Ottawa Race Weekend finds title sponsor
CBC News
Source: CBC News
Ottawa’s annual race weekend has a new title sponsor after going three years without.
Ottawa-based home builder Tamarack Homes will be the new title sponsor, event officials announced Wednesday, signing a five-year contract. The last sponsor agreement with Dutch insurance company ING ended in 2008.
The seven-race weekend, which bills itself as Canada’s largest running festival, attracted 40,000 runners last year.
Volunteer group Run Ottawa organizes it and often receives volunteer assistance from those working for the title sponsor.
“Having secured a title sponsor provides us with the long-term financial footing that will allow us to make the weekend even more enjoyable for our 40,000 runners,” said race director Jim Robinson.
Read more on the CBC website: Ottawa Race Weekend finds title sponsor
No summertime blues for tourism
SCOTT TAYLOR, Ottawa Sun
The weather is always the wild card when it comes to tourism but if Mother Nature co-operates even a little bit, this could be a summer for the ages in the nation’s capital.
Spokeswoman Jantine Van Kregten said the new Convention Centre is already filling up dates for this year and many years beyond.
An unabashed booster, Van Kregten says the worm has turned in the City that Fun Forgot. “I think fun never left us behind. I think you needed to know where to look for it in the past, now it’s right in your face.”
Some of the events this summer include:
• The Canadian Tulip Festival May 6 to 23
• Ottawa Race Weekend – Ottawa Marathon May 28 and 29
• Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival June 17
• Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest July 5 to 17
Full story: No summertime blues for tourism
Race strategy moving forward all about crowd control
Mark Sutcliffe, Ottawa Citizen
Photo courtesy kieran_mcmullen on Flickr
John Halvorsen, the volunteer race director, says he’d like to see the event hit 50,000 runners one day. But he’s not in a rush to get to the next milestone.
“With more people we can do more things,” says Halvorsen. “The city receives a larger economic benefit and it becomes a bigger party.
“I do have a vision of going there. But it has to be a managed growth. We have to take it slowly.”
A marketing challenge is to maintain the right balance between increasing the number of entries while still limiting supply to create demand and ensure runners register early. Beyond that, while Ottawa Race Weekend has no shortage of runners, it is starting to run out of space.
Full story on the Ottawa Citizen website: Race strategy moving forward all about crowd control
Runners to take Ottawa’s scenic route
Martin Cleary, Ottawa Citizen
Running a marathon, halfmarathon or 10-kilometre road race is hard enough, but the organizers of the Ottawa Race Weekend will erect another hurdle in the path of their sneaker society members.
When the thousands of runners go to the start line for the races on May 28-29, they should be aware that there will be plenty of temptations and distractions as they head west and run through districts with some of the finest restaurants and shopping in the city.
Jim Robinson, the general manager of the Ottawa Race Weekend, announced Monday major revisions to all three race courses, which will see the runners and walkers pass under the impressive Imperial Arch gateway of Chinatown, and past the appealing cafés of Little Italy and the fashionable shops of the Westboro Village district.
Read more: Runners to take Ottawa’s scenic route
It’s a family affair for the Halpennys
Three generations raise money for Rotary Home
By Claire Brownell, The Ottawa Citizen
Runners in Sunday’s Ottawa Marathon may have noticed the Halpenny family as they ran past the Bronson Bridge: they were the ones taking up the better part of a block.
Read more: It’s a family affair for the Halpennys
These athletes refuse to let diabetes stop them
By Claire Brownell, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA-Chloe Steepe brought a lot more than shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers when she ran the half-marathon at Ottawa Race Weekend on Sunday.
Read more: These athletes refuse to let diabetes stop them
Ottawa’s weekend marathon record-breaking
CBC News
A world record and an Ottawa marathon record were broken Sunday in a race weekend that pumped millions of dollars into the city’s economy.
“We had a very strong complement of elite runners this year for the 10K and marathon distances,” said John Halvorsen, president of Run Ottawa. “Four elite marathoners finished in times under the previous course record of 2:10:35, with three finishing in the 2:09 range.”
A record-breaking number of participants lined the city’s streets in the Ottawa Race Weekend, which is the biggest running event in Canada.
Read more: Ottawa’s weekend marathon record-breaking
Runners with big hearts helping to turn Race Weekend into philanthropic engine
Paramedics, led by cancer survivor, tackling half-marathon after raising $10,000 for research
By Mark Sutcliffe, The Ottawa Citizen
Krista Shipman has completed an Ironman, so 21.1 kilometres is not an intimidating distance. But when she finishes the Ottawa half-marathon this morning, there will be a different feeling of accomplishment.
Read more: Runners with big hearts helping to turn Race Weekend into philanthropic engine
The man behind Ottawa Race Weekend’s record growth
Jim Robinson’s marketing acumen pays off
By Martin Cleary , The Ottawa Citizen
Since Jim Robinson took over as GM of Ottawa Race Weekend, attendance numbers have almost quadrupled. This year it’s sold out — a first for the event.
SOLD OUT!
For the first time in the 36-year history of the Ottawa Race Weekend, there’s no room this year at the start line for additional runners, walkers or fitness-conscious families in the marathon, half-marathon, 10-kilometre, five-kilometre, two-kilometre or kids’ marathon races.
Read more: The man behind Ottawa Race Weekend’s record growth
Race Weekend from A to Z
The Ottawa Citizen
AT LAST: The finish line is in sight.
BIB: Pin it to your shirt. Keep it there. (It’s the rules.)
CHEERING STATIONS:
Round up your peeps, synchronize watches, then dispatch them along the route.
There are bleachers at the finish for those who’ve promised to stick with you until the end.
There will also be official cheering stations at the following locations
on the marathon course:
8K: Montcalm Street between Wright Street and Wellington in Gatineau.
12K: Mackay Street in New Edinburgh.
15K: Manor Park Community Council hosts a cheering station on Eastbourne Drive.
23K: On McKenzie Avenue behind the Château Laurier Hotel.
29K: The Ottawa Hospital Foundation will clap like crazy when you pass them by at Colonel By Driveway at Hartwell Locks
37K: They’ll also be at Queen Elizabeth Driveway and Lakeside Avenue.
38K: Lululemon will be there for you at the start of the home stretch,
just south of Bank Street Bridge.
40K: Subway and Canadian Forces will cheer you to the finish. Queen Elizabeth Driveway at Bank Street.
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Race+Weekend+from/3068540/story.html#ixzz0p3NZckDS
Read more: Race Weekend from A to Z
