Former running prodigy Megan Brown shares what happened to her when she was coached by Dave Scott-Thomas
It's time to #fixgirlssports. And maybe blow the whole thing up in the process.
Hello!
There was a technical glitch last week and some of you received Run the North three times. I am sorry about that, and believe the problem is sorted out.
This week, Michael Doyle busts open one of the biggest cases of abuse in Canadian running. It’s the first bit in this newsletter, and if that kind of content triggers you, please keep scrolling. If you can handle it, it’s a must-read piece.
After that, I recap the Canadian results at the Millrose Games in New York and share some odds and ends from the running world in Canada and beyond.
Let’s get to it.
Megan Brown shares her story of sexual abuse under Guelph/Speed River coach Dave Scott-Thomas
Michael Doyle, writing for the Globe and Mail, has laid out a stunning and disturbing case against Dave Scott-Thomas, the once all-powerful running roach at the University of Guelph and Speed River Track Club in Guelph, Ont.
Under his leadership, Guelph became the most dominant running program in Canada. He also coached several Olympians, including Reid Coolsaet and Krista DuChene. And while he was doing that, he encouraged a “win at all costs” attitude and cultivated “an increasingly negative sporting environment.”
But that’s just the beginning.
Megan’s story is heartbreaking and deeply upsetting. Scott-Thomas “groomed her for a sexual relationship” after he discovered her as an up-and-coming runner and began to coach her in the early 2000s. It began when she was 16 years old and ended after left the University of Guelph after one semester. I’ll spare the details here, they are all in the article, which you should read if you are able.
“So many people wrote me off as a crazy athlete who was obsessed with her coach,” Ms. Brown said of the whispers that enveloped her during her time in running. “In actuality, I was a teenager who was deeply traumatized by the situation my coach put me in.”
According to the Globe and Mail, Athletics Canada and the University of Guelph were made aware of what was going on more than 10 years ago, when Megan’s father went to both organizations in 2006. Scott-Thomas kept his job and continued to be selected to coach national teams.
Dave’s constant presence at the collegiate and national running scene derailed Megan’s running career and destroyed her mental health.
He was finally fired in late 2019, when another athlete filed a complaint and the Globe went to the university with their investigation.
Megan is now 35, has a family and lives in B.C. She said she was inspired to share her story because of Mary Cain, who shared her own story about emotional and physical abuse while she was training with Alberto Salazar.
“This is how abuse of power works — the one in a place of power stays protected by the victim because the victim has too much to lose in speaking the truth,” she said. “The victim is the one who suffers, who is ostracized, who is labelled, who is forced to rebuild their life, while the person in power continues to reap the benefits of their power.
“If I had nothing to lose, Dave wouldn’t have had this kind of power over me. And that’s why I’m finally ready to share the truth.”
Several elite athletes have spoken out in support of Megan and/or sharing their disgust with the institutions involved, including Natasha Wodak, Leslie Sexton, Lauren Fleshman, Malindi Elmore, Sasha Gollish, Kara Goucher, Krista DuChene, Reid Coolsaet, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and Mary Cain herself.
It takes a tremendous amount of bravery and personal sacrifice to come forward with a story like this.
Believe Megan. Believe survivors. Listen, and fight for change.
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford breaks two Canadian records at Millrose Games
The Millrose Games, an indoor track & field meet, took place in New York on Saturday.
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford placed fourth in the mile, running 4:19.73, which broke her own national record. Along the way, her 1,500m split was 4:00.8, which is also a national record. Her previous indoor mile record was 4:24.80. These are the ninth and 10th national records Gabriela has broken since moving to Scotland to train.
All three of the runners who beat Gabriela — American Elle Purrier, German Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Brit Jemma Reekie — broke national records with their performances.
Justyn Knight won the 3,000m, running 7:46.36. It was a dominant race for the Rebook athlete, as you can see from the photo above. Justyn won the mile at the Dr. Sander Invitational a few weeks ago, so he’s fit and ready to perform this year.
Julie-Anne Staehli placed second in the 3,000m, running 8:49.01. American Allie Ostander just beat her to the tape by a breath. The time was one second off Julie-Anne’s personal best. Fellow Canadians Regan Yee and Jessica O’Connell were in the race too. Regan placed eighth in 8:57.84, a personal best for her, and Jessica stepped off the track early on to DNF.
Julie-Anne has had a strong start to 2020, she recently ran within seconds of the Canadian record in this week at a meet in Boston. The Millrose performance was only a second off that. Julie-Anne lives and trains in London, Ont., where she is a student at Western University, alongside her partner Chris Balestrini. She also is an assistant coach for the men’s cross-country team.
You can see the complete results from the Millrose Games here.
Three Canadian men finish in top 15 at Mesa half-marathon
Several Canadians used the Mesa half-marathon as a tune-up race. They’ve been training in Flagstaff, and according to Kevin Coffey, the race was just a workout for the Canadians. They ran 8 miles afterward:
Ben Preisner placed fourth in 1:04:16. Ben is running the London marathon in April, his first attempt at the distance. Ben graduated from University of Tulsa last year and has been tearing up the Canadian road racing scene ever since. The 23-year-old won the Vancouver and Toronto half-marathons last year.
