40 years ago this week, Terry Fox started his Marathon of Hope
And the Olympics postponement has affected a whole bunch of stuff
Hello!
I hope you survived week four of quarantine and a weird long weekend. And that you’re getting the support you need, whether it’s medical, emotional or financial.
This week’s issue looks at Terry Fox’s legacy, rounds up some coverage of the Quarantine Backyard Ultra and looks at some of things getting impacted by the Olympics delayed.
I want this newsletter to be a source of distraction, information and inspiration at this difficult time. It’s a tough balance, and do let me know if I miss the mark or if there’s something I can include to share with others.
If you want to reach out at any time, about anything, you can reach me at runthenorthnews@gmail.com.
I hope you’re taking care of yourself and staying safe.
Let’s get to it.
— Erin @ Run the North
The legend of Terry Fox began 40 years ago this week
I want to start this issue with something positive. On April 12, 1980 — that’s 40 years ago this past Sunday — Terry Fox started his marathon of hope: a cross-country run where he hoped to raise money and awareness for cancer research.
Terry grew up in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, running and playing basketball, before being diagnosed with bone cancer as a teen. He had his right leg amputated in 1977, when he was 19 years old.
Terry’s Marathon of Hope was inspired by an article about Dick Traum, the first runner with a prosthetic to finish the New York City marathon in 1976. His dream quickly grew from running one marathon to running one marathon a day — across the entire country. It would be an endeavour to raise money and awareness for cancer research.
Podium Runner, an American site, wrote about Terry last week:
On April 12, 1980, Terry Fox began his run, starting from St. Johns, Newfoundland. With no great fanfare he dipped his prosthetic leg into the Atlantic Ocean, vowing he would do the same when he reached the Pacific Ocean. No one noticed.
He, and a friend who drove and cooked their meals, were alone: 5,000 miles to go.
At first, local media treated it as a curiosity, but enough so to draw local attention. Soon people were standing by the side of the road, clapping politely as Terry passed. From there, it became tens, and then hundreds, all cheering him on. He was no longer a curiosity. He was a hero. A brave young man doing the seemingly impossible.
By the time he reached Toronto on July 11, nearly three months of a marathon-a-day, Terry entered downtown to a crowd of 10,000 people lining the streets. The Cancer Society estimated it collected $100,000 in donations that day. Terry Fox was no longer running alone. He had an entire nation behind him.
A whole nation came together, believing in this young man and his dream.
In 2007, Runner’s World wrote about Terry and spoke to several people who remembered his run (this piece is long and excellent and worth your time):
He wasn't doing this to stoke his ego or strike it rich. Terry reminded Shelly of the Ontario pioneers she had studied in school, who had paddled across Superior to deliver medicine to sick children. They weren't trying to be heroes; they were just doing what was necessary. Terry seemed to have the same attitude. He was just a plodding Canadian kid — average in school, average as an athlete — who had somehow been chosen for a wonderful, terrible mission. Before Terry, people died from cancer, but they were ashamed to talk about it. This boy from Port Coquitlam wasn't ashamed. Every day, Terry showed his cancer to the world, and the world would never be the same.
Terry’s Marathon of Hope ended on Sept. 1, 1980 in Thunder Bay, when a coughing fit and his fatigue scared him enough he decided to go to the hospital. The cancer had spread to his lungs. He had run a marathon a day for 143 days, and raised almost $1 for every Canadian citizen: $23.7 million.
He would die nine months after ending his Marathon of Hope, on June 28, 1981.
And later that year, the Terry Fox Run was born.
The Terry Fox Run is held every year in September. It’s a non-competitive 5K open to everyone, for any amount — you’re just encouraged to make a cancer research donation. Schools across the country participate. It’s often the first time Canadian kids are introduced to running and to races, and to connecting both those things to a greater cause.
Events now happen in more than 60 countries it has raised more than $750 million for cancer research since 1981.
Terry was named the second greatest Canadian in a 2000s CBC competition (he lost to Tommy Douglas, who we need to thank for our universal health care, especially right now). There’s currently a movement to put Terry on the $5 bill. There are statues of him. Schools are named after him. He’s an icon.
His brother Fred Fox spoke to TSN Radio about Terry’s legacy, 40 years later.
