It appears that Toronto’s two most prominent race directors are digging in for another battle. But what does this mean for the city’s runners?

It’s possible that Toronto could have three races — the Canada Running Series Yonge Street 10K on April 22, GoodLife Toronto Marathon on May 6, and Sporting Life 10K on May 13 — running through the heart of the city within a four-week span.

The immediate impact has been a public backlash, as expected. Toronto drivers, right-wing politicians and talk-radio hosts don’t take well to major thoroughfares being shut down three times in a month. Unfortunately, the discussion hasn’t centred on the potential health benefits to the community, it remains focused on traffic chaos.

Even us runners are finding it hard to blame the naysayers: it does seem a bit silly to have two 10K races down Yonge Street, and a marathon in the same part of town, all within a few weeks of each other. Many people thought this dispute was settled in early 2010 when the GoodLife Toronto Marathon agreed to move to the spring, allowing the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon to remain as the only fall 42.2K in the city. Apparently that was just the beginning.

Jay Glassman, who runs the GoodLife Marathon, and Alan Brookes, organizer of the Scotiabank Waterfront race, are now embroiled in another dispute — this time over a spring 10K race down Yonge Street.

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Sponsorship pulled

For the past 14 years, Sporting Life has been the title sponsor of the annual 10K down Toronto’s longest thoroughfare in May. (The Canada Running Series has organized the 10K for 26 years, with various sponsors over its history.) The sporting goods store pulled its sponsorship after learning that Brookes’s Canada Running Series planned to move the event to April 22.

When Glassman agreed to move his marathon to the spring — settling on the first weekend of May, starting in 2012 — it conflicted with the date of the Sporting Life 10K, so Brookes moved the shorter race to an earlier date. David Russell, Sporting Life president and co-owner, wasn’t happy with the move and sought the city’s permission to get another race date.

“We went to the city and said ‘you’re screwing us here,'” Russell told Canadian Running in an interview. “We don’t want to go to April — you don’t know what kind of weather you’ll get — and ended up with May 13.” Russell is also concerned that the race’s charity — Camp Oochigeas — will lose out on valuable donations due to a date change and extra competition for race entries.

The city typically doesn’t issue the permits for races until weeks before the event, but Russell said he’s already received his for May 13. And, he hired Glassman to organize the race after Brookes refused to give a greater percentage of the proceeds to charity.

“Sporting Life had a different vision for the race,” Brookes said. “They wanted to turn it into a ‘Run for the Cure’ in the spring. They didn’t want it to be in the Canada Running Series.”

While the Canada Running Series events have significant charitable components, based on the model of the London Marathon, it wasn’t enough for Sporting Life. Russell said in past years about $1 from every entry in the race has gone to Camp Ooch, but he wants $20 per entry going to the charity.

‘We made the concessions’

Glassman has stepped in despite the fact the new 10K is just one week after his GoodLife Marathon. “I don’t see many challenges in the timing,” he said, adding that he has “a few things in the works,” to help with the marketing.

“Everyone knows and understands why we moved (the GoodLife Marathon to May),” Glassman added, emphasizing that he’s not the aggressor in this fight. “We made the concessions.”

But Brookes still sees Glassman taking over the Sporting Life 10K as a direct slight against him. Glassman and Russell both believe Brookes was being less than forthcoming about his plans when he made a deal with the city to move the Yonge Street 10K to April.

Does any of this really matter to the average runner? Most of us just want to know: what day is the race; how much does it cost; and when can we sign up. Unfortunately, the perpetual feud between the city’s most experienced race organizers has cast a shadow over an otherwise vibrant running community.

It makes it easy for news editors to print stories that focus on traffic snarls rather than the positive experiences for thousands of active people — or the millions of dollars raised for good causes.

Everyone has reasons to complain

With Sporting Life seeking more of a charitable focus for its event, many people might be quick to paint the Canada Running Series as greedy. That would be a mistake. Organizing road races is a business just like any other, and it needs to turn a profit to produce high-level events. Perhaps it wasn’t as clear about its plan to move to April, with or without Sporting Life’s support, as some would have liked, but how is that different from how businesses on Bay Street operate every day?

By the same token, it’s important to laud Glassman for agreeing to move his marathon to the spring, despite the obvious challenges a date change presents. While we may not agree with him taking on another 10K race in such a short time frame, it would have been difficult to turn down a sponsor like Sporting Life and the worthy cause of Camp Ooch.

Sporting Life also has a legitimate beef, seemingly left in the dark about the changes, lost in the shuffle in the Glassman-Brookes feud.

The solution is simple: find a way to work together, or offer an incentive for one party to drop out. It worked when the city agreed to support Glassman in his move to the spring. Three races in the same part of town over a four-week stretch doesn’t do the sport any favours. It only fuels the critics.

Sporting Life said it has also applied for a permit on April 22 — in direct competition with Brookes — and if the city chooses its plan over the Canada Running Series, it will nix the May 13th race.

“There’s a lot of politics at play here,” City Councillor Karen Stintz told the Toronto Star. “They keep calling me, and I keep telling them, ‘Please don’t call me. Please go work it out.'”

She advised Sporting Life to work out a deal with Brookes to prevent duelling 10Ks in the same one-month span. “There shouldn’t be three races,” Stintz said.

Both race directors claim to have the best intentions for the running community, but they risk losing the public relations battle. And in the long run, that could hurt their bottom line and those at the start line.