Centretown’s largest running club is gearing up for the city’s biggest running event of the year: The Ottawa Race Weekend.
Most members of the club, which is based out of the Running Room on Slater Street, will be competing in the event that takes place May 23-25.
Every Sunday and Wednesday the group meets. The Slater Street store fills with roughly 150 people, filling water bottles, tying shoelaces and saying hello to familiar faces. Selling shoes and other paraphernalia – the Running Room’s principal goal – is forgotten, if only for a moment.
After receiving instruction from coaches, these road warriors head out to do some serious running. For those training for a marathon, the twice-weekly runs from the Slater Street meeting spot can be as long as 40 kms.
“We always get excited to gear up for the Ottawa Race Weekend,” says the Slater Running Room club head coach Heather Thompson.
This year’s race will be the largest of its kind in Canada and features 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon categories.
“It’s the anchor point for the season for a lot of people,” says Ottawa Race Weekend president John Halvorsen. “It’s the biggest festival of running in the year.”
Members of the Slater Street club have been training hard all winter, according to Thompson. “We see the same core of people every week; we have very consistent people here,” she says.
This year’s race weekend will feature some notable Canadian names competing. Canadian marathon champion Rob Watson will be running against Olympian Eric Gillis in the marathon, a 42-kilometre race that covers a route that starts on Elgin Street and ends along the canal.
It is Gillis’s first-ever Ottawa marathon. He had to drop out last year due to injury. The 34-year old competed in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics in the 10,000m.
“Ottawa is a race I’ve had my heart set on for years,” he said in a recent press release announcing his appearance at this year’s event. It’s the first ever marathon I watched live (and) 2014 is the year I finally compete and complete this great race.” Gillis grew up in Antigonish, N.S.
Two former Boston Marathon champions will also be competing. Kenyan-born Wesley Korir will be running in the marathon. Korir won the race in 2012. Boston Marathon record holder Geoffrey Mutai, will run in the 10K. The Kenyan born athlete completed the Boston course in two hours and three minutes when he set the all time record in 2011.
“This is the only time you can go out in your own community and watch Olympic athletes and marathon record holders compete,” says Halvorsen.
“It definitely adds to the excitement of the event. Having those runners makes it that much bigger and more exciting,” Thompson adds.
Phil Marsh, a running coach and regional manager for the Running Room, says the Ottawa Race Weekend significantly bolsters the Ottawa running community.
“That’s why it’s such a successful event,” he says. “It’s very much a community event.”
“I think a lot of people know each other here,” agrees Thompson.
“That’s what makes it so successful – is that social aspect. It’s just a big group of friends.”
The Ottawa Race Weekend is expected to bring 35,000 out of town visitors to Ottawa in May and generate $30 million for the Ottawa economy, according to Halvorsen.