It was a beautiful day in Toronto today for more than 20,000 runners, but no one was happier than Trevor Hofbauer and Dayna Pidhoresky, both who ran the marathon fast enough to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“I feel like I’ve had that in me for years,” says Pidhoresky, a 32-year-old long distance runner and familiar face around Canadian races.
Pidhoresky has won Around the Bay three times, and ran the Ottawa Marathon, but her 2:29:03 this morning will send her to the Olympic Games.
In the men’s field, Trevor Hofbauer was your first Canadian, earning the automatic berth to the Olympics. His finishing time was 2:09:51, and the Canadian runners up were Tristan Woodfine, Cam Levins and Reid Coolsaet.
“I wanted to do this for everybody back home,” said Hofbauer, who was the first Canadian winner two years ago. Last year, the first Canadian finisher was Cam Levins, who also broke the Canadian record.
In other big news, Philemon Rono finished the marathon in 2:05, becoming the fastest marathon finisher of all-time on Canadian soil. And first overall for the women was Kenya’s Magdaleine Masai Robertson, who finished in 2:22:09.
It was a beautiful day for racing. A beautiful day for so many runners. And congratulations to everyone, to Trevor, to Dayna, and whoever else did something difficult today.
Well run.
