THUNDER BAY — The Firefighters Ten Mile Road Race didn’t completely disappear during the pandemic, but the virtual event that took its place just wasn’t the same.
Four long years after the 2019 in-person event was held, runners will take to the starting line on Simpson Street on Victoria Day, competing for the title of fastest 10-miler in the city — or just out to set a personal best or check the race off their bucket list.
It’s been a long-time coming, said race organizer Herb Daniher on Thursday, making a last-minute push for entrants in both the open and relay categories.
About 500 people have already signed up to take part, with registrations remaining open until this coming Monday.
“We’re quite excited. We’ve got a couple of new things we’re going to do this year to try to up the ante a little bit. One of them is we’re re-engaging the community to come out and do some cheering,” Daniher said, calling it an open invitation to the community.
“We also have someone who donated $1,000, so we’ve got a $500 first-prize for the fastest first-time entrant, male and female, and then we have cash prizes as usual. We’re just excited about the race and all the pieces fitting together and being back live and in person.”
The event has a long history in the city, dating back to 1910, when it was first contested. At the time it was a small group of elite runners who took part.
After losing steam several decades ago, the race became a staple of the May long weekend about 30 years ago, and has consistently drawn hundreds of runners of all abilities to take part.
“Now it’s open to the community and we have all different calibres,” Daniher said, adding there may be new competition in the men’s race.
“I know for a fact there is a new person in town going to school. They’re going to be a first-time entrant and he’s told me he’s going to break 50 minutes. He looks pretty fit. We’ve got some other people running around that we’ve spoken to and people are out to get their personal bests down and get back into the swing of things. This is one of the races that are in their repertoire, especially if they do longer races, inside or outside.”
The race course remains the same, with runners starting on Simpson Street and then down Fort William Road to the Marina overpass, where they turn around and repeat the course in reverse order through the start/finish line.
Duluth’s Scott Behling won the men’s event in 2019, while Rebekkah Pyle captured the women’s title.
The race is scheduled to begin on May 22 at 9 a.m. For more information, visit http://www.10mileroadrace.org/.
