The race is on 50th annual Nova Scotia Marathon set to go July 25 in Barrington Passage

“is something that has been in my life most of my life,” Scott says.

“I was about 12 years old the first time I worked on the marathon," says Scott. Ron's daughter Monica was Scott's best friend and Scott says

Ron would round up kids in the neighbourhood to work aid stations and stuff. "We would go every 10 kilometres or so and set up tables where we would pass out watered down Tang and sponges with water in them for refreshments.”

In the early days, the start line was in Sable River, with the marathoners following a route that took them towards Lockeport, back to Jordan River, with the finish line in Shelburne.

Back then there was no Highway 103 running through Shelburne County, says Scott. “As sections of the 103 were added, over the years the route changed several times, each time a piece of highway got finished."

Eventually Jefferson left the area and Shelburne recreation director Jerry Locke “picked up the reins” and coordinated the annual marathon.

“I worked with Jerry for a number of years as a student, so when I got the job as the Barrington recreation director (in 1984) I had it in my mind for quite a while that I felt that Cape Island was the right place to do the race,” says Scott. “A marathon is 26 miles 385 yards. The figure eight (road) on Cape Island is 22 miles. And as you and I know, Cape Island is generally colder than the rest of the land around it so that's what made it possible to continue and actually grow and flourish because it was a much better environment to happen in.”

In 1985, Ray Green became recreation director for the Municipality of Barrington. For his first marathon “I had 12 runners” he says. After advertising in the U.S. magazine Runners World and getting the course certified as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon the field of runners started to climb.

According to an article in the 1991 Shelburne County Coast Guard newspaper, the Nova Scotia Marathon and Half Marathon drew a record 122 participants representing 18 states, eight provinces and Switzerland.

In 2019, the last year the Marathon was held, more than 400 runners took part. The marathon was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

While the start line on the mainland for the marathon has changed since it was first hosted by the Municipality of Barrington, the primary route around Cape Sable Island has remained the same, with the finish line in Barrington Passage at the end of the Cape Sable Island Causeway.