After eight races in seven months, and with 58,429 participants, the 2014 Canada Running Series came to a climactic finish Oct. 19 following its flagship event, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Eric Gillis ran a personal best time of 2:11:21 in the IAAF Silver Label race – good enough for an impressive ninth place – to earn him the CRS title for the first time in his career. “It is the first time I have won it,” Gillis admitted. “I actually tied last year and Kip [Kangogo] got me on the tiebreaker. It does feel quite nice. I got the Oasis Zoo Run 10K for the first time this year, the Toronto Yonge Street 10K for the first time and now CRS for the first time.” Gillis earns an additional $2,500 for being the series champion with 165 points, to go with the $12,800 he won in his five CRS races this year. He admits his performance at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon capped the best season of his career. Kip Kangogo, who celebrated his newly acquired Canadian citizenship in the spring, wound up second this time with 156 points and will collect $1,500. Toronto’s Sami Jibril was third earning $1,000. The Canada Running Series is something special, Gillis concludes. “This is different than an individual event in that it’s an indicator of consistency,” he declares. “I have never won it before but had good races in the past. So it’s nice to look back on 2014. I knew I had a consistent season; it felt like a consistent season and this is just one of these more concrete indicators.” While Gillis had come close in the past, and has been a frequent participant in the series, the women’s overall title went to a relative newcomer to road racing. Rachel Hannah beat Lanni Marchant with 165 points accumulated through victories at the Toronto Yonge Street 10K, the Banque Scotia 21K de Montreal and then the Oasis Zoo Run, where she ran away from Marchant in the final kilometre. Hannah, 28, who works as a clinical dietitian full-time and trains with the University of Toronto Track Club, was delighted to learn she was the overall winner. Already she has earmarked the $2,500 prize money to forward her promising career. It brings her total winnings at CRS 2014 to $10,000. “It definitely helps advance my career because it’s the highest I have ever placed overall and it’s a good resume builder,” she said. “I actually was looking at a list of my achievements over the last year and that added to the list. It helps when you are looking for sponsorship and it adds credibility to your season.” The impact of the Series on Canadian distance running has been well versed by numerous athletes. Rachel Hannah in particular praised the series for providing top-class races as well as prize money. “It helps when you are looking at self-funded athletes,” Hannah explains. “Obviously I am not receiving [national] funding yet so it really does help to have the series like this because it gives you added funding, and it gives you a goal to reach towards and helps support the whole road racing scene in general. It’s extremely helpful.” In addition to providing elite runners an opportunity to further their careers, the series raised almost $6 million in 2014 for over 300 charities in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver areas. Edited from a press release by Paul Gains.
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