The Tely 10 ~ Registration Numbers Through the Years
April 10th, 2025
Written by Joe Ryan.
With registrations for this year’s running of the 97th Tely 10 rapidly reaching the announced cap of 3200, let us take a quick look back at how the Tely numbers have varied throughout the years.
From the initial race in 1922 up to 1970, only 5 or 6 or 8 runners would complete the course each year, with the exception of 1946, when 12 runners made it to the finish line, followed by 13 in 1948, but then back to 10 in 1958. These would be more or less “hard-core” distance runners, not recreational runners, joggers or walkers such as we see today.
1970, however, saw 18 participants successfully complete the course, one of them being, rather surprisingly, a female runner. Females had first participated in the Tely race in 1969, this ten-mile foot-race up to that point being rather exclusively a male event.
In 1969, then, a young female runner, 16-year-old Jackie Kean, challenged this notion and entered the race, primarily to see how she could do. She finished in fine form and from that point on, with the exception of 1972, females would officially run the Tely each year.
Tely registrations remained rather low until 1977 when 30 runners raced along Topsail Road on race day, 29 of them male and just one female. This sudden interest in this 10 mile foot-race from the Town of Paradise to St. John’s came about, no doubt, because the Canada Summer Games were held in St. John’s that year, and an experienced track and field official, Chris Pickard, was hired as the Technical Director for the Games.
Pickard quickly set about forming a Road Race Committee in addition to his Summer Games duties, and a significant number of road races, including the Tely 10, were scheduled for that year. Interest in road racing also quickly began to develop as a running boom was now sweeping across North America as the American runner, Frank Shorter, had won a gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, and a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Runners were now hitting the roads everywhere!
Interest in the Tely 10 road race now developed rapidly and registrations began to increase year after year, with the 100 mark topped in 1980, when 112 runners successfully ran the race from Paradise, 22 of them female participants. The 200 mark was reached in 1984, and the 300 mark in 1988.
Twelve years later, in 2000, almost 1000 runners were excitedly lining up at the start line on Topsail Rd. in Paradise. In 2004, the 1500 mark was surpassed, and what was really amazing was that the number of female participants was just about equal to that of the male runners.
Then in the 2008 race, female finishers for the very first time actually outnumbered the males, 1024 to 1022! This would now be the case from that point on, females easily outnumbering the males, so that by 2011, over 400 more females than males would race down Bannerman Rd to the finish line.
The greatest number of females to finish the Tely race was 2682 in 2017, 1009 more than the male finishers. The Tely was indeed enjoying some very successful years, but then came COVID, and the number of participants dropped significantly each year, with less than 2000 finishers in the 2021 race.
The 2024 Tely saw 2743 participants successfully complete the course, and indications so far indicate that this year’s race will also see significant numbers registering. Let us hope this year’s 97th running of this historic and prestigious race will be an exciting and vibrant one.
Listed below are the number of finishers for the last 10 years, male and female.
Year Total Male Female
2024 2743 1233 1510
2023 2285 1005 1280
2022 1966 868 1098
2021 2255 975 1280
2019 3693 1525 2618
2018 4166 1650 2516
2017 4356 1674 2682
2016 4350 1719 2631
2015 4128 1649 2479
2014 3774 1550 2224
Greatest number of finishers: 4356 in 2017
Most male finishers: 1719 in 2016
Most female finishers: 2682 in 2017