Half-marathons, but fully awesome performances
Rachel Cliff runs fast in Marugame, Melanie Myrand wins in Miami
Rachel Cliff places 5th at Marugame half-marathon
Rachel Cliff, who holds the Canadian half-marathon record, ran 70:28, good enough for 5th place, at the Marugame half-marathon in Japan. It was only 20 seconds off her PB and the current Canadian record of 1:10:08, which Rachel set last year at the Woodlands half-marathon. It’s the second-fastest half-marathon time ever run by a Canadian woman. It’s also really damn close to what Natasha Wodak ran two weeks ago in Houston — Cliff was faster by 5 seconds. Things are getting fun at every distance in Canadian women’s running this year, and the year’s barely started.
Melanie Myrand wins Miami half-marathon
I missed this last week, but Canadian Melanie Myrand won the Miami half-marathon on Jan. 27 in a time of 1:19:12. Myrand, who ran a huge PB to finish as the top Canadian at Chicago in 2018, said that her Miami result was “not a time that blew my socks” on Instagram. Her half PB is 1:15:50, which she ran in Houston in 2018.
Myrand is definitely a name that should be in the mix when discussing Canadian women marathoning — her Chicago time of 2:34:08 was the 4th best Canadian women’s marathon time last year, after Rachel Cliff, Lindsey Tessier and Kinsey Middleton. Both Sasha Gollish and Malindi Elmore have already run faster in 2019. I am excited for the showdown that will be making the Tokyo 2020 team.
More Malindi Elmore coverage
The world can’t get enough of Malindi Elmore it seems. The Canadian who crushed her debut in Houston was on Carrie Tollefson’s podcast and spoke to Women’s Running about her breakthrough performance.
She was also on the Trackie podcast, alongside Tristan Woodfine, the top male Canadian at Houston.
Lessons from Sasha Gollish
Sasha Gollish tweeted some big lessons she’s learned from her debut marathon in Houston. I’m embedding them here because they are good. You can follow Sasha on Twitter at @SGollishRuns.
She also wrote about her Houston experience on the Oiselle blog. Oiselle sponsors Gollish.
The Donovan Bailey Experience
TSN has a new docu-series Engraved on a Nation — basically a Canadian version of ESPN’s 30 for 30.
The first episode premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 6 and features Donovan Bailey.
Th other episodes look at 1997, when race car driver Jacques Villeneuve was named Canadian athlete of the year over baseball player Larry Walker; Maya Farrell’s attempt to swim across Lake Ontario; Toronto FC’s fandom; Kenny Omega, apparently the best wrestler we’ve never heard of (I know I haven’t); and the Canada-U.S. women’s hockey rivalry.
Strides: Links I liked and think you will too
This video came out in December, but I just saw it, so including it here: Alex Cyr and Nick Falk recapped 2018 in Canadian running in song.
Pole vaulter Alysha Newman broke her own indoor Canadian record at the meet in Germany, clearing 4.71 metres.
Gabriela Stafford talks to Canadian Running about how she manages her race-day anxiety.
The Cabot Trail Relay teams have been announced. Winner for best team name goes to Not Fast but Kinda Furious. The race takes place May 25-26, 2019.
This awesome runner adopted an abandoned dog after a workout.
And this awesome runner adopted an abandoned puppy in the middle of her marathon.
This video of a volunteer helping a man finish his first marathon has been allllll over my Facebook feed lately. Including it here because this particular incident happened at the 2017 Edmonton marathon.
That’s it for this week! Send any questions, comments, concerns, ideas, feedback, whatever, to runthenorthnews@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading & keep on running!