Brendan Kenny of Dundas, Ont.Ryan Enn Hughes/The Globe and Mail
There was no word more fitting to describe the day of the 2011 GoodLife Toronto Marathon than "raw".
It was a chill spring Sunday morning, with a drizzle that turned to icy snow showers from time to time. A blustery wind whipped in from everywhere.
And so did 25-year-old Brendan Kenny of Dundas, Ont., who won the 35th running of the GoodLife Toronto marathon race. It was not a world-beating time -- 2 hours 27 minutes 20 seconds -- but it was a foul-weather wonder, nonetheless.
The time qualified Kenny for next April's Boston Marathon classic. And it beat back the long font-running lead of Kenyan-born Josphat Ongeri, a stablemate of London Olympic prospect Reid Coolsaet. Ongeri, who now lives in Hamilton, Ont., led from the fifth kilometre to the 40th of the 42.2 km race. But Ongeri is basically a half-manathoner and he faded in the stretch. He was timed almost a minute slower at 2:29.19.
Kenny, a 25-year-old high school teacher who trains on his own, was second in the last Toronto Marathon.
He was pulling for his 50-year-old mother Sally to make the Boston qualifying standard with him (she was 190th in 4:10, missing out by 5 minutes).
"It's only the second time I've run this marathon," he said. "The first half of the course is definitely faster than the second. It was definitely good, tough conditions with the rain and the wind... And you've always got to respect the distance, 42 kilometres. In the end, the leader came back to me."
Nashville, Ontario's's Melissa Begin posted the fastest time among women in the marathon, finishing in 2:54:51, the 34 year-old's first ever marathon win. Second was Nathalie Goyer of St. Bruno, Que.., at 2:58:20.
Eliud Lagat, from the running hotbed of Eldoret, Kenya, won the half-marathon at 1:10:39 with former Olympic silver medalist and world champ Douglas Wakihuri a respectful distance behind at 1:14:09. Toronto's Jane Cullis won the women's half-marathon in 1:16.44.
With the race moved to a spring slot for the first time this season, after Toronto motorists whined about two fall marathons clogging Sunday streets, the field for the GoodLife Toronto marathon fell just short of the 10,000 who participated in the past. Some 2,00 participated in the full marathon event, which started at Mel Lastman Square on Yonge Street in North York.
The race couldn't offer the prize money to attract big name runners but took on the air of a social-cause rallying point. Big-time charities took up the slack, with the Japan Relief Fund -- still billions of dollars shy for reconstruction after the earthquake and tsunami -- being prominent. So also were Princess Margaret Hospital, pancreatic and other cancers, diabetes treatment and bone-marrow registration sponsored by Air Canada pilots.
"It's rough out there," said race director Jay Glassman referring to more than race conditions. "People are running for all kinds of causes."
"Running is always more than running," said track road legend Roger Robinson, who has represented both Britain and New Zealand in international races. "It's a sport that has causes."
Atsushi Kawazu, the event coordinator in Canada for the Japanese charitable body, said there were about 150 runners coming to the tape in "Canada runs for Japan" T-shirts, worth between $30 and $60. Some 300 were sold for the relief effort.
"It's helpful, of course,"said Kawazu. "It's small compared to what people must do in Japan, but it's our opportunity to do something for the people. We can raise awareness."
When race Glassman heard that at least 150 Japanese charity workers were either being recruited from Japan or coming from recent immigrants, he dropped the entry registration fee by about 30 per cent.
On March 11, when the magnitude 9 earthquake hit, almost 25,000 people went missing or lost. More than 83,000 households were destroyed. Less than $2-billion in donations have been given; some 99 per cent still needs to be found.
Another major change in the race has come with the strong influx of women runners. About 52 per cent of yesterday's running field was made up of women.
"When I was starting the lead in the push for women's running, I saw the difference," says women's running pioneer Kathrine Switzer.
"In 1967, a race director tried to get me out of his race just because I'm a woman. Now, who'd have believed the change that has happened in my time?"