Calgary Marathon to mark 50th year with 50-km race

The Calgary Marathon is holding a special event this year to celebrate its 50th year — a 50 kilometre race.

Organizers will also be offering $50,000 in prize money to the more than 15,000 participants expected to hit the pavement this weekend.

"It's really novel for one, that a big city marathon is going to have an ultra marathon at it,” says Calgary lawyer Adam Campbell.

The two time Canadian ultra-runner of the year has been spending up to 30 hours a week training for the race.

"I'm generally running twice a day, pretty much every day of the week,” said Campbell, who normally runs mountain trails.

"It's a lot of training for sure."

Campbell will be easy to spot, he'll be running in a super hero costume, in honour of Kidsport.

"It's a great charity, I'm a huge advocate for any sort of active living.”

Campbell has dressed up for a race before — he holds the world record for running the fastest marathon in a suit and tie.

Biggest event yet

The 15,000 runners are expected to make this Calgary’s biggest marathon yet.  

Executive director Kirsten Fleming says that's almost 30 per cent more participants than last year.

"The trajectory of growth has just been exponential and we do feel we've hit that critical mass where we will just continue to grow at that pace.”

And when it comes to big city marathons there are larger, and faster, races in the country, but few have as much history.

Calgary is the oldest, continually run marathon in Canada organized by the same group.