Spirits were soaring this morning at the highly anticipated 9th Annual Runway, hosted at the scenic and sunny Region of Waterloo International Airport. There’s nothing quite like the thrill of taking off along the tarmac, and our sold out crowd of 480 participants in the 2 mile, 5 mile, and 200m races all rose to the challenge with high-flying energy and excitement.
The conditions at this race could not be more ideal- runners today enjoyed cool temps, a flat, wide open course, and a dreamy backdrop of fluffy clouds- photo op time! Whether running or walking one lap of the Runway or two and a half, we saw all kinds of celebrations come through the finish line, with many personal bests achieved on this speedy track, including a new Canadian men’s record set in the 5 mile! Kevin Smith bested the previous time set in 2012 [PDF].
Check out our results from today’s Runway here:
The first few hundred of thousands of free photos are up on our Flickr page.
Here at RW we’re all about building community, and how we rise by lifting others. Today, every step counts as we are proud to partner with Mission Aviation Fellowship, who dedicate their fleet of small aircraft to fly into some of the world’s most remote areas of need, providing emergency relief and lifesaving medical care. Today, Mission Aviation Fellowship brought out a crew of 40 members to the Runway, some volunteering and many running or walking in the race. Together, we raised over $12k to help support this cause, surpassing our goal. This amount will fund 20 emergency flights. To learn more about the work done by @maf, visit their website.
We were happy to see runners loving this year’s eye-catching race t-shirts, which match perfectly with the Airport’s pair of brand new Rosenbauer Panthers, which are world-renowned Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) vehicles. Exciting acquisitions! Runners also received a finishers medal, featuring a propeller that sends you traveling counterclockwise around this speedy Runway track. Whether you use it as a fidget spinner or hang it up in your prized medal collection, either way you earned it today!
We couldn’t put on this race without the generous support from our many volunteers and sponsors, with special thanks to the Region of Waterloo Regional Airport for lending us their tarmac for our fast and flat course for the day. We appreciate the friendly and approachable crew who were happy to answer questions and provide information to participants who were curious about the workings of the airport!
We have lots of exciting events coming up, so please check out our racing calendar on our website. Don’t forget this Monday at midnight, pricing goes up for the upcoming TMMC Fall 5 KM Classic, so register today and join us for our biggest race of the fall season. Thanks for joining us today at the Runway, and keep tagging us on social media so we can share your content!
Keep flying high and see you next time! The date for the 2026 Runway will be set in winter 2026.
More to come from our media team: thousands more free photos, finish line video
More to come from our results team: splits; teams; 5mi chip starts.