Kevin Coffey placed eighth in 1:05:49, a personal best for him. Kevin just ran the Houstn half in January, running a then personal best of 1:05:53. So Kevin is getting fitter. Kevin is a coach with Mile2Marathon and ran the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last October.
Trevor Hofbauer placed 11th in 1:0742. Trevor is the only Canadian male with the Olympic standard, having won the Canadian marathon championships in October in 2:09:51.
Ottawa race weekend doubles prize purse for 10K, hires Dylan Wykes as elite race coordinator
Ottawa Race Weekend, which includes the Ottawa marathon, half-marathon and 10K, announced several big changes this weekend.
The first is that they hired Dylan Wykes as their elite athlete coordinator.
Dylan represented Canada in the 2012 Olympics in the marathon. After failing to make the 2016 Olympic team, he took a few years off and focused on coaching. he co-founded Mile2Marathon, one of the biggest and most successful coaching groups in the country. He returned to competitive road racing last year after moving to Ottawa, winning the Canadian 10K championship. He returned to the marathon in Toronto last fall and is the lone Canadian elite man running Boston this year.
“The road racing scene in Canada is on fire right now with records being set in all distances. Not only are Canadian’s running faster than ever, the athletes doing so also have great stories that we want to help share with the running community,” Dylan said in the press release. “As the Canadian 10K championships, we are really looking forward to dedicating more resources towards attracting Canada’s top runners to Ottawa and putting on a great show for our spectators and runners.”
I’m excited to see how this new focus on Canadians enhances the Ottawa 10K.
The second change has to do with the 10K race, which doubles as the Canadian 10K championships. They are doubling the prize money. The prize purse is now $35,000, the biggest purse for a Canadian race.
The top Canadian male and Canadian female runner will each take home $6,000. The race will also maintain its gender challenge, where the men start later than the women and the first across the finish line, regardless of gender, takes home an additional $2,000.
The top 10 Canadians will all take home prize money.
They also dropped the gold label status for the 10K, which is earned through a variety of factors, including the elite field, road closures, environmental impact, how the race is timed and measured, and more. By dropping this label, they freed up more resources to make the race better for Canadians, the press release says. The marathon will maintain its gold label status.
You can read the full press release here.
Lanni Marchant was on the Women Run Canada podcast
Lanni Marchant is the former Canadian marathon record holder. She represented Canada in the 2016 Olympics, competing in both the 10,000m and the marathon. But ever since that year (in which she also raced the New York City marathon and placed seventh), she’s struggled with illness and injury. She’s gone through three surgeries and is finally on the comeback.
In this Women Run Canada episode, they talk about Lanni’s injury struggles, and how her mental health was impacted by it all, why Lanni keeps speaking out, how she fell in love with running and more.
Lanni is on the mend and plans to go for the Olympic marathon standard sometime this spring. She has not yet announced a race and plans to see how her tune-up runs go before committing to a specific 42.2.
Boston marathon makes changes to elite starts
The Boston marathon revealed their elite and wave start times this week, and there’s a major change: the elite women will start after the elite men.
The women have started before the men since 2004. That move, which was intimated by the New York City marathon and then quickly copied by several races, was designed to give the women’s race more media exposure and also ensure the women could truly race each other. When they started at the same time as the men, it was harder for competitors to see each other alongside the men running similar paces.
The change, with the women starting right minutes behind the men, does a few things. 1) it’s a safety measure, as slower women were being passed by the lead men and all the vehicles that come with it. On the narrow Boston streets, this could get dangerous. 2) it enables media to cover the women’s race more comprehensively, as the men’s race will be cover with substantial time left in the women’s race. 3) It should mean more spectators on the course for the women’s race. And 4) It allows for a para athletics elite start, a new division. Boston is the first world major to introduce this division, and the 2020 race is serving as a selection race for the Paralympic Games.
You can read the press release about the new start times here.
You can read the press release about the elite para athlete division here.
Andrea Seccafien taking on the 10,000m
Andrea Seccafien, the 5,000m specialist who broke the Canadian half-marathon record last week, has announced that she’s focusing on a new distance for 2020: the 10,000m. Andrea told Canadian Running that the 5,000m in Canada is too competitive right now. Plus she has her sights on eventually moving up to the marathon. So focusing on the 10,000m seems to be her best pathway to the Olympic Games and sets her up for a jump to 42.2K in 2021.
The 29-year-old was an Olympian in 2016, competing in the 5,000m. Last year, she represented Canada at the world cross-country championships, at the PanAm Games and at the world championships.
Andrea is from Guelph, Ont., but now lives and trains in Australia with the Melbourne Track Club. She moved there in 2017 because her partner was offered a postdoctoral fellowship, and she thought a change would serve her training.
You can read the full article here.
Malindi Elmore was on the Zwift PowerUp Tri podcast
Malindi Elmore, the current Canadian marathon record holder, was on the Zwift PowerUp Tri podcast, which covers multisport events, primarily triathlons.
They spoke to Malindi because before her marathon career (but after her 1,500m career) she was a competitive triathlete and completed two Ironmans.
In the episode, Malindi talks about how her experience doing multisport events set her up for her current marathon success. It’s a great reminder that you should follow your own path, and that everything can be used to set up future successful in surprising ways.
That’s it for this week!
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