SudburyROCKS!!! celebrates 10 years

Morning North8:04Sudbury Rocks celebrating its 10th year

Sudbury Rocks, an annual running race that raises money for diabetes research, is now in it's 10th year. We spoke with Steve Matusch, the first race director of the event, and Brent Walker, the current race director, about the history of the race and this year's event.

The SudburyROCKS!!! Running race will celebrate a milestone this spring.

People have been pounding the pavement to raise money for diabetes research for ten years.

A decade ago, marathon runner Steve Matusch was the race director.

“I did a lot of travelling,” he said.

“I travelled to Toronto. I travelled to Niagara. I travelled to Ottawa to run marathons and it was always disappointing to me that we couldn’t do this in northern Ontario.”

From there, the idea to hold a race in Sudbury was born. Matusch said that first year, there were about 400 runners.

Now, between 2,000 and 3,000 runners take part in SudburyROCKS!!!.

Current race director Brent Walker said the event has a variety of race lengths — everything from a one kilometre fun run for children, to five, 10 kilometre, half marathon and full marathon lengths.

A marathon relay is also featured, where teams can run the marathon distance and course.

Walker said since the race started ten years ago, 15,038 runners have taken part.

Proceeds from the race support the Canadian Diabetes Association.

The race takes place May 10.