The 2009 International Simultaneous Marathon took place on October 14, 2009 at The Track and Field Centre of York University. Team Toronto was comprised of 32 competitors and 3 alternates from Mary Shadd Public School in Scarborough and Lawfield Elementary School in Hamilton. Canada’s team was able to better their time by 2 minutes from last years’ performance but the field was very competitive from all countries participating. The Canadian team was able to break the World Women’s Marathon Record and came within seconds of breaking the Canadian Men’s Record. The finishing time for the young Canadian team was 2:10:18 which placed them in 5th place standings.
Top three finishes were the Green Team from London England with an outstanding time of 2:03:37, which also broke the World Marathon Record; second went to London’s Orange team with a close finish of 2:04:46 and third went to Madrid Spain with a strong 2:06:25 time.
This annual event consists of each competitor running approximately six 200m dashes in a continuous relay while competing against students from different countries in the world.
The full results of the event were:
1. London (Green) 2:03:37.2
2. London (Orange) 2:04:46.3
3. Madrid 2:06:25.0
4. Manchester (Blue) 2:06:34.8
5. Toronto 2:10:18.72
6. Valencia 2:29:52.0
7. West Virginia 2:36:31.0
The event was run by the International Fun and Team Athletics team headed by Milt Ottey in partnership with Athletics Ontario. The entire team was on the sidelines cheering, coaching and motivating the Canadian team for the full 2 hour run.
Congratulations and thank you to all 35 competitors for Team Toronto and their coaches for all of their outstanding effort.