As organizers of the Terry Fox Hometown Run get ready to mark the event's 35th anniversary next year, a new route will be tested next month in Port Coquitlam.
And along the new route, walkers, runners, cyclists and inline skaters will pass over a rail yard and see the city's two statues of the man who led the Marathon of Hope in 1980, raising millions of dollars to research a disease that took his life a year later: cancer.
Hometown Run organizer Dave Teixeira said next year's milestone celebration of the Terry Fox Run is one reason the PoCo route is changing. Volunteers want to make sure the 2015 party draws a bigger crowd to one of the largest Fox run sites in Canada.
For the new 10 km route, participants will start at the Hyde Creek recreation complex, then head over the Coast Meridian Overpass and down Kingsway Avenue to Terry Fox Library - location of one Fox statue - then return via a route that will take them to Terry Fox secondary, site of the the other statue.
The 6 km route will see participants crossing the overpass, circling back and visiting Fox school while the 3 km route will have the crowd turn at Terry Fox secondary.
The three routes were approved by the city and emergency personnel this week. Teixeira said studies show traffic on the overpass appears to be low on Sunday mornings and, as a result, one southbound lane will be closed for about three hours to manage the crowd.
Safety and a more direct passage are also reasons the three routes changed as some past participants got lost, Teixeira said. "The whole idea is to make the route easier."
Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore, a former Hometown Run organizer whose father coached Fox at the former PoCo high school in the 1970s, said the committee's goal is to give "a safe and meaningful running experience while providing them with a variety of distance options."
"Runners can opt to go past the Terry Fox high school - where the school spirit is on display - and the Terry Fox Library as well as going over the Coast Meridian Overpass."
The Terry Fox Run will be held across Canada on Sunday, Sept. 14. In the Tri-Cities, there will be four events: Port Coquitlam (10 a.m. start from Hyde Creek rec centre); Coquitlam (10:15 a.m. start from Blue Mountain Park); Port Moody (10 a.m. start from Rocky Point Park); and Anmore (noon start from Spirit Park). To help, at the Hometown Run, email [email protected].
