One of the nearby HMs crosses a busy highway twice. I haven't run it, but I would imagine that runners often have to wait for traffic. None of the local races close the streets off completely to traffic. The races are small and early morning there isn't a lot of traffic, but it is there.
Seven Deadly Shins
Ginny, this is unavoidable in small local races.
When they advertise a race as world-class and charge as much as they do, they better plan a course that doesn't require stopping for traffic.
Return To Racing
Do they at least put the portapotty's at these traffic stops so you can make better use of the down time?
also, it's very disingenious to claim that wave release and corral seeding could fix any of this. They were stopping people every few minutes, it looks like. And these were not back of the packers who got stopped.
I don't know if the organizers were actually clueless that all cars were being let through in previous years, or just pretending. This is pretty ridiculous for a race that tries to bill itself as a big player and with that pretty high registration fee. But hey, it's one of Forbes top 10 destination marathons!
Do you run it?
But the problem is starting again after stopping.
Exactly!
Do we know what mile this occurs at?
Simply put, I would avoid this race at all costs. Otherwise, there is no one else to blame but yourself should you happen to be one of the unfortunate few who get stopped.
I've done the half. No stops!
Early in the race - Between 3 and 5K, in the third mile.
Still ridiculous.
It happens to be Canada's second-largest marathon, well behind Ottawa but slightly ahead of Toronto Waterfront. As far as I know, neither of the other races plans to introduce "controlled intersections", aka runner stoppage, the way Vancouver does.
2 of my 50 state marathon friends have run 1 that starts in Maine, goes through New Brunswick, then back to Maine. Their bottleneck was stopping at the border twice. That race is heading for year 3 and that sounds so cool
Are we there, yet?
But hey, it's one of Forbes top 10 destination marathons!
Ah yes, the Bible of Marathon Racing.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
On the other hand, the Montreal marathon could be a much prettier route. By not wanting to disrupt traffic or having controlled intersections, they chose a pretty boring course. Not that I mind, personnally, I live here, but it must be pretty low on the Forbes list as a destination marathon, whereas in Vancouver they chose to make it go past all the nice things to see.