The 46th annual Labour Day Classic has been given the green light.
Unless air quality conditions deteriorate considerably the race will go ahead as planned Sunday morning.
That's good news for the 70 runners who had entered the race as of Friday afternoon, with still time for more to sign up. Race organizers will accept late registrations today between 4 and 6 p.m. when runners arrive at the Civic Centre to pick up their race packages.
Dennis Straussfogel has had the Prince George Road Runners' event on his plate the past 10 years and he says this is his last as Labour Day Classic race director. Straussfogel, 62, is one of the city's more prominent distance runners but he won't be running on Sunday.
Numbers are down compared to last year, when 117 adults and 35 kids entered, and Straussfogel said there's no doubt the smoky conditions hanging over the city the past month from the wildfires have had a negative impact.
"Registrations are down this year simply because of the smoke, but the forecast for the air quality is good," said Straussfogel. "If the air quality is really bad we'll have to cancel the race. We won't make a decision until race morning and if we do cancel the run we'll still have the banquet and everyone will get their T-shirt and we'll still have the draw prizes and have a celebration of the race.
"It's going to have to be really bad. Otherwise we'll leave it up to the runners. Some people are sensitive to it and some of them aren't."
The forecast calls for a high of 16 C Sunday with a 60 per cent chance of rain.
Straussfogel is a veteran of six Boston Marathons and was there in April when weather conditions were extreme. The race temperature was only a few degrees above freezing, and there were torrential downpours and a howling wind, which prompted several of the elite category runners to drop out of the race. Straussfogel wore plenty of layers but he was still chilled to the bone and finished the course in 4:08.
"The weather was horrific - it wasn't cold enough to be dry and snowy and everybody was soaked and I wrote off any sort of performance, I just took it as a survival race," said Straussfogel. "I've never been out being that cold and wet for that long in a race."
Straussfogel didn't qualify for next year's race in Boston and has yet to meet the marathon standard for his age group with the Sept. 10 deadline rapidly approaching. He tried to ramp up his training time to get a qualifying time but his body protested with pain. He raced the Emperor's Challenge 20-kilometre off-road race at Tumbler Ridge and didn't like his time (2:16:43) but he said he hasn't been training much lately.
"I've been trying to give my legs a break and I really should not be running so actually the smoke has been a blessing in that regard. My body is thanking me that the smoke is out there," he said. "I kind of go nuts if I don't run once in a while."
The Classic, which began in 1974, was originally called the Prince George to Boston Marathon and the winner earned a qualifying spot in the Boston Marathon. Terry Fox took part in the 1979 run in Prince George before he started his cross-country Marathon of Hope cancer run the following year. Rick Hansen, who circled the globe with his Man in Motion wheelchair tour, was also part of the 1979 race in Prince George.
Five other racing classes will be featured Sunday - 8.5-mile walk, 8.5-mile wheelchair, three-by-three-mile relay, five-kilometre run and one-kilometre kids run.
The 17-mile run starts (9 a.m.) and finishes at Canada Games Plaza, followed by the kids race at 9:15 a.m. and the 8.5-mile and five-kilometre events at 9:45 a.m.
A banquet will follow starting at 12:30 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
Bill Owen set the pace in the men's 17-mile race last year, clocking 1:49:37, while Kirsten Bock was the top female at 2:25:15. Geoff Martinson set a course record in the men's 8.5-mile race, finishing in 41:07. Brittany Therrien won the women's 8.5-mile run in 57:06.
