The streets of St. Albert are going to get Wild on Sunday morning with 1,650 competitors racing towards the finish line.
“We’re overwhelmed with the response from the running community,” said Anita Cassidy, race director for the RunWild Leading Edge Marathon. “To have 1,650 in our first year is just unbelievable. We could’ve never imagined that we were going to get that many people. Our goal was 1,000 and we thought we were setting a lofty goal to have a 1,000 in our first year and now we’ve shot past it so we’re scrambling to keep up with the numbers.”
Tuesday night was the deadline to register for the 42-kilometre marathon, 21.1-km half marathon walk/run, 10-km walk/run, five-km walk/run and the WildOnes Marafun for kids.
The final tally for the marathon is 153 runners.
“In the last five days [before the deadline] we had probably 400 people sign up. It was just unbelievable. And since registrations closed I’ve probably had another 40 emails saying people wanted to register and they missed the deadline,” said Cassidy, noting that about 65 per cent of the people in the entire event are female.
It’s also the first race of this proportion in St. Albert’s 150-year history.
“If you count the family and friends of the participants, we’re going to have over 2,000 people here so it’s a big deal for St. Albert,” Cassidy said.
The start line is on St. Anne Street in front of St. Albert Place. Race times are 7 a.m. for the marathon, 7:30 a.m. for the half marathon and 7:45 a.m. for the 10- and five-km distances.
The WildOnes Marafun starts at 11:30 a.m. at Millennium Park, which is also the finish line for the other four races.
The awards ceremony begins at noon.
The marathon route covers the Red Willow Trail system and St. Albert’s streets. It winds its way up Sturgeon Road to the city’s ravines, and then by road the runners pass through the Akinsdale and Pinewood neighbourhoods before heading down Sir Winston Churchill Avenue and out to the Sturgeon Valley Golf & County Club.
After making the trek back into St. Albert along Bellerose Drive, runners go through the Oakmont neighbourhood before joining the trail system that leads past Lacombe Park Lake and Deer Ridge. After crossing the Sturgeon River they race up Grandin Road, then turn right on Levasseur Road. They eventually go through Riel Park to Millennium Park.
The halfway point in the marathon is roughly the Oakmont footbridge.
To view the marathon route, visit www.RunWild.ca.
Because of the high water level of the Sturgeon river, the route had to be tweaked along the trail to accommodate the marathon and half marathon.
“As of now it looks like the Boudreau bridge is clear of water so we’ll be using part of the trail but then shooting back on Sturgeon Road to avoid the St. Albert Trail and Perron Street bridges because they’re flooded. It’s just a little dip in the route because we have to avoid those two underpasses,” Cassidy said.
Parking will be at a premium around the staging areas for the start and finish lines.
“Grandin mall is allowing us to give a parking pass to the participants. They will be getting a parking pass in their participant’s bag but it’s only the runners who can park at Grandin mall,” Cassidy said.
Alberta’s newest road race is presented by Leading Edge Physiotherapy.
“We’ve got a great race committee and a great group of volunteers. We have over 300 volunteers who have come out of the woodwork to help us out with everything. Right now we’re just getting the final plans in place. We’ll be setting up over the weekend and we’ll be ready to go on Sunday,” Cassidy said.
“It’s the first ever event of this size in St. Albert and we’ve done well with it. We’re quite prepared.”
It’s also a fundraiser for the Edmonton-based Zebra Child Protection Centre. The non-profit organization enables the community to respond to child abuse with a professional, compassionate and highly integrated program of healing and justice. The website is www.zebracentre.ca.
