Boutique Races Emerge
According to Brian Michasiw, who has owned and operated a prominent independent running shop in Saskatoon since 1991, quantity doesn’t necessarily breed quality. “Today, there are many more events, but they are mostly charity-based fun runs.” Previously, “the race was for the sake of the race,” Michasiw explains, which may be a reason why there is less emphasis on the core concerns of a well-organized race and more catering to details such as medals, technical shirts and the race atmosphere – all enjoyable aspects of the contemporary road race, but peripheral elements nevertheless. “Many events are created with the charity first and the ‘race’ or ‘fun run’ is a mechanism to raise money. These events could have just as easily been a golf or slow pitch tournament.”
Michasiw says he’s concerned that the level of quality isn’t as high as it should be on the road racing scene. “I feel every runner’s goals and abilities should be celebrated. This includes the back, front and middle of the pack.” Indeed, crowding problems have become a chief complaint among mid-packers in recent years. Many of the larger races in Canada have had to go to a corral system to try to control the chaos.
Perhaps this is why another sub-genre of road racing is beginning to emerge: the “boutique” event. “We saw a growing demand for a quieter, higher quality event,” says Dave Clark, who is also rolling out what’s being positioned as an exclusive event this fall, the Spirit of the Shore Half-Marathon. The emphasis of the race will be quality, with a stunning course and small field to avoid crowding. “It will be a high level of experience and value, with a high level of return on dollars spent. We’re going to
“We saw a growing demand for a quieter, higher quality event.”
–Dave Clark
purposefully keep it a smaller event.” Of course, races such as Spirit of the Shore will also come with a hefty price tag. “The chief complaints I’ve heard from runners over the years are that a race has no marshals, no porta-potties, a boring course, and no signage,” Clark says of his five years of marketing research leading up to launching the Whistler Half-Marathon in 2011. Registration cost is rarely an issue, he adds.
Robert Moore and the Ontario Roadrunners Association hope they’ll be able to convince the majority of quality races in their province to become approved by their association. The group has established a set of criteria, similar to the iaaf’s bronze, silver and gold label stamps of approval, in order to let runners know what sort of quality to expect when they sign up for a race. The aaa- rated courses must be certified by an Athletics Canada measurer, and also provide dedicated medical staff, significant on-course runner support and other amenities. What’s surprising is that there is no universal set of standards currently in place in Canada like those proposed by the Ontario Roadrunners.
There is no governing body that mandates that every road race have some form of certification. Athletics Canada offers basic certification, as well as national and iaaf certification of a course, but there isn’t much enforcement. Racers that want to claim certified status so that they may become Boston or New York Marathon qualifiers will need a valid Athletics Canada certification number, but they can do the measuring themselves and submit the number for approval.
“With the cost of races now, you’d think there’d be some sort of governing body,” Melinda Campbell says with a surprised tone. The Oakville Half-Marathon admitted to their runners several days after the race that the course had been altered from their initially certified route. As is common with many races in southern Ontario, there had been unexpected construction. The race director Ben McCarty and his technical director attempted to take this new deviation into account. After the post-race uproar they re-hired their initial measurer, Peter Pimm, and he re-measured this new variation of the course. It was indeed long, by 316m.
For Campbell this was of no comfort. Upon hearing that the course was indeed long, she simply echoed something that, strangely enough, Bernie Conway says is the measurer’s motto: “If the course isn’t accurate, the times are meaningless.”