At this time last year, Blue Nose Marathon organizers were sifting through dozens of complaints after a chaotic race route sent runners in all kinds of wrong directions.
This year?
“Not a single complaint,” said event co-chair Rod McCulloch. “We got a whole bunch of, ‘Wow, was that ever good!’ It was probably the best we’ve done. More things came together this time than any other time in the past.”
Blue Nose organizers retooled after last year’s debacle, adding Maynard Street to the north-bound route to clear up confusion on Agricola Street. Not only did the plan work, but McCulloch — who ran the 10K — said Maynard was a perfect fit.
“Going up Maynard was kind of magical,” he said. “There is a crowd of people all the way up the street, as far as you can see, sidewalk to sidewalk. It was beautiful.”
A record 8,073 participated on the weekend, including 2,513 in Saturday’s youth run. Many raved about the event – even the cool weather and sprinkling of rain.
Halifax’s Peter Cody-Cox was one of them. He pulled a rickshaw holding a 200-pound friend for the 21.2-kilometre half marathon to raise funds for Brigadoon, a camp for kids with chronic illnesses that is being built near Wolfville.
“Everybody was cheering us along and it was really motivating, especially that last little bit,” he said. “Both my hamstrings went and all the people cheering helped me get across the line. It wasn’t too hot, it wasn’t too cold, and there was a little mist that helped you stay cool throughout the race.”
