Ottawa Race Weekend returns after pandemic hiatus

Thousands of runners from countries across the globe sweated through the streets of the nation's capital Saturday and Sunday for the first in-person Ottawa Race Weekend in two years.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the annual gathering of high-performance athletes to a halt in 2020 and 2021, with runners instead encouraged to complete their own races in their home communities and submit their times online.

But this weekend, the scenes looked a lot like they did before COVID-19.

Perley's marathon man inspiring others to cross the finish line

Kinsey Middleton became the first Canadian to win the women's marathon since 2007, finishing with a time of 2:30:09.

"The crowds were incredible," said Middleton, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen whose family is originally from Guelph, Ont.

"Having gone through the pandemic for the last three years, it's been really sparse racing, and there hasn't been this energy out there in so long. And so every single person out there cheering helped get me to that finish line."

On the men's side, Andualem Shiferaw of Ethiopia set a new marathon course record with his 2:06:04, the fastest time run on North American soil this year.

Take a look below at some of the sights from this year's races.