By Alan Ferguson
At six fifteen in the
morning, the car engine leapt to life, and the move was on to get to the
track. A short stop at a 24-hour pharmacy
allowed for the purchase of pens that the counters would need to record the
runner’s laps. I arrived at the track
shortly after 6:30 AM. The Terry Fox
track supervisor was already at work.
After a short discussion with the supervisor about bringing in more
tables for the medical and results teams, a flurry of activity was initiated to
organize the counter sheets into booklets held together with circular
rings. Sticky labels were then added to
each booklet to identify each of the runners that would soon be circling the
track. Assistance from my wife Alice
was greatly appreciated. By this time,
our registrar had arrived to record the runners who had not been able to attend
the pre-race supper on Friday evening.
After this, it was time to get the digital clock started, in the light
rain that had just begun to fall. The
counters and runners throughout the duration of the race would use this
clock. By 7:40, a request was made for
all the runners to go to the counter stations to meet their counters. This year, a personal bib was provided to
runners to help the counters identify them.
Brief presentations
were made by Andy Baldwin, President of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario
Roadrunners Association, and Paula Flemming, Race Counter Captain. After a moment of silence, a countdown from
15 seconds prepared the runners to start at exactly eight o’clock. The race started with a field of 35 runners,
heading into a cloudy sky, with high humidity and warm temperatures. For the first few laps, the counters had a
frantic time keeping up with the wave of runners that passed the counting
station, after each 400m lap of the track.
About 45 minutes after the race started, Sarah Gilmore arrived at the
track, after having missed the highway 416 interchange off highway 401, on her
trip from Toronto, and thereby extending her travel time to Ottawa sufficiently
to miss the start of the race. Terry
Gehl also had a late start, around noon hour, due to work related delays. This completed the field of 37 registered participants.
As the morning bore
on, the clouds started dissipating, until clear skies prevailed. The temperatures soared up into the low
thirties, and the humidity skyrocketed.
During the day, the temperature reached a record 32.4 degrees Celsius,
producing a humidex reading of 39.9 degrees (somewhat above body
temperature!). This temperature beat
the previous daily record by 0.2 degrees, set in 1945. Although the runners seemed to be keeping
pace with previous year’s split times, such as the 50 km, 50 mile, etc., the
strain of the heat was obvious. To help
runners cope with the heat, a trailer on the east side of the park was opened,
and the air conditioning units were turned on full blast to provide some cool
air for runners seeking temporary relief from the sweltering temperatures. Early
in the afternoon, ice cubes were brought in, and put out on the drink
tables. Runners were seen filling their
caps with ice, and slapping them back on top of their heads, to help from
blowing their stacks! Somewhat later,
the Terry Fox track supervisor turned on a sprinkler at the west end of the
track, to allow the runners to get some water cooling at least once per
lap. Three sponge buckets were put out,
and were constantly being refilled with cool water. Runners were literally jumping into these barrels to cool off!
By about seven o’clock in the
evening, the sun finally sank below some tall apartment buildings to the west
of the Rideau River, ending the direct solar blast that had confronted the
runners for most of the day.
The loss of the solar
furnace in the early evening allowed the runners to pick up the pace
somewhat. However, for some, it was a
little too late. Dian Pleet, hoping to
complete at least 80 km, suffered from nausea brought on in part by the heat of
the day, and finally retired with 55.6 km, after realizing that not even Gravol
would help. This was also an ironic
twist, as Dian Pleet had convinced Bill Howell to apply at the last minute, and despite his protestations that
he was not ready for an ultra-marathon, did continue the race to reach 102.6 km
by the end, although the heat did force him to take a long break in the late
afternoon.
Ron Gehl, Simon
Laporte and Paul Smith made their characteristic appearances, and continued to
run steadily for the duration of the
race. Nadeem Kahn put in a strong
showing for his first 24 hour race, finishing with 114.1 km. Odino Soligo put in a strong showing, but
was also taken out of the race by the intense heat. However, he did return to the track by about four am, and clearly
stood out by his fast running pace,
finishing with a very impressive 74 km!
Pat Sommers and Cynthia Black both put in strong showings, finishing
first and second respectively, with 123.6 km and 113.6 km. Around four in the morning, they expressed
some interest in previous 24 hour records, hoping that they might be able to
break some of them. Alas, the heat had
taken its toll, and they were too far behind the records by then to hope to
surpass any of the records. However,
their running was truly an inspiration to all, as they seemed to charge on even
during the worst part of the heat! Jim
Morrison, another rookie, was also seen to be smiling during most of the race,
which undoubtedly inspired some of the other racers as well, and was perhaps
instrumental in getting him the Michel Careau male rookie trophy. As has happened occasionally in previous
years, Pat Sommers, who was a rookie to our race, was also the top woman
overall, and hence won the Michel Careau trophy for the female rookie. Rolly
Portelance, a long time 24 hour runner, gave Ron Gehl a good chase, and the two
ended up with less than a kilometre separating them by the end of the race,
producing the last two of three runners to surpass 100 miles. Michel Voyer also seemed to be able to
transcend the heat to keep up a good pace for the duration of the race, finally
winning it with a distance of 183.528 km (113 miles). Terry Gehl arrives with the intention of just running a
marathon. Although we do not record
marathon times, and do not normally mark marathon locations, an exception was
made this year for Terry, to allow him to know exactly when he had completed a
marathon. However, Terry must have
become inspired by the other runners, as he went on to complete more than two
marathons, for a total distance of 100 kms.
Sam Livingston, from
Weatherford, Texas, arrived to do our race, with the expectation of getting
some relief from the Texas summer heat.
He obviously went home disillusioned by the crumbling myth that Canada
really is the land of perpetual ice and snow!
He did arrive at the awards ceremony with just over 50 miles, or 80.8 km
to his credit, in this day of record heat.
The T-shirts were
handed out during the post race breakfast, while the final results were being
tabulated. The presentation began with
the overall winners of the race, and then continued with the presentation of a
medal and certificate for each of the runners in the race (we declare that each
runner is a winner in our race). The Sy
Mah award went to Michel Voyer, for a time difference of +1:23:17 hours between
his first and second fifty mile splits.
A special
presentation was made for the 20th anniversary running of the Sri
Chinmoy Ottawa 24-hour race. Trophies
were presented to the top three men and women who had achieved the highest
cumulative distances for all of the 20 races.
In the women’s category, all three prizes were won by women who had not run our races for at least several
years. Barbara Macleod was first, with
an overall total of 653.689 km. Jo
Wells was second with 576.705 km and Sutapa Adelman was third with a distance
of 575.905 km. In the men’s category,
Ron Gehl came from about 126 km behind Al Howie’s third place spot of 1441.277
km (after 19 races), to move into overall third place finish with a total
cumulative distance of 1484.983 km for 20 races. Of special interest were the top two men, who far surpassed this
third place finish. Simon Laporte
finished second with a cumulative total of 2229.629 km reached in 14 of the 20
races. Paul Smith placed first overall,
with a combined distance of 2363.551 km in 17 of the 20 races. This is an
impressive lead for the first two positions, and throws down the gauntlet for
both men and women to try to transcend these records!
Gord England, overall
Ontario Ultra Series Race Director, wrapped up the awards ceremony by
presenting a plaque to Odino Soligo for his world record performance for the
50k race in Toronto earlier this year.