Runners battle heat during Ottawa Race Weekend

Extremely warm weather covered the capital this weekend forcing thousands of runners at the 2016 Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend to compete in the heat and humidity.

For the first time changes were made to events to deal with temperatures soaring above 30 degrees.

On Saturday, organizers moved the Ottawa 10K from 6:30p.m. to 7p.m.

The Medical Director on site said between the 5K and 10K on Saturday at least 80 people suffered heat related injuries. Two people were taken to hospital for treatment.

“We were much busier than we normally would be for a 10K, but not to scary levels. We probably saw 6 to 7 people I would call critical,” said Dr. Jon Hooper.

Then on Sunday, the half marathon was pushed ahead 45 minutes from 9a.m. to 8:15a.m. Organizers also made the decision to shorten the race for some due to rising temperatures Sunday afternoon.

“Marathon runners in the over 6 hour kind of category were redirected off the Alexandra Bridge to avoid what we call the Rock Cliff Loop, shaving approximately 10 kilometres,” said John Halvorsen, the director for Ottawa Race Weekend and chair of Run Ottawa.

Next year organizers will look at earlier start times for the Saturday events.

“All we can possibly do is run some of them in the morning on Saturday to avoid the sort of heat scenario, but living in Ottawa it can be snowing this time of year, I mean, it is what it is,” said Halvorsen.

This year 46,912 runners registered for the races.

Coming it first place for the full marathon was Dino Sefir, from Ethiopia, crossing the finish line in 2:08:14. The first female to cross the finish line was Koren Jelela, also from Ethiopia, running 2:27:06.

Top Canadian male this year was Kip Kangogo, from Lethbridge, who ran 2:21:23.

Participants running for charitable causes raised $775,000 dollars.