Terry was a 21-year-old kid with a dream. It didn’t quite come true. But he changed running, cancer research and Canada anyway.
With determination, perseverance, patience, resilience and by believing in something bigger than himself.
It’s a message that feels pretty relevant right now.
The Olympics postponement has affected a whole bunch of stuff
World Athletics has suspended Olympic qualification until Dec. 1, 2020
World Athletics has announced they are pausing the Olympic qualification period. Any performances that take place between April 6, 2020 and November 30, 2020 will not count towards Olympic qualifications or world rankings.
The new qualification windows are as follows:
Marathoners and 50K racewalkers will be able to qualify between December 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021.
10,00m runners, decathletes, heptathletes and 20K racewalkers will be able to qualify between December 1, 2020 and June 29, 2021.
All other track and field athletes will be able to qualify between December 1, 2020 and June 29, 2021.
What this means: if any marathons actually happen this fall, absolutely none of the results will count towards being an Olympic qualifier or world rankings.
They still might not happen, but World Athletics just eliminated their purpose for anyone with Olympic aspirations.
Top 10 at a world major? Too bad. Top 5 at a gold label? Too bad. Sub 2:29:30 or 2:11:30? Too bad.
Several countries, including the U.S. and Kenya, have already determined their Olympic marathon teams. But several others, like Canada and the U.K., have not.
This impacts almost every Canadian elite marathoner, as only five have qualified: Dayna Pidhoresky, Lyndsay Tessier, Rachel Cliff, Malindi Elmore and Trevor Hofbauer.
Several more were planning to go for it this spring, only to have those races cancelled or postponed, including Kinsey Middleton, Reid Coolsaet, Krista DuChene, Evan Esselink and Cam Levins.
So what do they do now?
Will any elites still eyeing an Olympic berth even want to run a marathon this fall anymore? Or will they look at marathons that fall at the very beginning of this window (eg. CIM and Valencia in December, Houston in January) in order to set themselves up for two shots at qualifying in 2021?
Reid Coolsaet spoke to CBC Sports about this dilemma:
“I didn't see this coming,” said Reid Coolsaet.
The two-time Olympian had planned to run in Toronto, but may instead race at either Fukuoka, Japan where he ran the fastest time of his career — two hours 10 minutes 55 seconds — in 2016, or at Valencia, Spain. Both races are Dec. 6.
Fukuoka, Valencia and the Jan. 17 marathon in Houston should be packed full of marathoners aiming to qualify.
“Here's the thing. If I feel like I can run 2:11.30 [Canada's men's qualifying standard], I almost don't want to do it in October or November,” Coolsaet said. “I'm not going to come back in a month or two and do it again.
“I would love to run Toronto and if I feel like training is at a place where I'd realistically run 2:13 or 2:14, something like that, then I would just run Toronto. But if I really do feel I have a good shot at the Olympics, then that would change things.”
The 2021 world championships were moved to 2022
The world track & field championships are held every other year, on odd numbered years, as to not compete with the Olympics. With the Olympics being moved to 2021, the 2021 world championships, which were to be held in Eugene, Oregon, will now be held from July 15-24 in 2022.
This means we have an annual schedule that looks like this:
2021: Tokyo Olympics
2022: world championships in Eugene, Oregon
2023: world championships in Budapest, Hungary
2024: Paris Olympics
2025: world championships, location TBD
32 other sports, including swimming and gymnastics, also need to move their world championships to make the new Olympic dates work.
The Canadian national track & field championships are all pushed back a year, Montreal still gets to host the Olympic trials edition in 2021
The Canadian national track & field championships are an annual event. Every four years, they serve as a qualifying meet for the Olympics and every two years, they serve as a qualifying meet for the world championships.
The 2020 meet was to double as the Olympic trials and take place in Montreal.
The 2021 national championships were to double as a world championship trials and were set to be held in Langley, British Columbia.
Now there will be NO 2020 national championship.
The 2021 national championships will now be the Olympic trials and will be held from June 24 to 27 in Montreal. This has been confirmed by an Athletics Canada press release.
And presumably, the 2022 national championships will be a qualifying meet for the world championships and will be held in B.C. Langley, B.C., was set to host in 2021 and 2022 already.
