Canada Running Series — Newsletter
Thusday, December 29th, 2011
Happy New Year! Toronto Yonge Street 10K ‘Collector’s item’ tees; Jan. 2nd Early Bird entry deadlines & more!
To view this newsletter as a webpage — http://www.canadarunningseries.com/newsletter/2012/crs-12-29-11.html
Upcoming Dates and Deadlines
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Headline News
- Collector’s Item: Toronto Yonge Street 10K participants’ tech t-shirt unveiled. First edition with new name on the shirt! Enter today to claim yours! http://www.canadarunningseries.com/toronto10k/index.htm
- Reid Coolsaet & Toronto Yonge Street 10K/Sporting Life 10K situation “de-confused”! http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/blog/2011/12/reid-coolsaet-toronto-yonge-street-10k-sporting-life-10k-de-confused-2/
Dayna Pidhoresky, CRS2011 & Athletics Canada National 10K Champion, confirmed to defend her title at Toronto Yonge Street 10K (formerly Sporting Life Toronto 10K), on April 22nd! “I’m really excited to be coming back to defend my title at the Toronto Yonge Street 10K. It’s always such a thrill to be racing in Toronto, and especially down the middle of Yonge Street! It will be an important part of my Spring 2012 plans. I just love the atmosphere at this race. I’m looking forward to seeing you on the Start line as well on April 22nd, as part of the new ‘Run Canada Month’ initiative. Let’s get everyone moving!” http://www.canadarunningseries.com/toronto10k/index.htm- Calling interested charities! CRS is currently accepting applications for a limited number of registered charities to participate in the CRS Charity Challenge at Toronto Yonge Street 10K, April 22nd. Interested? Contact Charity Challenge Manager Anh Vuong, anhv@canadarunningseries.com
Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon receives prestigious IAAF Silver Label designation for 2012, our 5th-straight year! THANKS to ALL who worked so hard for this, to put Toronto and Canada on the global marathon/athletics stage! http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/en/index.htm- Fabulous NEW, Highlights VIDEO of STWM2011! “A Day for the Ages!” 4 minutes 15 seconds of inspiration! Get pumped for CRS2012 and next year’s STWM. Great job by Francis Coral-Mellon and his team [including terrific CBC footage] in putting together our best-ever STWM video! Tx to Vero Aguilar who wrote on our STWM Facebook page: “I was wondering if I would run another marathon again...after this video, my heart throbbed...and the answer is: hell yes!” http://www.youtube.com/user/CanadaRunningSeries?feature=mhee#p/u/0/mL248_GFqJw
Recommended Upcoming (non-CRS) runs
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Alan's Journal
The inbetween time: “Old Year’s Night” or “New Year’s Eve”?
Dear Fellow Runners,
Those of you from the Caribbean, or with Caribbean friends and family, will know that this Saturday is “Old Year’s Night”; to most of the rest of us, it will be “New Year’s Eve”! Without getting too deep about this, the different perspectives ARE interesting. We are in that “inbetween time” now, where we look back at the year just gone, and also start to look forward to the New Year ahead. To take stock of 2011, and to plan for 2012 – with our running, our goals for fitness, for life and more! What did we achieve? What are our Resolutions, we ask ourselves?
I hope many of you have been enjoying a great time with family, friends, and running buddies this week? I know I’ve been fortunate to be able to say “I have”. Yesterday was really great at the Boxing Day 10 miler at the Hamilton Y, where James Van Dyke and the Harriers unselfishly gave up some of their holiday celebration time so that we could visit, and run off some of our holiday excesses! What a super-weather-day it was! Among the almost 800 finishers on a sunny, mild, snow & ice-less afternoon, I was able to visit with so many old friends who’ve been part of my running life, and given friendship and support – as well as some good battles on the roads over the years. Mike & Shelley Zacjenko, Race Directors, and Grady from Around the Bay Road Race were on hand; Peter Donato from MyNextRace.com; Walter Faion who has been such a great buddy as well as an unstinting supporter of CRS and promoter of STWM for 20+ years; Ian Hilton from Oakville who was in our Sunday running group at Hart House in the ‘90s that included Jack Layton; John Lyng from the Longboat Roadrunners who I’ve also known for 20+ years; and Duncan Mounsey from the Georgetown Runners who ran EVERY single CRS race [then Coors Light Running Series and GMC Running Series], every year for the first 10 years from 1990 to ’99! Then, as I was chatting to Art Mitchell from the Harriers at the finish line, who comes up but Rick Mannen, winner of the Toronto Miller High Life Marathon in 1985 in 2:19:53 – still in Brantford and now teaming up with Bill Jol and Krista Dechene to revive the Brantford road running scene. It was definitely a day to appreciate and cherish, for the running, and for the camaraderie.
