The top 10 moments in Canadian running in 2020
Good stuff happened this year! Really!
Hello!
2020, what a year.
We were supposed to watch six major marathons — two of which were having major milestones (London is 40 and NYC is 50), watch Canadians duke to out to qualify for the Olympics and watch an Olympics where Canada would be sending several legit medal contenders.
Instead, we got a pandemic, months of being locked down, uncertain of what the future held. The Olympics got postponed to 2021. (Kudos to Canada for taking the lead on that.) Marathons all over the world were cancelled. Boston went virtual. London went elite-only. When it became apparent that the future held makeshift and modified racing opportunities and elite-only events, people turned up. Covid cases kept rising, but people kept finding ways to run, to race, and to connect.
It feels weird to be doing a countdown of the top moments in Canadian running in 2020. But there was running this year, even though it didn’t look the same. So we might as well do a countdown and celebrate the great moments we did have.
Let’s get to it!
10. Canadian national 10K championship going virtual
The Canadian 10K championships are usually held during Ottawa Race Weekend. Ottawa had big plans, hiring Dylan Wykes as their elite coordinator and focusing on bringing in quality Canadian talent. When the pandemic hit, Ottawa Race Weekend went virtual. It looked like the national championships weren’t going to happen. But the organizers decided to pivot and try something new: the race would be virtual. Participants could run the 10K course of their choice (with a few rules), track their race accordingly. Fastest participants wins. And it was fitting it took place on Canada Day.
While I wish some more coordination had taken place to make watching this a bit easier, it was fun to follow online that day. Justin Kent and Natasha Wodak ended up taking the crowns, in 28:52 and 32:41 respectively.
It was a good reminder that we can still do fun, challenging things in sport, even with so much uncertainty around us.
🎧 Listen to this: Natasha did a lot of podcasts this year, but let’s start with her chat on Women Run Canada. Justin chatted about his uncertain year on The Terminal Mile.
9. Canadian Terri Biloski was first overall finisher of the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee 1000K summer race
This summer, when spring races had been cancelled and fall races felt uncertain, one event popped up that dominated the running space: the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee. The virtual event, created by Lazarus Lake, was simple in concept: you had all summer to run the distance across Tennessee. 1022K in 123 days. It worked out of just over 8K a day. More than 18,000 signed up, including several top ultrarunners.
Terri Biloski, an ultrarunner from St. Thomas, Ont., was the first to complete the full 1022K. She did it in 11 days, 20 hours and 58 minutes.
As the race continued throughout the summer, the issues surrounding the lack of diversity and inclusion in running, ultrarunning and how Laz himself contributes to this space not being welcoming became apparent.
Despite this, I still think Terri’s accomplishment is worth celebrating. We can all do the work to make running a more welcoming space and call out people and events (like GVRAT and Laz) that could do better while acknowledging accomplishments within those spaces.
🎧 Listen to this: Terri talked about her GVRAT journey and her ultrarunning career on The Inspirational Runner.
8. Rory Linkletter running second fastest all-time Canadian half-marathon
Rory Linkletter, the Canadian pro who trains with NAZ Elite, did an unusual thing when he debuted in the marathon (in Toronto in 2019) before running a competitive half-marathon. He finally tackled that distance in January 2020 in Houston, where he ran 1:01:44. That time was a mere 16 seconds off the Canadian half-marathon record, which was set by Jeff Schiebler in 1999, and the second fast half-marathon time ever run by a Canadian man.
It was a stunning debut for the 24-year-old, who decided to focus on distance running after graduating from Brigham Young University. He finished his year by improving his marathon time by 4 minutes, running 2:12:54 at the Marathon Project.
🎧 Listen to this: Rory got specific about his Houston run on The Shakeout podcast in January, but if you want to know more bout his running story generally, he was recently on I’ll Have Another.
7. Natasha Wodak breaking the Canadian half-marathon record and becoming the first Canadian woman to break 70….
Houston 2020 was a big weekend for Canadians. While Rory almost nabbed the Canadian men’s record, Natasha Wodak crushed the Canadian women’s record. Natasha ran 1:09:41 to become the first Canadian woman to break 70 minutes in the half-marathon. She broke Rachel Cliff’s four-week-old record in the process.
This was a record Natasha has wanted for a long time, and it was so satisfying to see her achieve it. It was a sign of a big year for Natasha, despite all the uncertainty and lack of racing 2020 brought.
🎧 Listen to this: Right after Houston, Natasha was on I’ll Have Another.
6. …Only to have Andrea Seccafien top her 2 weeks later
But Natasha’s glory didn’t last long! The Canadian women’s half-marathon record was broken for the third time in seven weeks when Andrea Seccafien — a Canadian who lives and trains in Australia — ran 1:09:39 in Marugame, Japan, to break Natasha’s brand new record by two seconds. It was Andrea’s second attempt at the half distance, after debuting in 2018.
She finished 2020 with her third half, notching 1:11:39 to break the tape at a race in Australia.
🎧 Listen to this: Andrea was on Women Run Canada this summer, discussing her entire career, why she’s in Australia and what it was like to earn this record.
