WHAT'S NEW!
Upcoming Changes for the Banff Marathon
The Banff Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K running festival will be undergoing some significant changes for next year’s event. Starting in 2025, the marathon distance will be removed from the event to enable the event to focus on the extremely popular Half Marathon distance while also reducing potential impacts to Banff National Park.
The Banff Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K, was first established in 2013 and has become an incredibly popular event showcasing the natural beauty of the town of Banff, Vermilion Lakes Road, the Legacy Trail, and the Bow Valley Parkway. The event has provided an opportunity for Banff National Park stewardship by incorporating educational components such as history, wildlife, and geography directly into the participant experience. The event has also prided itself on being the “Greenest Marathon on the Planet” with its extensive sustainability programs.
Event Director, Paul Regensburg, commented:
“Our Half Marathon event is far more popular than our marathon distance, so this is an opportunity to make the “Half” our primary focus and provide a very special experience for our participants. With removing the marathon distance, we will also reduce our footprint in Banff National Park by 21 kilometers and 3 hours which will have significantly less impact on the park and the potential for wildlife disturbance – which also feels like the right thing to do.”
The event will now be called the “Banff Half and 10K” and take place on June 15th, 2025.
The Banff Half and 10K will be themed around a special Banff National Park experience and feature “Sports Festival” weekend activities including a Health and Sport Expo, “Yoga in the Park” and a free Kids Run. Entry spots are limited and are expected to sell out quickly.
Registration for the 2025 event will open on Tuesday, October 29th
Legendary Race Announcer Steve King is Back in 2025!
The Banff Half and 10K is excited to welcome back legendary race announcer Steve King to the event. Steve will be at the Finish Line calling out every finisher’s accomplishment! Steve is so good, he even has his own commemorative bobblehead!
Steve is the voice of running and triathlon in Canada. He has also been the voice of Ironman Canada in his hometown of Penticton, BC, and a CBC colour commentator for the sport of triathlon. Steve is an avid runner and triathlete who has held six national age group records and has raced at Ironman and Ultraman triathlon distances. In 2012 he was inducted into the BC Athletics Hall of Fame and is in the Frontrunners Walk of Fame in Victoria, BC.
April 12, 2022 - "The Banff Marathon returns sold out at max-capacity" Crag and Canyon, by Marie Conboy - Read HERE
June 18th, 2020 - "Banff Marathon looking at offering virtual races moving forward. To Banff Marathon organizers surprise, there’s been a “huge response” to the virtual races, which has them thinking it could have a future at the event."
RMO Today, by Jordan Small - Read HERE
May 31st, 2020 - VIRTUAL RUN IN CELEBRATION OF GLOBAL RUNNING DAY - FREE!
A great warm-up for the Banff Marathon Virtual Run!
#CanadaMoves - Race Directors unite to move Canadians from coast to coast for Canadian Mental Health Association
The Banff Marathon, Half Marathon and 10K joins other race organizers to inspire Canadians from coast to coast to move this Wednesday, June 3rd to mark Global Running Day.
Organizers of the largest road races from Newfoundland to Vancouver are inviting Canadians to register for free and log your walking, running, jogging and wheelchair kilometers to be part of a nation-wide initiative to celebrate movement. While there is no cost to register, anyone who is in a position to donate can give to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), the charity being supported by this national collaboration.
Exercise is one of the most effective ways to improve your mental health. Running changes lives but it can’t fix all mental health issues. CMHA provides programming and resources to 330 communities across the country and now, more than ever, it is important to support friends, family and our fellow community members and can do so by donating to CMHA.”
Before or after getting out to move, Canadians are invited to tune in to their favourite road race social media pages for a first-of-its-kind Facebook Live Relay. The digital relay experience will start in Atlantic Canada at 12:00 p.m. ADT and will move across the country starting at noon in each time zone, ending in British Columbia. Each province will feature athlete Q & As, run crew highlights and race directors talking about what running and being active means to them.
