[Fast paced music plays]

[Sound of a starting-line gunshot at a race]

Captain Adam Orton: Hi! I’m Captain Adam Orton for the Canadian Army Podcast. And that is the sound of the start gun kicking off the Canada Army Run. And if you haven’t signed up yet, you definitely should and go to armyrun.ca, all the details are there. But, if you want to know more, we have Major Lesley Quinlan who’s the Race Director for the Canada Army Run. Welcome to the podcast.

Major Lesley Quinlan: Hello, thank you.

Capt Adam Orton: So, what’s awesome about the Army Run?

[Music ends]

Maj Quinlan: What’s not awesome about Army Run? Army Run is really no ordinary race. It’s here for everybody to participate in. It really brings together the military community and the civilian community to interact with each other, to make that important outreach piece to the community. We also exist to raise funds for Support Our Troops and Soldier On which are the official charities of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Capt Orton: So, the big news, I guess, is that the live race is back. And it’s going to be in Ottawa as usual. What are all the details about, you know, like—what are the distances? Where are we starting? Where are we finishing? What’s going on with that?

Maj Quinlan: So, we have a combination of options this year. It’s our first time back since 2019 and the start of the COVID pandemic. So we’re coming back slowly this year. We’re offering a 5k and 10k in person—or you can do both of them for the 15k challenge. And we’re going back downtown, so everything will start around City Hall. And the finish line is also brand new to go with a new race course. And we’ll finish beside the War Memorial also right downtown.

Capt Orton: And also because of COVID and all that, we’ve had a lot of races that actually transition to the whole kind of virtual format and all that. What have we done to transition, like, in the Canada Army Run context? What does that look like?
Maj Quinlan: In the past two years, we’ve only been able to offer the virtual option. And that turned out to be really quite successful. We had a lot of people who are never going to be able to travel all the way to Ottawa—whether that be personal choice, cost, whatever. So they were really happy to be able to participate. I actually got a message our first year from someone I hadn’t talked to when—oh we won’t even talk about how many years, saying: “Hey, thanks for putting this on in a virtual format.” Because her and her husband could now take part from Vancouver Island. And we saw people participate from all provinces and territories, and probably about a dozen countries across the world. So, this year, we’re maintaining that option for people who either don’t want to or can’t come to Ottawa, or who are still very reluctant to be in large crowds and just want to take advantage of the virtual option. So, for them, we have a window of the 9th to the 18th of September. And for the in person, the 18th of September is the day.

Capt Orton: So for those who don’t know about what a virtual race is, can you explain kind of how that works?

Maj Quinlan: Absolutely. So in a virtual race, you complete your distance at the place and time of your choosing. If you want to take it out and do it on the trails—that’s great. If you want to do it on the road, around your neighbourhood, no problem. You can even complete it on your treadmill in your basement. So it’s really the dealer’s choice in terms of how you want to complete this race and make it yours.

Capt Orton: And, how does all that track?

Maj Quinlan: So we have a virtual leaderboard online. We use a RunKeeper app that’s from ASICS and that you can put on your phone—it’ll automatically upload your results. And we send out instructions on how to do that. It’s really straightforward. You can use your Garmin or other GPS watch. Or you can enter your time manually to become part of that online community and see your results compared to everybody else.

Capt Orton: Probably the most important part of any race is the swag. You know, what’s in the race kits? What’s what’s happening with that?

Maj Quinlan: What are you going to get? This is what everybody wants to know right?

Capt Orton: What’s in it for me?

Maj Quinlan: Right? For the in person, we are bringing back the dog tag finisher medals— which we all know are very, very popular. And we’ll have soldiers at the finish line handing those out to participants as they finish. We have this year as always a nice shiny new Army Run T-shirt. This year, the base colour is red. And that actually goes along with our theme, which is the 75th anniversary of the Canadian Rangers. So we’re honouring them by putting their 75th anniversary logo on the back of the shirt. And of course it's got some CADPAT in it as well. And that same shirt will be mailed out to all the virtual participants along with the finisher coins that we’ve created for them this year.

Capt Orton: Are the finisher coins just for challengers? Or does everybody get one?

