Competitors in this year’s Ottawa Race Weekend will run through Centretown in flatter, faster and more scenic routes than ever before.
Race Weekend organizers have unveiled new routes for its marathon, half-marathon and 10-kilometre races to be run in May. These routes have athletes running west from city hall, under Chinatown’s Imperial Arch Gateway and through the communities of Little Italy and Westboro.
“I think it’s going to be a very nice route and I think the runners will appreciate the change,” says Jim Robinson, the race’s general manager.
This is the first route change in three years. In the past, the course started at city hall, headed north along Elgin Street and looped through Gatineau. It continued through Manor Park, curved south along Colonel By Drive to Hog’s Back Road, wove through Vincent Massey Park and ended at city hall.
This year, athletes still start and end at city hall but the route runs west-east instead of north-south. Runners will run through Centretown to Wellington West Street and Westboro Village before turning east along Ottawa River Parkway. They will head into Gatineau, return to Ottawa over the Alexandra Bridge, run through Manor Park and along Colonel By Drive to Bronson Avenue where they will get onto Queen Elizabeth Parkway to return to city hall.
Robinson says the new urban route is more picturesque and is likely to bring out more spectators – something he says will benefit runners.
“When you run a marathon, if you don’t go through communities and you go out on a lonely stretch, it becomes somewhat lonely,” says Robinson. “By going through the built-up areas of our city, through communities, it provides the opportunity for a lot of spectators to line the route and cheer on our runners.”
Having a large number of spectators out might also benefit the small businesses lining the new route, says Joe Calabro, co-owner of Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana, a pastry shop on Preston Street
“Anyone would want that,” Calabro says, about the exposure Little Italy will get from the marathon.
“It will be good for the area overall.”
Runner Chris Macknie, 47, says the change is also good news for competitors. Though Macknie will be out unable to compete in the upcoming race, he has competed in six Ottawa marathons and has studied the new route.
“I think it will be a little bit easier, I think it will be a little bit faster and it will be a lot more fun for the runners,” he says.
Changes to the route mean unpopular stretches of the previous route south of city hall will be replaced. In particular, Macknie says most runners will not miss the deserted section of the course south of Dow’s Lake.
“That was always a little bit of a wasteland,” Macknie says. “It was barren, quite often windy, virtually no spectators and there were a couple of the biggest hills of the course.”
This year’s Ottawa Race Weekend is scheduled to be held May 28 and 29. Robinson says he expects more than 40,000 runners to compete in adult and youth events over the two days.