Wawa Black Fly Run

Ithaka 5th Birthday Deals for Wawa Runners

2011-06-11T10:16:00.003-04:00

Ithaka will be celebrating her 5th anniversary on September 5th, 2011. Marian from Ithaka has 3 bins full of savings on items that are 25-50% off plus HST that she would like to offer to her special customers in Wawa before she clears them out in the Sault!

Come on down and check out her selection of items, I am sure you will not be disappointed. Ithaka accepts cash only.

See you on June 25th!

Wawa Black Fly Run sdereski@gmail.comPhone: 705-856-4286

Get Fit - Have Fun - Run the 2011 Black Fly!!!

2011-05-24T18:24:00.003-04:00

June 25th is fast approaching and so is our 11th annual Black Fly Run.

Each year we try to improve our run and do something just a little bit different, a little bit better than the previous. We kick off registration Friday evening with a spaghetti dinner hosted by Wawa's Rotary Club and on Saturday our runners will follow the same scenic route as last year as our local talent entertains you along the way.

This year we will host a few more merchants selling their sporting gear during Friday's registration & Saturday at the Community Centre. Ithaka will be here again with their outdoor/athletic clothing, Athlete's Foot plan to have a table and Running Girl necklaces will be for sale as well. Former resident, Sheila Yanni will also be here with a sports photos of you on race day!

If you plan to run or walk, everyone is welcome in Wawa's Black Fly Run. We hope to see you there!

Happy running!

We're in the Home Stretch

2010-05-10T22:18:00.003-04:00

With just over a month left, the details of Wawa’s 10th anniversary Black Fly Run are coming together!

In celebration of this milestone, we have decided this year our t-shirts will be of dri-fit material. We had a sneak peak of our custom medals made by local potters and they are absolutely beautiful & unique. Friday evening Ithaka from Sault Ste. Marie will be selling athletic clothing at the community center during registration and we are also hoping to have a guest speaker to enlighten our local athletic enthusiasts. We have confirmed a local band to be en-route entertaining our runners and walkers alike.

As you can see, there has been much effort put into making this year’s event a celebration of 10 years.

Registration forms are available on our website and at the link on the right. Don’t forget to print both sides and sign the waiver.

Whether you plan to walk or run, plan to participate, we would love to see you there! Mark your calendars, June 19th is the official date of our run.

It's 2010!

2010-01-16T21:55:00.003-05:00

It is now 2010, the year of the Wawa Black Fly Run's 10th Anniversary.
Planning has already started as we are excited to make this our biggest & best run ever.
We have a couple of local artists / potters that have agreed to design and make our special anniversary medals for this year. We will have a limited amount, so participants will have to register by a certain date (we haven't decided on that date yet) to be guaranteed a medal.

We've spoken to some local musicians as well which we hope will entertain us along the route. This will be a first.

We have decided to keep it the second last Saturday of June as school is still in session. It is our hope that the local schools and schools in the surrounding communities will bring out their running teams to take part.

If anyone has any suggestions that will help us improve our run, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Stay tuned for updates as the planning unfolds. So, start running and come on out and take part! We'd love to see you here.

Wawa Black Fly Run
sdereski@gmail.com
Phone: 705-856-4286

"Whew"!

2009-06-20T18:40:00.003-04:00

Wawa Black Fly Run
sdereski@gmail.com
Phone: 705-856-4286

Another successful Black Fly Run!

The day dawned foggy with temperatures around 14C. Perfect weather for running.

A total of 128 runners / walkers showed up this year. This is the most participants we've had other than our high school reunion year in 2004. There were 25 runners in the 1/2 marathon event, 30 runners / walkers in the 10km event & 73 runners / walkers in our 5km event.

Our runners came from as far away as Colorado, Georgia, Illinois & Michigan, and of course our dedicated participants from Sault Ste. Marie, Marathon, Chapleau, Manitouwadge, Hornepayne & Wawa.

The runner from Colorado, Kirk Nelson is a professional triathlete that happened to be in town the night before the race and decided to stay and take part. He led the pack and finished the 21.1km in course record time of 1:14:10.

The first female to finish the 1/2 marathon race was Wanda Hancock of Sault Michigan with a time of 1:39:06.

Our top Male & Female 10km finishers were Eric Leishman with a time of 37:20 & Rhiannon Johns at 40:33.

A recently added prize for our top 5km finishers has been well received. Our top two finishers are members of our local running club run by Dr. Anj Oberai. Sam Taylor finished in 19:27 & Mariah-Leigh Fell finished close behind in 20:06.

Our full results will soon be posted our our Wawa Black Fly Run website.

A big THANK YOU to all our participants, we would not have a race without you. Also, we must mention our sponsers that help make this happen every year, Wawa Healthy Life Styles, Westdome Gold Mines, Brookfield Power, Heart Health Algoma, The Municipality of Wawa Community Centre & The Wawa Physicians Group.

I must also mention our local business, who, year after year, generously donate the wonderful prizes, water, fruit, cookies, juice, gatorade. Even during these tough economic times, they have come through for us. Their generousity is very much appreciated.

