This Sunday you’ll be able to watch one of Canada’s premier marathons live online at CBCSports.ca. This will mark the first time a Canadian marathon has been broadcast live from start to finish.This year’s event could prove to be the fastest marathon ever run on Canadian soil. The current men’s record stands at 2:09:55, the women’s at 2:26:01 and with a large number of elite athletes competing there’s a good chance that one or both of these records could fall.

Continue reading below, a great article on the event from today’s Globe and Mail:

Waterfront Marathon on the rise

JAMES CHRISTIE, Globe and Mail

September 28, 2007

The dollars are bigger and so is the field. In fact, about all that remains fixed about the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Sunday is the classic distance.

“We’re up about 30 per cent from last year in the regular runners, some 12,000 runners and 1,000 kids will be at the start line,” race director Alan Brookes said.

“That’s a huge jump. It’s mainly Canadians, the American entries are up about 6 per cent [despite the falling value of the U.S. dollar compared with the loonie]. There will be almost 800 runners from south of the border, 200 Brits, 140 Mexicans and Peru is sending elite athletes for whom this will be tantamount to an Olympic trial.”

The elite runners, including defending champion Daniel Rono of Kenya and Alevtina Biktimirova of Russia who was sixth in last year’s Boston marathon, are chasing part of more than $100,000 in prize money - $15,000 each to the top man and top woman - plus new bonuses amounting to $20,000 for new Canadian all-comers records for men and for women.

The dollars are bigger and so is the field. In fact, about all that remains fixed about the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Sunday is the classic distance.”We’re up about 30 per cent from last year in the regular runners, some 12,000 runners and 1,000 kids will be at the start line,” race director Alan Brookes said.”>Waterfront Marathon on the rise

“The loonie is much healthier than it was last year, but that’s not the real reason we have the best field ever. We’ve always guaranteed the prize money in U.S. dollars, anyway.

“But what they like is the fast, flat course and to be able to go after a record,” Brookes said. The Canadian men’s open mark is 2 hours 9 minutes 55 seconds, set at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The fastest a woman has run a marathon in Canada came at the 2001 world championships in Edmonton, 2:26.01.

“I’d say there is an 80-per-cent chance we’ll get a men’s record, a 50/50 chance on the women’s,” Brookes said.

It helps that there will be five pacemakers running with the leaders to get them clicking along the Lake Ontario shoreline at a record pace. They will try to get the leaders to the 30-kilometre mark in 1 hour 32 minutes, then let the real dogfight begin.

Rono, 28, is the course record holder with the 2:10:15 run a year ago. That got him into the Paris Marathon in a field of 35,000. He ran an impressive 2:10:38 for third place. His biggest challenge may come from fellow Kenyan John Kelai, 30, the only man in the field with a sub-2:10 finish. He ran 2:09:09 last October at Eindhoven and has previous wins in Singapore and Brussels, and at Mumbai.

Another Kenyan challenger is David Maiyo, 30, from the distance-running cradle of Eldoret in Western Kenya. His personal best is 2:10:19 at Treviso, Italy in March this year. Joseph Mutiso, a Kenyan veteran at 34, ran 2:10:34 in Dubai in January. Close to them will be younger Ethiopians Feyisa Tusse, 24, and Kasime Adilo, 28, looking to break into the 2:10 class.

On the women’s side, look for cagey 38-year-old Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland to duel with the Russian Biktimirova. Sobanska won one of the majors at London in 1995 [2:27:43], had a second-place finish at Boston in 2001 [2:26:42], and a fourth at the 1995 world championships.

Biktimirova, at only 25, is a pup in comparison but was second at Ottawa in 2004 in 2:32:15. She then burst onto the world scene with a 2:25:12 in Frankfurt in October 2005, and followed up with a sixth-place finish at Boston in 2006 in 2:26:58.

Asha Gigi, 34, of Ethiopia, was fourth at Paris on a warm morning this spring with an impressive 2:29:11 and has a personal best of 2:26:05, also run in Paris, in 2004.

Marathon day

TIME Sunday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

STARS ON THE STREET In the men’s marathon: Kenyans Daniel Rono (defending champ), John Kelai, David Maiyo and Joseph Mutiso; Feyissa Tusse of Ethiopia and 2004 champion Danny Kassap, a native of Congo. In the women’s marathon: defending champion Malgorzata Sobanska of Poland, Russian Alevtina Biktimirova and Ethiopians Asha Gigi and Merima Denboba.

BROADCAST Live TV coverage on CBC Country Canada; Internet broadband at cbc.ca/sports.

COURSE RECORD Men: 2:10:15 (Rono, 2006); Women: 2:34:32 (Sobanska, 2006).

ROAD CLOSURE ADVISORY Waterfront: Lakeshore Boulevard from Windermere to Don Roadway. Shutdowns in west Toronto from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. (west of Bay St.); and in east Toronto from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. from Bay to Don Roadway. Downtown: Start and finish areas are at Metro Hall, at Wellington and Simcoe. From 5 a.m. to 1 p.m., motorists should avoid this area, as well as Wellington from John to Bay, and Bay from Wellington to Lakeshore Blvd. Downtown access from the Gardiner will be via Spadina ramps, uninterrupted all day. East-West travel should proceed normally on Adelaide and Richmond. Commissioners Road, Eastbound lanes, from Don Roadway to Leslie are blocked 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Leslie Street from Commissioner’s Road to the Leslie Street Spit/Unwin is blocked 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Complete details can be found at http://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com/en/faq/faqcourse.htm#streetclosures.