From Simcoe Reformer

By Monte Sonnenberg, Simcoe Reformer

SIMCOE - Long-distance runners in Norfolk and beyond will have an opportunity to set new personal best times during a new fundraiser in Simcoe this spring.

A London firm has been hired to provide split-second timing technology for this May’s Great Race for Rotary. As well, Norfolk County is helping mark out the courses to the inch. With such precision, runners who enter the five-kilometre, 10-kilometre and 25-kilometre events can confidently note their progress against previous best times.

“In Simcoe, there are a lot of fundraising runs,” route organizer Marcy Michener, of the Simcoe Health & Fitness Centre, said at a Race open House on Saturday. “This event is different – it’s a timed event for runners. This is about runners, and this is a race for runners – something for them to train for. A lot of runners from Norfolk who attend events outside the county are used to that level of professionalism.”

The Great Race for Rotary is named after the late John Race of Simcoe, a long-time Rotarian and local philanthropist. Race died last year.

 

Proceeds from this year’s event will go toward traditional Rotary causes such as the elimination of blindness and polio in Third World countries. Local causes include trail improvements, Norfolk General Hospital and the Haldimand-Norfolk Literacy Council.

The company Race Roster of London will provide this year’s event with its professional polish.

“Everything is ready to go,” says Gail Catherwood, chair of the Rotary Club of Norfolk Sunrise’s ways and means committee. “It will be very professionally done. The county has agreed to make sure the distances are accurate. The county has really opened its doors to us. It has been very accommodating.”

The Lynn Valley Trail between Simcoe and Port Dover will serve as the race course. As a consequence, there will be no road closures. The five- and 10-kilometre races will be run almost entirely on the trail. The course for the 25-kilometre race will begin in Simcoe and snake its way around the outskirts of Port Dover at the end.

As of Saturday, 15 contestants had registered. One of them is Scott Chambers of Jarvis, who got serious about fitness a couple years back when his doctor told him he had a 60% chance of having a heart attack.

At the time, Chambers tipped the scales at 300 pounds. He has since dropped 100 pounds and is committed to keeping the weight off. The 25-kilometre run May 24 will be his longest yet. After that, he has his sights set on a 65-kilometre triathlon.

“It’s a fitness quest,” Chambers said. “I’m going to push myself just so long as my body can keep it up.”

Those wishing to learn more about the Great Race can do so at thegreatraceforrotary.com.

Monte Sonnenberg

519-426-3528 ext. 529150

 
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