No host cities have been announced for 2023 and beyond.
A mental health task force has been put together for Canadian athletes
Several Canadian athletic organizations have recognized the mental health toll all this could have on athletes. So the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Own the Podium and several other national organization are working together to create mental health supports specifically for Canadian athletes. From CBC Sports:
"The group has really been put together to asses the needs and do some strategy and planning around the different things that are required," said Dr. Karen MacNeill, a psychologist who has worked at Olympic Games as the lead mental health counsellor for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
It’s not yet clear what these supports will look like, but it’s a step in the right direction.
But the 2020 Olympic organizers aren’t even sure about 2021
Everything feels uncertain right now. Who knows when the world will return to normal, or what that normal will even look like. And that includes the 2020 Olympics — even with a year-long delay. Toshiro Muto, the chief executive of the Tokyo Games, said this week he can’t guarantee the Olympics will even happen in 2021. From CBC Sports:
“We have made the decision to postpone the Games by one year,” Muto said. “So this means that all we can do is work hard to prepare for the Games. We sincerely hope that come next year mankind will manage to overcome the coronavirus crisis.”
Muto was asked if there are alternative plans to holding the Games in 2021.
“Rather than think about alternatives plans, we should put in all of our effort,” he said. “Mankind should bring together all of its technology and wisdom to work hard so they can develop treatments, medicines and vaccines.”
Mike Wardian won the Quarantine Backyard Ultra
Last week, I wrote about the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, a last runner standing style vitual race that was organized by Canadian Dave Proctor. At the time last week’s issue went out, two runners were left: American Mike Wardian and Czech runner Radek Brunner.
In the end, after 63 hours and 262 miles, Wardian won when Brunner was disqualified fo not starting his treadmill on time.
It was devastating.
Because nothing else was happening in the world of sports, this race got a ton of attention.
It was written up in Sports Illustrated, the Washington Post and the New York Times, along with several more expected outlets, like Podium Runner and Trail Runner.
Mike was on the Citus Mag podcast to discuss the race. He was super classy about his win and is adamant he could have kept going.
Sweden’s Anna Carlsson was the last woman standing and placed third overall. She was profiled in Ultrarunning Academy and was on the Run with Love podcast.
The Roots with Stephanie podcast spoke to several participants, including organizer Dave Proctor, 13-year-old Ben Tidwell and Rinat Mustafin, who participated from his living room.
Canadian Running also profiled Ben Tidwell, who started the race with his dad and went on to run 100 miles.
Runner’s World had a great piece summarizing all the insanity that made this race so special and memorable, including wild animal encounters, Zoom backgrounds, coffee shop runners and more.
I want to wrap with this excerpt from Wardian’s Sports Illustrated inteview:
SI: There’s a lot of people who came into this by chance. Sports are on pause. They were looking for entertainment. They may have heard there were runners on Zoom just running forever. What do you hope they take away from the whole thing if they were captivated by what they saw?
MW: I hope that people take this as an opportunity to maybe pay more attention to some of these types of events. Maybe it’s not running? Maybe it’s kiteboarding. There’s a ton of different ways to challenge yourself. I think this was a great way to get people involved in something they maybe didn't know existed. I remember the first time someone told me you could run 50 miles. I didn’t believe them. This can give people something to believe in.
CBC Sports is going all-in on talking to Canadian athletes right now
🍁CBC Sports profiled sprinter Andre De Grasse, looking back at 2016 and forward to 202(1). They talked to him about racing Usain Bolt at the 2016 Games in Rio and also talked to him about balancing training and raising his daughter and stepson while locked down. I appreciate how open Andre De Grasse is about fatherhood and how it intersects with his training because it’s something women are asked about all the time and men are asked about very rarely.
Like most people right now, the majority of De Grasse's time is being spent inside in an effort to help fight the spread of the coronavirus, but he has found ways to pass the time with his kids.
“I play puzzles with them, some board games, card games, just random stuff like that,” De Grasse said. “And of course when they're watching Netflix or watching Disney Plus, that's when I'm just chilling and watching the stuff with them. Yesterday they watched Frozen, this morning they were watching Lion King.”
With most of his daily schedule dedicated to his kids, De Grasse has to seize training opportunities whenever they present themselves.
