Editorial: Too many marathons
February 24, 2010
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Surrendering its chance to get behind one big marathon, Toronto city council has agreed to preserve two smaller races by spreading them further apart. Starting next year, instead of both running just three weeks apart in the fall, one race will move to the spring.
It is a compromise that puts the interests of the two competing marathon race organizations ahead of what's best for the public or the city.
Marathons are run on the city streets, so two of them means double the annoyance from traffic tie-ups. But that's not the only problem. It is also more difficult to promote two events as opposed to one signature race, such as the Boston Marathon, and to raise Toronto's profile on the international marathon map.
Accordingly, city staff recommended moving to a single event. But the councillors on the public works committee decided to give the race organizers the option of moving one of their runs to the spring.
Faced with "impending doom," in the words of a race organizer, the backers of the GoodLife Toronto Marathon agreed to shift their event to the spring. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon will continue to run in the fall.
City council this week approved the two-race compromise with marathon organizers vowing to work with the municipality to boost the profiles of their respective runs. But this is a case where two is less than one. The problem has been spread around, not solved.
Toronto Star
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