Ford wants marathons taken off streets and moved to parks

TORONTO, Ont. – Leading mayoral candidate Rob Ford reportedly says if he is elected he will move marathons from the streets to a park next year.

Proponents of big city marathons say they showcase their cities.

The events are also big fund raisers for charity and inject millions of tourism dollars into local economies.

Rocco Rossi told 680News that he supports the city marathons but thinks that instead of having multiple events they could be consolidated into one.

“We should look at a little consolidation and aim for a gold level marathon as opposed to having two.  I think the organizers can work together and build something we’ll all be proud of.” said Rossi.

Sarah Thompson told 680News she disagrees with Ford and said these marathons
allow everyone to engage in the city and have access to street that are usually closed off to them.

“If you run in a park, you can do that anywhere. Further, running in a park in Toronto, you get dizzy,” John Glassman, director of the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon, told 680News.

“High Park – it’s a beautiful park, but it’s very hilly. It would be a very challenging marathon to run entirely within the park.”

In addition, “the park system can’t handle that many people, and if somebody goes down, if somebody injures themselves, it would be very difficult to get emergency medical services to them.”

“As expensive as the park system is in the city of Toronto, you cannot feasibly run a little over 42 kilometres,” he added.

The Toronto marathon is the only marathon in the city that allows runners to qualify for the Olympics.

20,000 people participated in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon over the weekend which took over a large part of the Lakeshore, Sunday morning, and blocked off several streets in the downtown core.

The event raised $2.7-million for 127 Toronto charities.

The Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon will be held in less than three weeks, and is expected to draw 20,000 people.