5. Tristan Woodfine running 2:10:51 at the London marathon
Tristan Woodfine has been steadily improving at the marathon, dropping a few minutes off his PB every time he runs the distance. The 27-year-old had the breakthrough he was looking for when he ran 2:10:51 at the elite-only London marathon on Oct. 4 to qualify for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. The time is even more impressive when you factor in the conditions: it was cold and rainy and they ran a one-mile loop around St. James Park in London. Tristan became the second Canadian man to earn an Olympic standard (behind Trevor Hofbauer). But the conversation of who will be named to the team got a lot more interesting by the end of the year…
🎧 Listen to this: After London, Tristan did a big podcast tour. He talked mostly about London on the Shakeout podcast and the Terminal Mile, but did a deeper dive into his whole story on I’ll Have Another.
4. Ben Preisner running fourth fastest Canadian men’s marathon ever in his debut at the Marathon Project
Because on Dec. 20, Ben Preisner ran 2:10:17 in his marathon debut at the Marathon Project to become the third Canadian man to earn the Olympic standard. The time also put Ben in fourth on Canada’s all-time marathon list.
Ben is 24 years old and jumped to distance running straight away in his career. He won a handful of half-marathons, including Vancouver and Toronto, before deciding to turn his attention to the marathon distance this year.
The Marathon Project was Ben’s first true marathon. He as set to make his debut in London in the spring. But when COVID meant London got postponed until October, Ben decided to run a marathon time trial, which he completed in 2:15:24. This showed Ben had what it took to run a great marathon and he delivered when the time came.
🎧 Listen to this: The XC talked to Ben right before and right after the Marathon Project.
3. Natasha Wodak returning to the marathon to run the second fastest Canadian women’s time ever
With 2020 cancelling so many races and postponing the Olympics, Natasha Wodak decided to give the marathon another try — she hadn’t run the distance since 2013. The lack of racing opportunities combined with the emergence of several women in the marathon — both in Canada and the U.S. — had Natasha asking the question: how good could she be at 42.2K, before she got too old to find out?
On Dec. 20, at the Marathon Project, we all found out: really damn good.
She ran 2:26:19 to finish fifth. The time is almost a nine-minute PB and the second fastest marathon ever run by a Canadian woman, behind….
🎧 Listen to this: Natasha talked about moving up to the marathon during training with the Shakeout podcast. She talked about the race itself with The XC right after.
2. Malindi Elmore kicking off 2020 by breaking the Canadian women’s marathon record
2020 was bookended by two great marathon performances by Canadian women. Natasha ended the year with the #2 all-time run, and Malindi Elmore began it with #1. Malindi ran 2:24:50 at Houston in January, placing third overall in the race and smashing Rachel Cliff’s 10-month-old record of 2:26:56.
Houston 2020 was Malindi’s second marathon, and put her in the mix to be named to the Canadian Olympic marathon team — if she is, it will be her second time going to the Olympics. She first went in 2004, when she represented Canada in the 1,500m.
🎧 Listen to this: Malindi did a lot of podcasts in the wake of her record, but I really enjoyed her on Player’s Own Voice and Clean Sport Collective because they told her story but also brought new things to the table.
1. Moh Ahmed running the 10th fastest world all-time men’s 5,000m time in an intrasquad meet this summer
The Canadian performance of the year goes to Moh Ahmed. The 29-year-old trains with the Bowerman Track Club in Oregon. When races got cancelled and the Olymics were postponed, the BTC decided to put on a few intrasquad meets. Their team got after it, with national and world records falling pretty much every time they got together.
Moh had the performance of BTC (and of Canadian running) when he dropped a 12:47 in the 5,000m. The time broke his own Canadian record, broke the North American record, became the fastest 5,000m run on U.S. soil and put him in the 10th spot on the world all-time 5,000m list. (He’s since dropped to 11th, when Joshua Cheptegei broke the world record in August.)
🎧 Listen to this: Moh had a great and wide-ranging conversation about his life on I’ll Have Another shortly after he ran his 12:47.
Strides: other stuff to listen to, watch and know about
🎧 Canadian Calum Neff paced Sara Hall last week at the Marathon Project. He was on the Ali on the Run Show to share that experience. He also talked stroller running (he owns three world records), balancing family life and working in the oil industry with his running goals.
🦠 It sucks to tell you that one of the Marathon Project participants tested positive for Covid after the race, according to Let’s Run. So far it seems to be an isolated incident, and let’s hope it stays that way.
🛑 The Millrose Games, the indoor track meet held every winter in New York, has been cancelled for 2021. A handful of Canadians usually compete in it every year.
🚩 SportsNet talked to Corey Bellemore about why he spoke out about his disordered eating and did a deeper dive into eating disorders in male athletes.
🗓 SportsNet also talked to Andre De Grasse about how he handled 2020 and what he’s looking forward to in 2021.
🎧 Canadian sports science writer Alex Hutchinson was on The Morning Shakeout podcast. He talked about writing, running and pursuing his passions for both. He also talked about the concept of endurance, why he wrote a book about it, and what the every day runner can learn from it.
That’s it for this week!
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I will be taking a break next week, so there will be no Run the North issue on Jan. 4.
The next issue will drop on Jan. 11. And it’s issue #100, so I have something special planned.
Happy holidays!
Thanks for reading, keep on running and stay safe.