For the 40-year anniversary, here are 3 people who helped shape the Manitoba Marathon

Thousands of runners will warm up and take off from a starting line at Investors Group Field this weekend, pounding out the first steps of the 40th ManitobaMarathon.

The annual Father's Day event goes back decades in the province and organizers say it's the only full marathon event in the province.

In honour of 40 years, here are three individuals and perspectives who have helped make it what it is.

John Robertson founder

When John Robertson got the running bug, he got it bad.

He was a busy journalistand the stress of the job weighed on him, says his daughter, Saskatchewan-based journalist Patricia Dawn Robertson. When he started running, it quickly became a passion. He quit drinking and smoking and dedicated himself to it.

"He would just go out the door, almost like a golden retriever or something. Out he'd run, because he's hyperactive," Robertson said. "He'd come home, and he'd be happy again. He would have run off all his stress."

Her dad was a TV journalist forCBCin Winnipeg in 1978 when 11 people died in a fire at the Manitoba Development Centre in Portage la Prairie, which housed people with intellectual disabilities. The tragedy moved her father to action, she said, and the Manitoba Marathon was born as a way to combine his love for running with his desire to help people.

"It wasn't easy. He had lots of obstacles at first," Robertson said. "There were lots of nervous people saying that people were going to be expiring from heart attacks during the race and there'd be widows and orphans at the finish line."

CBC ARCHIVES: 1979 Manitoba Marathon

8 years ago

Duration 4:21

The Manitoba Marathon was first run in the city of Winnipeg in 1979 and since then be held annually on Father's Day. CBC Sports was there to broadcast the inaugural run.

But John Robertson kept pushing, and the starting gun fired at the first marathon a year later.

That first year, he blew outhis kneeshortly before the race, Robertson remembered. Her 14-year-old brother had to run the whole thing in his place because their dad had gathered so many pledges, she said.

It took John Robertson years to actually run the marathon, but hisfamily was involved in every race, she said. Running it became his goal in retirementand he pursued it doggedly "no half measures," Robertson remembered, like always.

In the end, he did complete the event, Robertson said.

"For him, the marathon became this opportunity to actually make a difference. And it did, and it has."

Colin Mathieson wheelchair athlete, unofficial course consultant

He's competed for Team Canada in four separate Paralympics, but Colin Mathieson has also had an informal role in helping make sure the Manitoba Marathon route is the best it can be for wheelchair athletes.

The Winnipeg-born Paralympian says the race has always been welcoming to wheelchair participants it's "nice and flat," for one thing, he said, but the race was also organized to make it accessible and safe for all.

To build on that, Mathieson remembers getting calls in the spring before multiple races from former executive director Shirley Lumb in the lead-up to multiple marathons, to go over the course, he said.

"We would drive the course and we would actually pinpoint, you know, here's where you're going to make this turn," Mathieson said.

"The big one was, where were you going to leapfrog the other runners, because that was always a bit of a hairy moment."

Lumb was an "absolute rockstar" of organization, he said. Between the two of them, they always figured it out.

"You always found something in between," he said. "Sometimes it was starting five minutes early there were all sorts of concessions that were able to be put into place to make sure that the entire experience was safe and fun for everyone."

Val Surbey marathon board member,Community Living Manitoba

Val Surbey sees the benefits of the Manitoba Marathon firsthand, in how it impacts the lives of her sons.

The past president of Community Living Manitoba has three sons with intellectual disabilities, including one who recently received one of the several grants the marathon distributes each year, usually worth up to $3,000.

The grants can be used for any of the home-related itemsthe recipients need or want, Surbey said no strings attached.

"[My son bought] some extra things to make his home a little bit nicer than what he had. I think in his case, too, he actually got himself a fish tank," she said,laughing.

Surbey has sat on the board of the marathon in the allocations guidance role for more than a decade, she said. Before that, she attended the board meetings with her colleague who previously held the position.

She also volunteers with the marathon each year, along with her son Timothy, who has Down Syndrome.

"Everybody knows him, everybody loves him. It's great," she said. "It's just a really comfortable place to be in."

Surbey said she hasseen the marathon grow and evolve as the years go by, and she feels its cause helping people with intellectual disabilities live in the community is unique among marathons.

Many people and even participants aren't aware of its charitable history, she said, but she's always happy to explain.

"Many of them often don't know why the marathon started," she said.

"But when we tell them, and when I'm at the [Manitoba Marathon]Expo every year and I explain to them, you know, this is what we run for, people are surprised and impressed that that's the reason that the marathon exists in the first place."