Post your photos of you moving and share on Facebook, tag us on Instagram and use the hashtag #canadamoves. Organizers are reminding Canadians to run with people from your household and follow all rules and regulations put in place by municipal, provincial and federal governments and public health agencies.
“We're all in this together, so let's remember what it's like to run together... apart.”
April 22nd, 2020 - "Banff Marathon Organizers Weighing Options" RMO Today, by Jordan Small - Read HERE
Banff Marathon is Carbon Neutral!
As part of the Banff Marathon's commitment to sustainability and being the Greenest Marathon on the Planet, the event is once again carbon neutral! This is accomplished thanks to our sustainability partners Brightspot Climate and Walker Environmental who calculate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the event and offsetting them with carbon credits to make the event carbon neutral.
An Intimate Relationship
As Banff Marathon participants run through a series of incredible natural, wildlife, and historical stages in Canada’s first national park, they are reminded of our intimate relationship with the environment. It is a symbiotic relationship. One which requires love, care, and respect. While the environment doesn’t need us, we need the environment. Not only to explore all it has to offer, but simply to survive. For this reason, the Banff marathon continues to push boundaries and lead by example in sustainability. It’s why “the most beautiful run on the planet” is now also the “greenest marathon on the planet”.
The marathon reached a true sustainability milestone when they achieved 100% waste diversion from landfill. In other words, the event produced no waste. A significant part of sustainability for the marathon involves making it carbon neutral. So, just as the event produces no waste, the event offsets the greenhouse gas emissions it produces. Sustainability partners Walker Environmental and Brightspot Climate make this possible. Brightspot calculates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the Banff Marathon and Walker Environmental supplies the carbon offsets to alleviate the impact of the event on the environment.
Brightspot uses various information gathering techniques to quantify the total amount of emissions produced by the marathon. This includes emissions produced by participants and organizers travelling from their point of origin to the marathon, as well as various race operations. In Niagara Falls, Ontario, Walker Environmental operates a landfill gas collection system. The system destroys potent methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The gas is either used to generate electricity, used directly by local businesses or flared off. This practice of utilizing and flaring landfill gas has created carbon offsets, which are verified by a third party and publically registered. It is these offsets that make the Banff Marathon a carbon neutral event. In other words, one company’s reduction in greenhouse gas emissions “offsets” or cancels another’s production of greenhouse gases, resulting in neutralization.
The emissions and subsequent offsets for the Banff Marathon totaled 1,245 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent. That’s a pretty big impact (or non-impact for that matter)! The Banff Marathon is quite literally a step, or rather hundreds of thousands, in the right direction towards a greener future. Let us follow in these footsteps, cherishing the environment just as we as runners cherish our bodies. And the next time your sneakers hit the ground, take a deep breath, appreciate the beauty surrounding you, and vow to take care of it, so that it’s there for many more runs to come.
Walker Environmental recovers resources and manages waste across Canada. In Alberta, Walker manages biosolids for the Town of Banff to produce a nutrient rich fertilizer known as N-Rich®. They also operate Canada’s largest grease trap servicing company and collect, process and recycle liquid organics and used cooking oil in major cities in Alberta.
Brightspot Climate impacts change in a different way. Brightspot believes that lasting change for our climate comes from changing the regulatory system from within. Brightspot Climate works with government agencies and private companies to find best practices to quantify and reduce their carbon footprint, as well as verify their reporting requirements, working within the system to find sustainable change.
January 24, 2020 - "Banff Marathon is Canada’s first UN Sports for Climate Action member" RMO Today, by Jordan Small - Read HERE
June 10, 2019 - "Banff Hosts the Greenest Marathon on the Planet" Crag & Canyon, by Marie Conboy - Read HERE
May 29, 2019 - "Recognizing the Green Sports Alliance 2019 Innovators of the Year, Celebrating environmental innovation and sustainability achievements in sports" Green Sports Alliance, by Kelley Martin - Read HERE
