Scotiabank TO Waterfront vs Goodlife Fitness TO Marathon?

[danziggirl]

My husband (who has never missed one of my races) says they should run the marathon point-to-point like Boston from west along Lakeshore into, maybe, Exhibition Place, which would be great for parking etc.They could run buses from there also. The train station is right there also. They would not have to close many streets and also it would truly be a Waterfront marathon with not too many street closings.
_________________
Pauline
STWM 2009 3.56.32 PB + BQ
Boston 4.13.13 2008
Around the Bay 2.49.22 2008
Half marathon PB Angus Glen 1.50.00.02

[SI_Dan]

Danz - Tell you Husband, that is an excellent idea....I would love to race that course.....and he is right, parking, transit, street closures.....all that stuff would be easier to manage.....
_________________


Nothing planned at the moment

2012

[jonovision_man]

[CanGirl]

Here's the 680 news article here....

http://www.680news.com/news/headlines/more.jsp?con...

[tracyRuns]

Now having done both fulls, I dont think ill do the scotiabank one again, the goodlife course is much more enjoyable, the weather is fantastic and once the improve the organization (starting corrals, buses to the start and aid station placement) I think it will be a top notch marathon.

I definitely agree with moving scotia to the start of the year, it is a bit silly they are both in a couple weeks of each other. Atleast they could have it in April where you are more guaranteed to have a cooler day than in september , you could use around the bay as one of your 30k training runs and people wouldnt get as annoyed with shutting the city down 2 weekends in the course of a month.

But seriously, who doesnt watch the news and know there are going to be road closures in the weekend, is it really that much of a impediment to not drive your car for 4 hours on a sunday morning or make alternative arrangements to get to where you need to go or god forbid use the TTC.
_________________
Planned:
ATB - 2010
Ottawa Marathon 2010

PB's:
Marathon (2) - 4:16
30k (2) - 2:43
1/2 Mary (2) - 1:49
10k (1) - 50:50
8k (2) - 40:58

[dgrant]

Personally, I don't see how Sunday morning road closures are any less obstructive when they're 6 months apart rather than three weeks apart. Two days of the year are two days of the year. It might be more noticeable to the city's chronic complainers when they are close together, but the net effect is no different. No matter what you do there are going to be a small but vocal group of dissenters... that goes for any city on any topic. You can't run a city according to those people's whims.

Two things Jay Glassman might consider:

Switch the marathon and half marathon start times. Have the marathon start at 8am so runners are off the road one hour sooner and road can reopen.

Institute a 5hr time limit on the marathon. Combined with an 8am start time, that would get downtown roads opened 2.5 hours earlier. It might also help brand the Toronto Marathon as the "runners' race", since they are never going to compete with the Waterfront event as the "festive race". In today's running world, a bold move like that would generate some continent-wide attention... of which that race currently gets none.

[purdy65]

Ohhh,

That would be the only marathon I know of with a 5 hr time limit. It is already pressed at 6 hrs.

I agree with starting earlier though!

Lisa
_________________
2012 plan

Mar 4 - Chilly Half
March 25 -ATB
April 16 - BOSTON!!
May 6 - Volunteer - Toronto Goodlife
May 27 - Ottawa Race Weekend half marathon

[muskokawildman]

I hate to say that the non runners are right.... but the non runners are right. Two marathons three weeks apart is absolutely ridiculous. Closing the city streets twice in a three week period really is a hardship for some...

My idea is simple. One fall marathon for Toronto. Make it big and make it world class. Hold the half marathon on the Saturday and the marathon on the Sunday morning. Before you say that is two closures in two days... Yeah your right... But the public will see it as ONE event.
_________________
The World's fastest bottle needs YOUR support.

I am going to run the London Marathon dressed as a beer bottle in order to get my name in the Guinness book of records.

Please make a donation. at

http://www.justgiving.com/Mark-Wilding

[Urban_Animal]

[lim314159]

So unfortunate that drivers would get out of their cars and boo the runners. Fortunately none of the runners had things thrown at them. It does bring a damper to the celebration of months of training to be boo'd at. It's going to be tough to move to May since there's also the Mississauga Marathon as well as a new marathon in Whitby (although it's the Whitby one that will suffer). What about a June marathon? But that'll be too hot and humid. I do like the idea of an April marathon as suggested.
_________________
Louis

http://lim314159.blogspot.com/

[j_hamm1]

[nicruns]

and of course the toronto star is now weighing in...

