An eight-km run connects town to its Scottish roots The year 2010 marked the 800th
anniversary of the founding of Perth Ontario’s sister city, Perth, Scotland. When the Ontario Perth mayor challenged his town to celebrate the occasion, Terry and Mary Stewart of the Perth Running Goat’s Run Club took up the challenge big time, and they’re at it again this year. “Terry wanted to host a Kilt
Run and go for a Guinness World Record for the greatest number of kilted runners while we were at it,” says Mary Stewart, looking back to when it all started. So they emailed the Perth running community, “and soon we had an organizing committee of seven and the Perth Kilt Run was born.” Stewart remembers the initial committee meeting. “We were sitting around the table talking about how many runners we thought we could recruit for the inaugural run,” she says. “Most of us guessed 100 or 200.” But when runners heard “kilts” and
“World Record,” they signed up in droves and soon the race reached the 1,210 cap – the year Perth,
Scotland was founded. The entry fee bought a regulation pleated, belted kilt in the race kit, and there was a choice of four tartans. “I chose the red Stewart tartan,”
says Dana Menard of Ottawa, who signed up for the race as soon as she heard about it on the Running Room website. “I invited a friend who has a PhD in Scottish Medieval poetry to join me,” recalls Menard, who also rallied her family and her running partner to join in the fun. “We kilted runners took over the
town,” says Menard. “There were more people wearing kilts than not wearing kilts.” Menard has already registered for
this year’s Kilt Race and is looking forward to receiving the Scottish Tam that will be included in her race kit. The Perth Kilt Run did indeed set
a Guinness world record for greatest number of kilted runners in one place. Having successfully set one
record, the organizers are eager to break another. This time it’s for a scone. Mary Stewart says, “The scone we have to beat was three feet wide and weighed 200 pounds.” So far the Stewarts have found a baker outside town with a big enough oven to bake the enormous scone for the runners to eat when the race is over. Now they just have to convince the baker to go for it. This year the featured dress at the
kilt run will be Ontario’s blue and green tartan. And the race route will
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follow the same eight-kilometre course through Perth, a town settled in 1816 by former Scottish soldiers, many of whom were masons. That explains much of the town’s architecture and its location along the Tay River, just like its namesake in Scotland. “We start at the town hall and
run past Alexander Graham Bell’s home, where the first phone call was made” says Stewart. “Then we move out to the golf course,” he says, which is built on the site of the oldest golf course in Canada. Kilt runners can look forward to a fun, historical run, a cardboard castle at the starting line, a route lined with pipers and rowdy cheer- ing sections. If last year’s race is anything to go by, there might even be some haggis stew and traditional contra dancing to go with the re- cord breaking post-race scone. /OO
This year’s Perth Kilt Run is
scheduled for July 2 at 6 p.m., at the Perth town hall.
Photos Courtesy of
Zoomphoto.ca ottawaoutdoors 19
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