Giving history a lift
Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator
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The year the lift bridge went up and stopped Around the Bay racers in their tracks
Hamilton Spectator
By Ken Peters
Call it 17-minutes of infamy.
The place of the 225-metre Canadian Transport freighter in the 121-year history of the Around the Bay Road Race history is secured.
Ask long-time race director Mike Zajczenko for the year of the most memorable 30-kilometre road race that circles Burlington Bay and he doesn't hesitate for long.
The March 31, 1996 race is the clear, unequivocal winner.
That was the afternoon that the still unidentified captain of the Great Lakes ship, in its fourth day of voyage and carrying a load of coal to Dofasco, Inc. ordered the operator of the Beach Strip lift bridge to raise the structure, delaying 365 runners for 17 minutes.
Fifty-seven runners made it across the bridge before the Canadian Transport captain ordered the bridge to be raised at 12:30 p.m. That left a delay for the 365, which were among the elite runners. The rest of the field — more than 2,500 — weren't affected since the ship had passed through by the time they reached the bridge.
For shivering runners delayed by the ship, watching their bids for personal best times vanish in the wake of the freighter, it may as well have been 17 hours.
"Everybody gave the ship the finger," runner Missy Parent, 24, told The Spectator at the time. "People were pretty upset."
After Hamilton police advised them they were looking at a 30-minute delay, Georgetown runners Jim Clarke and Charlie Upshall decided to retrace their steps since they were already at the halfway mark. Hundreds followed, throwing the event into chaos.
"As soon as two people do, everyone follows," race committee member Grady Stephens said.
The returning runners ran on the other side of the roads which weren't closed. They effectively ran into traffic, causing 911 calls galore.
"Our saving grace was a policeman drove up and told us what was happening," Zajczenko's wife's Shelley, a member of the race committee then and now recalled. "We were able to think about what we were going to do with them."
"What was even worse," continued Zajczenko, who was a race volunteer at the time, "the other runners who continued to race once the boat went through, they were starting to finish. They were starting to finish this way as all the other runners were coming back the other way. We ended up disqualifying everyone who turned around.
"That was nuts," Zajczenko said this week, recalling the event with Shelley and Stephens at the race office Upper Ottawa Street.
"It was in the news for about two weeks afterwards," Stephens said of the aftermath. "Blaming Dofasco because they had their ship come through."
"They all knew the name of the ship," Shelley laughs.
Bridge operator Scott Howley said at the time there was nothing he could do. "They have the right of way and if they ask us anything at all, we have to do it."
Dofasco spokesman Bill Gair called it a "fluke." The Welland Canal was still closed but Dofasco and Stelco had asked for permission for some ships to come through.
"We can get an estimate when a ship is going to arrive but we wouldn't know exactly when it's arriving," Gair said at the time.
Two days later the ship's owner apologized.
"Had (the captain) know the magnitude of the event we would have made a different decision," Walter Davis, vice-president of operations for Upper Lakes Shipping Corp in Toronto told the Spectator.
"A mistake has been made."
Zajczenko said in hindsight the ship mishap "probably helped our cause greatly in the end.
"Because the race at that time wasn't that large (3,000 runners compared to 11,500 taking part Sunday). Once all the runners started calling Dofasco and Stelco complaining, they said 'oops this is bigger than I thought.' We started getting a lot better co-operation after that."
"And even bad news is good news. Because now you have people saying 'I ran in 1996 when that bridge went up. And most people say 'It's pretty cool that it happened.
"And when you look at it, only 300 or so turned around out of 3,000 runners. So it wasn't a disaster," Zajczenko said.
Since that time, the race has grown. So has its importance to Hamilton. The event jacks about $3 million into the local economy in late March.
But history can repeat itself. As Shelley notes, it wasn't the first time a raised lift bridge had impacted the race. The first time was Oct. 7, 1961 for the 67th running. At that time it was the passage of a sailboat that delayed the race for several minutes and "threw the times all out of kilter" as the Hamilton Spectator reported.
No word whether the sailboat captain received a similar Made in Hamilton salute from exasperated runners waiting on the roadside.
kpeters@thespec.com
905-526-3388
http://www.thespec.com/sports-story/5527864-giving-history-a-lift/