’t focus on it. So it’s definitely an added bonus but it’s not a day to day thing I think about.

“I actually don’t have a time goal this time. Last time I trained for a marathon I had a time goal in my head but as my training progressed it kept on changing. I don’t think you can force your thresholds to get down there so much. I am going to try and maximise my training. Last year I went into marathon training thinking sub 2:13 then on race day I wanted to run 2:10. I really thought I was going to run 2:10 high. Obviously I missed it. So I would like to say I can run a 2:10 flat. Maybe it goes down. Maybe I feel like going for a 2:10 high again.”

On his schedule is the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, Virginia on September 4th. A victory in the  Acura Toronto 10 mile race (August 14th) in 48:34 is a good indication he is ready. These two races will give him a better idea of his fitness level. Then he will advise Alan Brookes of the pace he’d like a pacemaker to take him along the streets of Toronto.

Coolsaet is in the enviable position of having satisfied Athletics Canada’s high performance standard. But he can’t afford to run a mediocre race on October 16th. With an Olympic Games place on the line the stakes are just too high.

Despite collapsing three miles from the finish in his debut marathon Simon Bairu is approaching the 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon October 16th with tremendous optimism.

The 28 year old went into the 2010 ING New York Marathon intent on racing the world class field rather than with a time in mind but found that the erratic pace was not to his liking. An ambulance ride to hospital was the last thing expected for the Canadian distance running star, who had finished an incredible 12th in the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships then smashed the national 10,000m record with a time of 27:23.63.

Along with the humiliation, he spent the next three months dealing with nagging injuries which might well be traced to the marathon. Of particular concern was an inflammation of a sciatic nerve. But those are a distant memory now.  With a solid block of training behind him Bairu and his coach Jerry Schumacher come to Toronto with one objective - to make the Olympic standard of 2:11:29.

“Jerry always talks about ‘defining moments,’” Bairu says shortly after receiving his weekly massage. “A lot of people kind of thought that maybe the marathon just wasn’t my event. Our motivation is that Toronto is a ‘defining moment’ which is my chance to come back stronger and better because of New York.

“There’s a lot of motivation. I know if I can get fired up and do all the right things in training there's no other Canadian who can stop me from making the team.”

Bairu’s confidence could be mistaken for arrogance but he has nothing but respect for a trio of Canadian runners who are also in contention for an Olympic place - Reid Coolsaet (10th in 2010 STWM 2:11:23),  Eric Gillis (11th 2:12:07) and Dylan Wykes (2:12:39 at Sacramento). Only three can run in London.

“Honestly, look at it on paper,” he declares. “Those guys are, above and beyond, more accomplished than me in the marathon. They have all done some great things in the marathon. The only thing I have next to my name right now is a DNF. I am confident that if I can put in my training and bring my ‘A ‘game I am going to make the team no matter how well those guys run.”

Bairu spent eight weeks of the summer at high altitude training camps in Flagstaff, Arizona and then St. Moritz, Switzerland recording 130 miles (210km)  a week.  A year ago the most he reached was 120 a couple of times (190km). The plan is to slowly reduce the mileage and increase the quality of his workouts. A final test will be September 5th when he races the New Haven 20km.

Bairu was born in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia to Ethiopian-Eritrean parents who had fled the war in the East African region. Being Christians they sought refuge, first in Greece, before finally settling in Regina, Saskatchewan. A trouble maker who seemed headed down the wrong path Bairu was led to track and field by a caring teacher in his early teens. He went on to win the provincial high school cross country championships earning a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin. He would win two NCAA cross country titles for the Badgers and a record seven - so far - Canadian cross country championships.

Based in Portland, Oregon the world headquarters of his sponsor Nike Bairu has the benefits of a training group which includes Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan and former Wisconsin Badger Chris Solinsky, the US 10,000m record holder.  With his track credentials and connections to Nike he could surely have chosen any number of fall marathons in which to attack the Olympic standard. Why then did he choose Toronto?

“I have been in contact with (race director) Alan (Brookes) for a while now,” he explains. “I think Toronto gives me and other Canadians the best opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. I know he is going to do everything he can to help us out in terms of rabbits and things.

“The course itself is nice and fast and, just being in Canada, it gives me that extra incentive having my family there watching. And the crowds have always been great watching in Canada. I think all that put together makes for a real special day and hopefully I can do some special things.”

As a full time athlete Bairu can afford little distraction. Each day begins at 8:00 a.m. with a drive out to the Nike campus where he runs with the group. Ninety minutes of strength conditioning, under the direction of former US Olympic steeplechaser Pascal Dobert, follows. Then it’s a healthy lunch either at the Nike cafeteria or at home before an afternoon nap. A second run precedes dinner and an early night.

One thing that Bairu makes time for is an association with the Portland Big Brothers organisation spending time with an 11 year old boy named Marcus.

“We usually hang out once a week,” says Bairu. “We will go watch movies to watch, There’s a lot of good kid movies out there. We might eat pizza and watch a movie at my place. Sometimes we go to arcades. He is really big into video games and he helps polish up on my skills on video games.”

He also reads when he has a spare moment admittedly jumping from book to book. On his coffee table currently are "Our Kind Of People" a history of elite African Americans by Otis Graham and “Night” a story on a holocaust survivor.

“It was a gift from an ex-girlfriend,” he says of the latter. ”It is heavy reading and very dark but what I like about it is that it's a story of overcoming great odds. This man has experienced unspeakable horrors in his early life and yet he stands in triumph having beaten the odds. It kind of puts life and running into perspective for me.”