But 2011 has also been a tough year. We lost Danny Kassap on race day on May 1st [after starting the Sporting Life 10K, now Toronto Yonge Street 10K], at just 28. In August, we lost Jack Layton, who ran with us in the ‘90s, and was an unwavering champion of STWM. Without him we might not have a Waterfront Marathon at all, with all the success it’s had and the millions its raised for others. Thousands of you in CRS2011 ran for our 238 charities, driven perhaps by loss or suffering, and a desire to make our communities better places. Some of the Tweets I’ve received recently from our friends and supporters like Nellie’s and Assaulted Women’s Helpline -- telling their folks to be strong and hopeful, that the New Year will bring safer, happier times -- are a stark reminder that not everyone has been as fortunate as some of us.
For now, I need to get home to family, watch “Love Actually” one more time before the holidays are over, and perhaps reflect on Jack’s last lines of his famous Letter to Canadians:
Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.
My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.
All my very best, Jack Layton
Wherever you are this week – looking back and looking forward, THANKS from all of us at Canada Running Series for sharing not only your running with us in 2011 and years past, but also your friendship, and a running way of life.
Don’t forget to start planning your 2012 running season! We hope VERY much that CRS will feature prominently in it, that we can continue to work unstintingly to build better and better race experiences, and help you reach your goals, realize some of your dreams, set some new PRs, and tick some things off your bucket list! Don’t forget to enter now – or soon – to take advantage of not just Early Bird prices, but further savings on COMBO PACKS! (see above).
I’ll be back soon, looking forward more into 2012, with some of MY Resolutions. Feel free to share yours with me on Twitter and Facebook - -as well as keeping in touch that way for all the latest “breaking news” on CRS2012!
See you next year,
Alan (aka http://www.twitter.com/alnbrookes)
CRS Online
» Follow CRS Race Director Alan Brookes on Twitter for ALL the Latest News and inside information - http://www.twitter.com/alnbrookesJoin the Harry's Spring Run-Off 8k FACEBOOK Group - It's your place to share your story, post up your photos from the event and your experience, why you are supporting the cause. Click here for the page.
» Join the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Maratho Facebook Fan Page - Breaking news on Toronto's largest run, the latest in marathon news and more. Click here for the page.
» Follow the Canada Running Series FACEBOOK Group - Overall news on the Canada Running Series, mainly focused on our Eastern Canada events. Click here for the page.
» Join the Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon & 5k FACEBOOK Group - It's your turn to share your story, training tips, why you are running, promote your fundraising and why the cause is important to you! The Western CRS news source Click here for the page - http://www.facebook.com/vancouverhalf.
2012 Canada Running Series Calendar
Register now for all your favourite Canada Running Series runs. Save even more by using our combo packs to register for more than one event at once. The more your register for, the more you SAVE! http://www.canadarunningseries.com/crs/index.htm
- Harry's Spring Run-Off 8K to fight Prostate Cancer March 25, Vancouver
- Harry's Spring Run-Off 8K & 5K to fight Prostate Cancer April 7, Toronto
- Toronto Yonge Street 10k April 22
- Banque Scotia 21k de Montréal et 5k présenté par ASICS April 29
- Scotiabank Vancouver Half-Marathon & 5k presented by Asics June 24
- The Beaches Jazz Tune-Up 20k, 10k, 5k Training Run & Walk* July 22, Toronto
- Toronto International 15k & 5k August 12 (TBC)
- Oasis ZooRun 10k Run, 5k Run/Walk & Cub Run September 22, Toronto
- Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Half-Marathon & 5k October 14
