No worries

The organizer of the local Terry Fox Run isn’t worried that he’ll be competing with Thunder Bay Miles With the Giant marathon.

In fact, Don Morrison plans to run a half marathon in the morning and then make his way back to Boulevard Lake to start the five-kilometre Terry Fox Run trek.

Morrison said pushing their traditional 10 a.m. start back four hours to 2 p.m. might actually be a blessing in disguise.

"We think we might even be able to get more people. We’ve lost some people in previous years because of the church crowd, so they would miss the start of the traditional 10 o’clock one. So we think an afternoon run might get some more people out," Morrison said.

"And I think the buzz that’s being created around the marathon has got more people thinking about participating in any type of walk or run. A marathon and a half marathon are a lot different than a five-kilometre walk around Boulevard Lake."

The Terry Foundation, which has raised more than $340 million in support of cancer research since 1981, shouldn’t suffer, he added, saying that the marathon has designated it as one of its charities and will hopefully make a sizeable donation following the race.

"We hope to have people who are participating in the marathon and the half marathon and the five-kilometre event donate to us. Whether they’re doing it later in the afternoon or they’re doing something in the morning for the Thunder Bay marathon, the funds will all go to the same spot," Morrison said.

Morrison said he thinks the miscalculation by the marathon’s organizers is an honest mistake.

"The Terry Fox changes. It’s not the same date every year. Every fifth year it goes from the third Sunday to the second Sunday (in September)," Morrison said. "Last year it was the second Sunday, so the organizers of the Thunder Bay Marathon looked at the calendar from last year, saw the Terry Fox Run on the second (weekend), said, ‘We don’t want that, let’s go to the third).

Barry Streib, president of the Miles with the Giant Marathon, told Thunder Bay Television the two sides won’t conflict in 2011, though Morrison said staging the two events on one day isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980. It ended on Sept. 1, 1980, just east of Thunder Bay.