Blue Nosers ‘giv’er’ in Scotland

If you were in Scotland recently and saw a crowd of runners pounding through the streets with noses smudged blue, yelling the rallying cry of “Giv’er!” you may have thought you stumbled into some kind of remake of Braveheart.

Not to worry though, it was simply the Canadian Navy participating in a new tradition of running the Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon in a remote location. On April 25, more than 105 runners took to the streets in Glasgow, Scotland to compete in 5km, 10km, and half marathon distances.

Rod McCulloch is the Co-Chair of the Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon. He says three years ago a member of a Navy ship deployed in Dubai was in touch with them and said that they’d be missing the Blue Nose in Halifax, but could they run it over there?

“That seems to have started a tradition. Some did it on a desert. Some did it on circuits around the ship,” he says.

The HMCS Fredericton has been deployed since the end of December as part of Operation REASSURANCE. They are currently in the North Sea and, in true Blue Nose spirit, they invited three other allied ships, the FGS Spessart, the USS Vicksburg, and TCG Goksu, to join them in the run.

Navy Lieut. Pumphrey is with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in Halifax, and is originally from Gander, Newfoundland. She organized the run this year.

“I thought that doing a remote version of the Blue Nose Marathon would be a unique opportunity for members of the ship’s company to achieve some of their own fitness goals while providing them with the opportunity to stay connected to the community,” Pumphrey explains.

Despite being on a ship, she says training wasn’t all that different than at home. They have exercise equipment onboard, as well as the flight deck to train on. During February they even went on a field trip.

“While alongside Piraeus, Greece, we had the opportunity to run the Athens Authentic Marathon so people were able to build on that experience and further challenge themselves for this event.”

McCulloch said in order to bring the true Blue Nose Marathon spirit to the event overseas they sent them a “Blue Nose in a box” kit which included posters to motivate them, as well as official Blue Nose Marathon tee shirts and Finshed’er medals.

McCulloch says the Halifax organizers even arranged a virtual cheering section.

Friends, family, and community members were encouraged to send messages of support to the runners with the hashtag #HMCSGiver. Pumphrey says seeing those messages further strengthened their connection to Halifax.

“It’s a great feeling knowing that people back home are cheering you on,” she says.

Now that she’s completed her race, Pumphrey has some words of encouragement of her own for those still preparing for the Halifax run.

“I know that members of the ship’s company are thinking of all the runners who have signed up for this year’s race as they continue to train and prepare for the event. To those runners we would like to say, ‘Good luck, have fun, and enjoy!’”

The Scotiabank Blue Nose Marathon will be held in Halifax (that’s “New” Scotland) on Victoria Day weekend, May 16 and 17.