The city welcomes the world to marathon

The city didn’t just host the Ottawa Marathon on may29th. To a large degree, the city was the Ottawa Marathon.

When the world’s best hockey players come to city, it’s not actually Ottawa that hosts them - at least not in the same way. They use luxurious and exclusive amenities, of the similar type they use everywhere they go.

And except for those lucky residents who have Senators tickets, it’s almost a matter of trivia that a normal season game is happening here - unless you’re stuck in traffic on the Queensway on game night. By contrast, when some of the world’s best marathon runners come to city, they run on the same ground as the 5,000 other runners, the same ground all Ottawans walk and cycle and drive on every day.

Race Weekend as a whole pushed through lots of runners. Between seven events of various distances, almost 40,000 people participated. Together they took hundreds of millions of strides on Ottawa pavement. At a conservative estimate, more than $5 million worth of running shoes hit the ground. Organizers say the three-day event generate $25 million for the Ottawa-Gatineau economy.

World's oldest panda Ming Ming 'died in aged 34' in China

The world's oldest panda, Ming Ming, has been died in China aged 34, reports say.
Ming Ming died last week at the Xiangjiang Wild Animal World in Guangdong region, Chinese daily The Global Times reported.

The female panda had lives at Xiangjiang since 1998, but had also travelled to zoos in London and Ireland through her long life.

Vets found that her organs had deteriorated as a result of old age, leads to kidney failure.

Pandas do not generally live past the age of 22 in captivity, or 15 in the wild.
Ming Ming caused something of a diplomatic thing when she was sent to London Zoo in 1991 to mate with Berlin panda Bao Bao. She had to be returned to China after the two fought and failed to make any cubs.