Although the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon has put up a Canadian Record bonus of $36,000 - $1,000 for every year that Jerome Drayton’s formidable time of 2:10:09 has stood - Bairu doesn’t see this as a motivator.

“My attitude with the record has always been the same- you can’t force the issue. It just comes to you,” he declares. “My goal right now is to make the Olympics. Nobody cares if I am on Canadian Record pace with a mile to go and then blow up and don’t make the team. My number one priority, not to sound cliche, is to make the team. But If I am feeling good in the race I am going to go after that record.”

Bairu is likely to ask for a pacemaker capable of taking him through the half way point in 65 minutes even. Then he will keep an eye on the clock as he chases the Olympic standard.

“I had a lot of problems after New York,” he admits, and I wanted to refresh mentally and physically and kind of put my eggs all in one basket and honestly if I can’t do it in Toronto well it wasn’t going to happen this year.”

With a time of 3:27:14, Allaway was the first female to cross the line at the Ben’s Smart Marathon By the Sea at the Lily Lake Pavilion Sunday and 14th overall.

"I’m exhausted, it was good," she said, although she showed little sign of fatigue.

The 35-year-old Halifax native living in Toronto made a special trip to the Port City to visit friends and family and to run the marathon.

Her mother and father went with her part of the way - both ran the 5-mile race finishing 107th and 263rd, respectively. They greeted her at the finish line with hugs and praises.

"It was a really difficult course," Allaway said between breaths.

"The hills, a lot of hills right at the end."

She started running seriously about six years ago and in the time since, she’s run six marathons, including the Ben’s Smart Marathon By the Sea, which was her first win.

To take the title, she ran at a pace of less than five minutes per kilometre, of which there were 42.

"I started training for my first marathon and I kind of got hooked after that," she said. "I’d finish one and then I just kept wanting to get better and better."

To do that, she’s dedicated serious time to the sport.

"I run about five days a week and I run all year, but before a race like this I’ll train about four months. I’ll do one or two (marathons) a year," she said.

Although it was a difficult morning, Allaway said she enjoyed the race.

"It’s a really nice marathon, it’s a good size," she said. "Nice scenery."

Maggie Johnson of Quispamsis came in after Allaway in second place at 3:33:56 while Sarah MacKinnon of St. Peters Bay, P.E.I., took third with a time of 3:45:25.

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Cara Allaway, Toronto,Ont., 3:27:14
Maggie Johnson Quispamsis, 3:33:56
Sarah MacKinnon, St. Peters Bay, P.E.I., 3:45:25
Dawn Price, Hampton, 3:57:17
Bev Walsh, Charlottetown, P.E.I, 3:58:26
Claire Cram, Toronto, Ont., 3:59:13
Marlene Henry, Moncton, 3:59:13
Lin Ivany, Moncton, 3:59:12
Brenda Guitard, Saint John, 4:04:36
Elaine Cook, Mohrsville, Pn., 4:04:48
Jenny Murphy, Saint John, 4:06:08

Source: Monterey Herald

Referred by www.mynextrace.com

By LANE WALLACE
Herald Staff Writer


Sur International Marathon participants brought the family and opened their wallets when they came to Monterey County in May, spending more than $10 million.

More than 9,000 people participated in this year's race, stayed an average of nearly three nights in a hotel, and brought 1.36 non-participants with them, said an economic impact report prepared for the marathon by Scott Minto, who heads the sports MBA program at San Diego State University.

Organizers were pleased, but not surprised, by the figures, said Julie Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the marathon.

"We really draw a lot of people who make a destination of the marathon. It's a 'bucket list' item for many," she said.

It was the first such report done on the Big Sur event.

The report found 85 percent of participants have a bachelor's degree and their average household income is $156,000.

Minto prepared his report from surveys of 28 percent of race participants. That is a high percentage that makes the report "extraordinarily accurate," he said. A response of 15 percent is considered comfortable, he said.

When Minto adds what he calls "indirect economic impact" to the $10.2 million in direct spending, the total impact is $18.1 million. That includes the value of goods and services that support tourism-related businesses, and labor income generated by event-related spending.

Race visitors spent an average of $142 person on food, shopping and transportation, and that doesn't include spending at the marathon's Health and Fitness Expo, held in downtown Monterey before the race. Spending at that event was $481,000, but Minto doesn't count a lot of that as local impact.
Most of the vendors were from out of the county — local vendors brought in $120,000.

Local governments are the beneficiaries of sales taxes and hotel taxes generated by the marathon. Minto estimated $603,000 from sales tax, including the expo, and $259,000 in hotel taxes.

Some participants flew in — 20 percent each to San Jose and San Francisco, 8 percent to Monterey — and 49 percent drove.

Jenna Palacio, spokeswoman for the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said events such as the marathon "bring a passionate group" and help promote the county.

"It supports our brand," she said.

Armstrong said there was consideration of not having the report done this year, because the marathon route had to be changed because of a slide on Highway 1, but the decision was made to go ahead.

Minto prepared a report on the Big Sur Half Marathon, held every November. The report calculated $5.1 million in direct spending and $422,000 in taxes generated.

Both are about half what the full marathon brings in.



Lane Wallace can be reached at 646-4478 or mhbusiness@montereyherald.com.


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Marathon's million-dollar impact

$10.2M — Direct spending

12,146 — Hotel room nights

$142 — Average daily spent per person (excluding lodging)

$156K — Average household income