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/713408--ma...

a mid-to-late april marathon WOULD be nice!
(something with just enough distance from ATB ideally...)

that way, i'd consider doing BOTH T.O. marathons

[jlang]

Splitting the two events into spring and fall will have no affect on the irate drivers. Can you imagine next year telling one of the angry drivers Sunday morning that everything is OK because "the roads weren't closed 3 weeks ago"? I doubt that it was the same people caught twice.

I agree that it is an inconvenience, but I have less sympathy for the guy who said he makes his living as a driver and yet doesn't know about street closures. Even if you don't pay attention to the radio and newspapers, all closures are listed in great detail on the Toronto City website. Why wouldn't a cab driver or professional trucker check the listings regularly considering there are over 600 events that close the streets every year in TO? Even on Sunday, it was possible to get just about anywhere downtown as long as you took the right streets.

The TO drivers will never be happy with the marathon. Would they blare their horns and swear at the Santa Claus parade? Caribana? The Jazz Festival? Nobody would tolerate it. But they will shout at us, and the media will search out the angry ones and put them on the news. Note that the difference between closing streets for runs vs other events is that the police will let some vehicles through between runners when it is safe to do so. Nobody is let through during any other type of event. Why is there no outrage when Smirnoff vodka closes Yonge St for road hockey to celebrate the start of the Leafs season?

Some media such as 680News seem pleased with themselves about stirring this up, despite shoddy, inaccurate reporting on their part. They repeatedly talked about the 42k of street closures. With part of the route only taking up a single lane, part on the waterfront trail, part on out-and-back on the same street, the closures were much less, and much of the route was open to traffic before noon. The only real problem was that University Ave and the Queen's Park area was closed. I have read many comments about Yonge St. being closed even though hardly any of it was closed, and was re-opened early.

I think the organizers should continue to tweak the routes to reduce the traffic problems and engage the media to publicize the closures in detail in advance, as is done for other high-profile events.

[kzod]

It seems that most of us agree on two key things that the Goodlife course is more exciting, and that Scotia has the better organization. Unfortunately, too many people assume that eventually Goodlife will improve, while they seem to be going backwards. I heard more complaints about goodlife this year than ever before. The only 'improvement' they put in place are those wacky supersized medals to tempt the glory hounds.

Between Mississauga and Ottawa there's no need for another spring marathon. What we really need is for Glassman to let go of his ego and make a deal to merge the races. Brookes has long been amenable to making a deal, even as his race has outgrown Toronto. And yes, please keep growing the course and taking in more runners. That's exactly what Toronto needs, one bigass race that the city can take pride in. If you get enough runners out there, the spectators will come. First it will just be a larger gathering of friends and family, some of whom will bring along some on course entertainment. This will eventually attract more curiosity seekers, and then others looking to be a 'part' of the event. But, first we need a critical mass of runners to get the ball rolling. C'mon the GTA should be able to attract more runners than Ottawa.

As it stands now our big city marathons can't compete even within the province. It's a shame because it should be a huge tourist draw. What a world of difference it is comparing to Chicago. We arrived Friday and our plane was filled with runners, get on the subway packed with fellow runners. In fact wherever we went from high class restaurants to breakfast diners everyone we met and talked to was running the race or cheering someone on. The whole city is supporting you before, during and after the race. Although my wife did see one older woman who stepped out of her apartment on Lasalle street to discover thousands of people lining the route exclaiming "what the frak is going on here?" But it's amazing that even with such cold weather the course was lined in it's entirety with throngs of people and entertainment. What a huge boost for everyone involved. My only complaint is that I missed so much of the entertainment due to focusing on running the silly race!

I can only dream that eventually Toronto could aspire to a fraction of that goodwill.
_________________
http://triduel.blogspot.com/
Upcoming Races:
2012 Jan 8th : Disney Marathon
Apr 15th: Paris Marathon

[CanGirl]