Inspirational

What an exciting weekend for Canadian running at the Scotiabank Toronto Marathon events. From first place to last place the crowd was treated to some excellent running, world records and some pretty nasty weather. In cool extremely windy weather first place winner, for his fourth title in as many years Kenneth Mungara nipped Shami Abdulahi Dawit at the line finishing one, two with the same time of 2:09:51 only 21 seconds off the course record. Reid Coolsaet raced to a third place finish of 2:10:55 missing the 36 year old Canadian Marathon Record of 2:10:09 and the $36,000 bonus by 46 seconds but securing an Olympic berth for London 2012 by besting the Canadian Olympic A standard of 2:11:29. Pushing to a fourth place finish and becoming the second Canadian to best the Olympic A standard in 11 years Eric Gillis finished in 2:11:28, he had one second to spare.
At the other end Fauja Singh finished the marathon last in 8:11:05, surrounded by various family members. In running he set the record as the oldest person to complete a marathon at 100 years of age, his eighth and this was after setting world records for runners older than 100 at eight distances ranging from the 100 meters to 5k...four days prior. Singh took up marathoning at age 89, setting his first world record at the age of 92 with a 5:40 marathon also set at Scotiabank Toronto.
Ed Whitlock of Milton Ontario currently holds 13 world records including the fastest half marathon by a 79 year old of 1:34. On Sunday he set a record for the fastest marathon by an 80 year old besting the old record of 3:25:43 which he set in April in Rotterdam, crossing the line in 3:15:54.
Locally in the marathon were Benoit LaBreche (3:13:31), Doug Leonard (4:27:44), Anne-Marie Monsma (4:04:32), Mary-Lou Roy (5:35:45), Edward Kooistra (3:37:16), Celine Murdoch (3:37:48), Erin McDougall (3:29:08), David Little (3:44:32), Chris Byrd qualifying for Boston (3:54:02), Kathy and Mark Wiltshire (4:01:25) and Jill Andrews (4:46:02). In the half marathon were Matthew Okorofsky (2:26:17), Benjamin Allen (1:54:44), Shawn Allen (1:56:11), Tyler Ballantyne (2:06:54), Diana Chard (1:40:23), Daniel Citrullo 91:41:51), Marcello Citrullo (2:26:07), Sonja Harvey (1:58:33), Roger Johnson (2:27:03), Dee Nguyen (1:55:37), Jerri Phillips (2:03:17), G.Rivera (2:27:56), Jill Warren (2:13:38), Ashley Wheatley (2:26:16), Dana-Lee Leclair (2:09:18), Tariq Nazir (2:16:53), Ben Perks (1:14:47), Jutta Merilainen (1:20:51), Rosanne Ballast (1:58:10), Terefe Berhane (2:00:18), Susie Bojko (2:38:50), Tara Patterson (2:15:19), Beth Vader (1:57:03) and Kathryn Mattis (2:12:23). In the 5k were Jill Leonard (29:53), Koren Swelin (39:41), Peter Chisolm (25:02), Erika Kerr (29:46), John McDougall (26:18), Terri-Lynn McGrath (32:31), Keith Parks (28:21), Rachel Ballast (31:57), Brenda Mercer (43:22) and Emily Clark (1:02:38).
In the North Face Endurance Challenge half marathon Jonathan Doherty ran 2:14:13 while Mark Cain finished the 50 miles in 13:36:26. April Archer raced the Vulture Bait 25k in 2:52:17 and Patrick Foran finished fourth in 1:03:47 at the 5 Peaks Trail Nordic Centre Enduro.