Despite the rain, the show did, indeed, go on.
The 24th annual Beat Beethoven Run went Sunday. A classic Kingston event, the unique road race raises money for the Kingston Symphony.
Unlike a typical run, where you race against yourself or someone else, here you run against the symphony. Those taking part try to finish the course in less time than it took the Kingston Symphony Orchestra to finish playing a 50-minute arrangement of Beethoven’s music.
Whether you succeed or fail, the money goes to a good cause.
“The money helps support our outreach and education programs that we do during the concert season, so it’s a huge help for us to be able to present school concerts, things like that,” said Andrea Haughton, the symphony’s general manager.
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Organizers say over 700 people took part in the various races, including about 200 kids in the shorter 1K kids’ run.
Race director Robby Breadner says the eight-kilometre feature event continues to draw big numbers.
“This race is part of the Kingston Road Runners series. It’s a point-accumulated series that is made up of about a dozen races in the area. This is the single biggest race and it’s worth the most amount of points.”
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Usually, at the Beat Beethoven event, you’re able to see the symphony play. However, Sunday’s less-than-ideal weather conditions really put a damper on that as the musicians were in a fully closed tent. Haughton says getting rain on wooden instruments, especially, is not a good thing, and the cooler temperature didn’t help, either.