A heartwarming letter from a mind-numbing race

We reported on Ottawa’s Winterman Marathon, which features eight brutal 5K loops and is one of Canada’s only winter outdoor marathons. The race director wanted to explain the reason for the tedious course design:

Thanks for the kind (?) words about our Winterman Marathon. There should be no doubt that this is indeed “Canada’s most mind-numbing marathon,” and we will wear that moniker with pride going forward!

The course is challenging to be sure, and runners certainly do get multiple beautiful views of the Ottawa River, the Canadian War Museum, and of course, t he Peace Tower. Mindnumbing? Yes. Boring? Never!

As race director, I am strangely enough a fair-weather runner and have no idea why so many people would like to come out and do any of the distances we have on offer – let alone the marathon – but they do.

We keep the course to multiple loops because weather is always an issue. We’ve been blessed with unseasonably warm temperatures the last two years but that’s not always the case. Having our medical team and staging area close at hand is paramount. Participant safety is super important to us.

Thanks again for the great press and we’re looking forward to maybe incorporating that tagline into our outreach for future years. At least this year, our participants’ minds were likely the only thing that went numb.