“When they're taking a nap, that's when I try to do some training myself,” De Grasse said.
🍁 CBC Sports did a two-part video series about sprinter Aaron Brown and his road to the Tokyo Olympics. It’s a 15-minute profile that looks at Aaron’s training, why he got married in the middle of an Olympic training cycle and how he stays grounded and committed. It was filmed and released before the announced Olympics delay, but it’s still an interesting slice of life of an elite athlete. You can watch here: Part 1, Part 2.
🍁They talked to decathlete Damian Warner about the delay and how Damian still has one colour medal to acquire at an international meet: gold. While locked down, he can’t practice his jumps or throws, but he can stay in shape, rehab his injuries and run:
Coming off his bronze-medal performance at the 2019 world athletics championships in Qatar, Warner was feeling good heading into 2020. He'd sprained each of his ankles in the 12 months ahead of worlds, but recovered to be in the best shape of his life as he began gearing up for Tokyo.
“I think I'll just be a little bit healthier with one more year I imagine,” Warner said. “From last year to this year my discus and shot put improved... so if I take another year to continue to hone and continue to improve those skills, I think they can be even better next year.”
🍁 Steeplechaser Matt Hughes used to train with the Bowerman Track Club, but decided to return to Canada last year after struggling with injuries for two years. He qualified for the Olympics in the steeplechase last summer and surprised himself by qualifying for the 5,000m in February of this year. Now, instead of looking at potentially retiring, he’s going at going after the double in Tokyo:
“It was kind of in the back of my mind that I could hit it. I've been a little skittish to think that the last couple of years,” said Hughes, whose time of 13:13.38 at the Boston Last Chance meet is a personal-best indoors. His 13:19.56 outdoor PB was set May 2, 2015 at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. "I stayed with the lead guys and it ended up being a really good race.
“It showed me and showed my [new] coach [Dave Reid] that maybe the best days aren't behind me but right in front of me. It gave me the confidence and, more importantly, the belief that I think I can still compete with the best guys in the world on my best day.”
🍁CBC Sports talked to both Dayna Pidhoresky and Kinsey Middleton for this roundup of athletes trying to see the positive in the Olympic postponement:
Pidhoresky, who automatically qualified for her first Olympics as the top Canadian women's finisher at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in October, is waiting to see how her right soleus tendon, which is inflamed where it attaches to the tibia, or shin bone, responds to medication. Husband and coach Josh Seifarth tweeted out a progress report on the weekend.
Middleton, a native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho who holds dual citizenship as her mother was born in Guelph, Ont., experienced tendinitis in one of her shins during a hill workout in early March. The 27-year-old has yet to qualify for Tokyo in either the 10,000 metres or marathon.
Strides: links I liked
🇨🇦Ana Laura Fray ran a PB of 2:59:24 in a DIY marathon, running 42 1K loops around her neighbourhood. She talked to Canadian Running about it.
📚Becky Wade rounded up the running books coming out in 2020 to watch for in Runner’s World.
👟World Athletics president Sebastian Coe talked to Track & Field News about the state of the sport during a time of COVID-19. It covers a ton of stuff: suspending the qualification period, the Olympic delays, moving the world championships to 2022, and more. Read part one here and part two here.
🇬🇷 Alexi Pappas wrote about why she thinks delaying the Olympics was the right call and how she got stuck training in Greece indefinitely because of various lockdowns and travel restrictions for the Atlantic.
🎧 David Latt, the 44-year-old New York City lawyer and marathon runner who was all over my Twitter feed because he got a terrible case of COVID-19 and ended up on a ventilator shared his experience with CBC Radio’s Day 6.
🎧American marathoner Emma Bates believes she had COVID-19 (she apparently wasn’t eligible for testing) and talked about her experience and running the U.S. marathon trials on the FloTrack podcast.
📺Stephen Andersen, who writes the blog Running in Canada, hosted a Zoom Q&A with Canadian marathon record holder Malindi Elmore and posted it on YouTube:
Andersen’s next Q&A will be with Reid Coolsaet on April 16 at 8 PM ET.
🏡I made a Canadian running version of the quarantine house meme. Which house would you pick?
That’s it for this week!
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Thanks for reading. Keep on running (alone) and stay safe.
We’ll see you next week.