Maj Quinlan: So everybody in the virtual races gets them. So if you sign up for a single distance—the 5k or 10k or the half marathon—then you get the coin associated with that distance. And if you do either of the challenges—be that the 15k as the five and ten or the Commander’s Challenge as the five and half marathon—you get both of the single coins plus the challenge coin for that distance.

Capt Orton: By the way, those coins are huge, especially the Commander’s Challenge one. I think I have one at home, and it’s like—it’s the size of a dinner plate. It’s insane.

Maj Quinlan: There have been some years that there have been very large pieces to go along with that. The ones that we mail out are all the same size. So if you’ve participated in the last couple years, they’re about, I think, two and three quarter inches big. But they’re really beautiful pieces.

Capt Orton: Yeah. And I think that's kind of a unique thing, also kind of Army-flavoured in the sense that every unit has their challenge coin. For those that don’t know, these challenge coins with these coins that you get either for excellent performance—or in some cases, when you join a unit, you’ll get one to represent kind of your place within the unit. So it’s kind of a unique piece of Army memorabilia—sort of?

Maj Quinlan: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I mean, like I said, they’re lovely pieces. And this year, the coins are also themed around the Rangers anniversary. I won’t give away what they look like, because we send them in, you know, opaque bags so that you can open them after you’ve finished your race as a: “Congratulations, I finished it.” No spoilers. But they do revolve around the Rangers theme as well. They are really cool.

Capt Orton: So, you know, everybody likes getting cool stuff. And obviously people who are running or running. And that’s great. And I mean—let’s face it, running is kind of an Army thing, too. So that’s cool. But tell us about the real reason we’re doing all this.

Maj Quinlan: The real reason we do this is to raise money for Support Our Troops and Soldier On. We are a nonprofit event, so everything that we make in revenue and donations goes directly to those organizations. It’s really the most direct way that people can help members who are ill and injured and support military families.

Capt Orton: Speaking of Soldier On and Support Our Troops, can you tell us a little bit more about those organizations? What do they do?

Maj Quinlan: Both of them were created in 2007. And Support Our Troops does exactly that. It was created to help military members and their families in difficult situations and to create family resiliency. They have emergency funds that are accessible for people. And it’s really to recognize the unique challenges that are faced in our community.

Soldier On helps ill and injured members really stay and become part of their communities. One of the things they help provide is adaptive sporting equipment, for example, and help people through sports and other activities and peer-to-peer interactions really remain part of that family.

Capt Orton: So, we know why we're doing all this. How does somebody go about registering and, you know, getting involved in all this?

Maj Quinlan: Easiest way to sign up, go straight to armyrun.ca. There are options that are really clear and buttons that you can click directly for the distances that you want to do, either in virtual or in person. And, again, just pick whatever it is that interests you, for you and your family, your friend, group, your co-workers. You also have the opportunity when you sign up to create yourself a fundraising page and so you can really get involved in helping raise funds for Support Our Troops and Soldier On by soliciting funds from—again, your friends, co-workers, family, anyone that you know. And there’s also a fundraising toolkit peer-to-peer to, you know, help you along your way and understand, you know, the easiest ways to do that. We’re even releasing an incentivized fundraising program so that you can win prizes for being among the top fundraisers at different levels. Again, spoiler! The very top fundraisers will be awarded WestJet tickets this year.

Capt Orton: To anywhere?

Maj Quinlan: I believe it’s anywhere in North America minus Hawaii. So they’re really good tickets.

Capt Orton: Oh. Sweet!

Maj Quinlan: Yeah. I think the top fundraiser gets a pair, and the next two each get one. But, free airline ticket.

[Music starts]

Capt Orton: All right! Well get out there and fundraise then. Support our troops. That was Major Lesley Quinlan, who is the Race Director for the Canada Army Run. And if you want to hear some examples on how Soldier On and Support Our Troops help soldiers and veterans and their families, give a listen to season one, episode eight on our podcast. There’s some really good stories there you can really feel how the work that is done here has an impact on people in their day-to-day lives.

I’m Captain Adam Orton for the Canadian Army Podcast. Orton out.

[Music ends]