Some out of town groups & businesses that always come through for us are the Sault Stryders Club that provide us with the clock & mile signs and The Athlete's Foot who provide us with bib numbers, prizes, bags & whatever else we may need at the last minute.

I would like to express my gratitude to the organizing committee & volunteers that work tirelessly to help make this event happen. They continue to show up year after year, always happy to help out. Thank you.

Well, the 9th Annual Wawa Black Fly Run has come and gone. We will soon start planning our 10th. We hope to make it a special event, so keep watching our site to see how things are progressing and make plans to attend. :)

The Home Stretch

2009-06-17T22:30:00.001-04:00

Wawa Black Fly Run
sdereski@gmail.com
Phone: 705-856-4286

Well, here we are, just a couple of days away from "race day". We've had some glitches - the main one being we cannot find our new black fly run bibs that we purchased last year. They are with the extra water bottles that were donated by the Armed Forces. Yup, that's right, 2 of our bins are AWOL. It caused a bit of worry, but we have managed to make do without. Thanks to Athlete's foot in SSM for donating their extra bib numbers to us. Racers, we have bib numbers for you. Mind you, they don't have our cute little logo on them, but they will certainly do.

Once again, the committee members are overwhelmed by the generosity of this small, struggling community. Many great prizes have been donated, and many people will be donating their time to help us out on Friday & Saturday. We could not pull this off without everyone's help & cooperation, so THANK YOU. While I'm thanking people, I must mention the runners from Marathon, Ontario. They continue to support our race, each year bringing more & more participants. I'm not too sure, but I think Joe McGill is the ring leader there. Thanks Joe.

I would also like to make note that we now have a website www.wawablackflyrun.ca And, as a result, we have already had some hits and new folks coming to our run. I had two calls in one day - from folks in Georgia & Michigan that found us on the web and are now planning to take part in our run this year. Ahh, the wonders of modern technology. We were a little slow in getting there, but we're now there!

2009 Wawa Black Fly Run

2009-06-07T19:08:00.002-04:00

Wawa Black Fly Run
sdereski@gmail.com
Phone: 705-856-4286

The 2009 Wawa Black Fly Run will take place on Saturday, June 20th. The 1/2 Marathon run will begin at 8:00 a.m.
The 10km and 5km runs will start at 8:30 sharp. All runs start & finish at the Michipicoten Memorial Community Centre.

If you haven't already done so, you can register for any run right up until race day. We will be having an evening of registration on Friday, June 19th at the MMCC. This will take place from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m., the same time as the spaghetti dinner which is being hosted by the Rotary Club of Wawa.

New this year is our website! Visit us at www.wawablackflyrun.ca

We are looking for volunteers, so if you are available to lend a hand that day, we sure would appreciate it. Ron Hale is looking for marshalls, and we will need people working the registration desk Friday evening & Saturday morning. Please give Ron Hale (856-2048) or Silvana Dereski (856-4286) a call if you can spare some time.

Hope to see you all at the races!!

Never to Old to Learn

2008-04-11T17:38:00.008-04:00

Well, I have completed the Tourism Keys Workshop, where the instructor, Todd Lucier, planted the idea in my head to create a blog or web page for the Wawa Black Fly Run. It was one of those "ah ha!" moments Oprah often talks about.
Even after countless discussions of "what can we do to attract people from out of town to our run?", none of us thought of a web page! That gives you a general idea of the generation we belong to. However, we are never to old to learn.
As you can see, I have been playing around, trying to put into practice the stuff I learned over the past couple of days. There are pictures of our past Black Fly Runs out there somewhere, and as soon as I get them, I will start posting them on the blog. For now, I have posted a few from one of the Black Fly Runs and the rest are of the running girls at some of the different runs they have participated in.
The Black Fly Run is a great little run with a ton of spirit. I only hope I can do it justice through this blog.

Wawa Black Fly Run
sdereski@gmail.com
Phone: 705-856-4286

Fwd: Marathon Runners!

2008-04-11T14:09:00.002-04:00

A group of local runners and Black Fly Volunteers that participated in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC in October 2004. For three of the women, this was their first marathon after successfully completing the Wawa Black Fly Run's Half Marathon.

Catch the Running Bug!

2008-04-11T13:03:00.004-04:00

Welcome to the Wawa Black Fly Run's blog.

This year we are hosting our 8th Annual Black Fly Run on Saturday, June 21, 2008.

The Wawa Black Fly Half Marathon, 10k & 5K features beautiful courses and great prizes. The half marathon tours interesting and historic spots, the Helen Mine Monument; Dr. Rose's Beach and William Teddy Shores where gold was first found in Wawa. One landmark you'll run by is the Drill Rig, a monument erected to symbolize Wawa's mining history. The half marathon and 10k run continue along Highway 101 which hugs the rugged shoreline of Wawa Lake.

The route takes you out and back, so you will return along the same scenic route you ran out on. Afterwards, you can enjoy wonderful refreshments of fresh fruit and delicious cookies until our prize presentations take place. Cash awards for the half marathon and 10k winners. After designated prizes are handed out, there are random prizes. Nearly everyone goes home a winner!

Past participants of the Wawa Black Fly Run have told us this is one of the most organized races in the north with the best prizes!

We look forward to seeing you all there!