Posted: August 2, 2005

Athletics: Ottawa's "See You In Torino" Running Room Road Races Set for August 21

From: Phil Marsh, Ottawa Running Room.

Hey everyone...I wanted to invite all of you to this great event we are hosting on August 21st. After meeting with the founder of the See You in Athen's Fund, Jane Roos, this past winter, I wanted to find a way to help raise some funds and also to help raise awareness of this outstanding non-profit organization that helped almost every Canadian Olympian with funding for the Athen's Games.

With our best ever showing at the Pan American Junior Championships this weekend, led by the amazing Mike Woods (who set both the Canadian under 19 Mile record and the Championship 1500m record), and the unexpected success of our team at the World Aquatic Championships in Montreal, it seemed like a great time to put on an event to not only promote running and walking but to get some of these incredible athletes and people out to talk about their preparation for the upcoming Torino Games and the funding plight that faces our Olympic hopefuls.

Starting at 7:25am to avoid the inevitable August heat, there will be timed 5 and 10km races, a 5km walk with the Olympians and a 1km free fun run for kid's under 10, which will be a fun way for them to be inspired by these great athletes. It will give them a chance to watch the other races and to have everyone watch them compete. My hope is that we can make this an annual event through 2010 Whistler and that we can make this event a national event starting next year. Founder Jane Roos will be coming to Ottawa for the event as well as we will have a number of Olympians out for the race weekend! She is taking pledges for the race, which are 100% tax receiptable and can be made through RunningRoom.com or you can contact Jane at jane@seeyouinathens.com.

Registration will by ONLY online at RunningRoom.com but there will be no additional online fee added to your entry fee for this event! There will be a special "Eh Team" t-shirt for every adult participant, signed certificates for the age group winners in the 5 and 10km, medals for all under 10 kid's in the 1km event, food, drinks and the results will be available online at RunningRoom.com the afternoon of the race.

I want to thank John Stanton for once again letting me run with this new event and for always being supportive of community events, Ken Parker as he has been a great supporter of the SYIT and he has committed his OAC Racing Team to compete at the event and Harold Geller of Milton, Geller LLP for his help working with both Jane and I on getting this event off the ground.

I will have our Running Room Racing Team competing and I know that we will have a great competitive field and also a lot of walkers who want to chat with the athletes and want to find out more about helping the SYIT fund! You can check out SeeYouInTorino.com for information on the great things Jane and her people are doing in Toronto.

Hope to see many of you at the event and if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at pmarsh@runningroom.com or give me a call on my bberry at 868-4588. If you want to get involved by volunteering on race day we can always use the help.

Remember that the World Championships of Athletics (track and field) are starting this coming Saturday in Helsinki and it will be one of the last times to watch Kevin Sullivan represent Canada in the 1500m. We also have some terrific 800m men running, Perdita will be trying to come back from the crash in Athen's and as always there will be some amazing stories surrounding the athletes and the events...CBC does a terrific job bringing track to us both through the Olympics and the World's and having been at Edmonton in 2001, it is truly one of the most extraordinary events in all of sport.

About the "See You In ..." Fund.
Since 1997, our signature “See You In Fund” has raised more than $2.5 million and has assisted hundreds of athletes in their dreams of competing for Canada in international winter and summer games.

The See You In Sydney Fund was the first of its kind set up that financially assisted 78 of the 311 Canadian athletes who represented our country in 2000 in Sydney, Australia. Without this fund, a quarter of the Canadian athletes competing in Sydney would not have had adequate financial resources to train and compete.

In 2001 and early 2002, the See You In Salt Lake Fund continued by assisting athletes training for the Games including Jeff Pain as he became the first Canadian to represent our country in the new event of Skeleton.

The See You In Athens Fund received hundreds of applications for funding. As a result of our application review process and with the generous help of our sponsors, the See You In Athens Fund was able to distribute funds to 244 out of the 266 Canadian athletes representing our country in Athens(comprising of individuals, pairs and teams; both able-bodied and Paralympians).

Due to the success of See You In Sydney , See You In Salt Lake and See You In Athens, we’re proud to continue the tradition with the See You In Torino Fund and the See You In Beijing Fund .