means months of training, researching the route, charging your and making sure you've got your and down pat. And if you're running in the Banff marathon, it also means preparing for of the grizzly variety. On Sunday, the Banff marathon was heavily delayed due to multiple grizzly bears on the course.
A video posted to Instagram by Back Country Quest, which you can watch below, shows a large bruin crossing the road before scenes of dozens of halted runners being rounded up by park officials and given instructions on how to proceed behind a safety vehicle. According to reporting by the , this was just one of several bear delays on the day. They report that the race's winner, Andrew Payne, was stopped three times by bears, adding 90 minutes to his finishing time of 4:32:11.
“Everyone walked back slowly and it was just getting closer and closer as we were walking back and eventually a car came along and scared it away, but it was huge. It was at least the size of six, seven people," recalls Payne. Though most of us wouldn't expect to encounter a grizzly bear on race day, it's quite a common occurrence for this particular marathon, which takes runners through stunning Banff National Park, home to 65 grizzly bears.
“This isn’t a typical marathon, we know this can happen so we were prepared for it,” says race director Paul Regensburg. No matter whether you're or hiking and camping in grizzly country, it's important to know exactly what to do if you meet a bear to stay safe. I.
