The first time I ran the Ottawa Marathon: #45for45

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August 28, 2018

Ottawa MarathonMay 24 2015 — Ottawa Marathon May 24 2015 © Photo by Francois Laplante / Rémi Theriault

On September 1, registration begins for the Ottawa Marathon, the largest race in Canada and an event celebrating its 45th birthday. As tribute, we’re collecting stories—forty-five of them—of your recollections from race weekend. Qualify for Boston? Hit a PB? Meet your partner? Make your triumphant return to running, catch a glorious rainbow, meet Krista DuChene? Let us know, we’re going to be publishing our favourites between now and the end of September. It’s an exciting time as race weekend beckons. . .

I remember my first race in Ottawa, it was my first time visiting the nation’s capital and first time meeting Mark Sutcliffe and my Sportstats employers. I started at iRun in November, 2013, and worked remotely from Toronto until race weekend, 2014. Mark picked me up from the airport and I saw Carleton University for the first time and began meeting our community at the race expo. I was taken aback by the heights of passion for our shared culture—not just racing, just running, but the inclusiveness of the group. Runners wanted to talk to one another. People had ideas. Everyone had a story. Few of us get into running to lose weight or get some fresh air. We have our reasons, and many of the stories were moving. Inspiring. I felt swept up into something bigger than me, and took seriously my responsibility to channel these emotions into a singular product—something that could convey what running means to this disparate group.

The marathon was Sunday morning and I’d been a relatively experienced racer. I ran Boston in 2012 and had written a running book, so I knew my way around a water station. However, Ottawa, through the new lens of iRun, where Sportstats and Mark are both based, felt important. I went to high school in Washington D.C., and obviously there are parallels. The grandeur (for most people) seems to inspire our better angels. The weather was warm. The course was beautiful. The crowd was thunderous. And, racing around the capital in an oversized iRun t-shirt, I was a stranger in town and already accepted—because of Mark’s legacy—like a native son. Racers felt connected to the brand. And I felt connected to the city. To the race. I would stay in Toronto, but I haven’t missed an Ottawa Marathon Race Weekend since my first one, and I’ll be there again this spring. It’s not really my times that are important (although I will say, #humblebrag, that it was last year’s Ottawa that I qualified for Boston).

The Ottawa Marathon is singular in Canada. Singular in the world. And not just for me, but for the 40,000 racers who participate every year and bring their differing backgrounds to the starting line. But one thing is for certain: in Ottawa, on race weekend, none of us, ever, are alone.

So share your story and make your voice heard. Why do you run Ottawa? What have you done there, what have you felt? Use the hashtag #45for45 and be part of the celebration. This is your race. Be heard.

Great Balls of Fire: Joggling Officer Chases Records Across Canada

By

Ravi Singh

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August 27, 2018

Halifax is hilly. I’ve been told this is a key challenge of running in the Nova Scotia capital.

Since 2014, Naval Officer and Halifax resident Michael Bergeron has added the challenge of juggling to his training and racing throughout the Maritimes and across Canada.

Now a 10K record holder in the discipline of “joggling,” Michael admits he’s always a bit jealous when he sees friendly rivals post fast times on flat courses.

In October, Michael will have his chance when he takes on the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon, where he and Graydon Snyder will face off in attempt to best Michal Kapral’s current half marathon joggling record of 1:20:40. Bergeron was only ten seconds off that record this past May in Fredericton.

Michael says he hopes that Toronto’s flat terrain and healthy amount of pacers and crowd support will give him the momentum he needs to further assert his joggling supremacy. Racing a friendly rival also often brings out one’s best. Snyder and Bergeron faced off in the 5K at the 2016 Blue Nose Marathon Weekend. Bergeron says, “That was my first race with another joggler and unfortunately I blew up. He [Snyder] did 17:30 and I did 18:50.”

Running became part of Michael’s life at the age of 13 when he competed in track and cross country. Juggling came around the same time when he attended circus camp, gradually working his way up from bean bags to bowling pins, swords, and torches.

The idea of combining the two didn’t occur to Michael until 2014, when a friend sent him a photo via Facebook of another “joggler” and challenged him to combine his excellent pedigree in both disciplines.

“The first race I joggled was the Navy 5K in Halifax, but up until that morning I hadn’t decided if I was going to just run it or juggle as well.” Michael came away from that race with a 19:47 and only one drop. The time was also good enough for fourth overall.

Bergeron describes 2018 as the year speed came together. “I work from a regular plan and do all my speed work without the balls, which I only use on my easy run days,” Michael says. He adds, “I used to use them a lot more, but found that once I left them behind I was making more breakthroughs in pacing.”

The plan was to take that work into the Navy 10K and get as close to the record as possible.

“We started the race a bit fast with 3:20 splits, which put us on pace for a 34:00 finish,” Michael explains. “At around 5K when we settled into a steady 3:30, I started to believe that I could do it but my pacer told me I was going too slow.”

Entering the second half of the race with a 17:37 5K split, Michael was 50 seconds ahead of the record and began to increase his speed, anticipating an slowdown at the uphill 7-8 km stretch. At 8K, “We had about a minute of breathing room.” Michael would coast to a 35:36 finish, the overall win, and a new 10K joggling record, besting the previous standard by 50 seconds.

The reactions when Michael is spotted on one of his training runs, he says, are one of two extremes. “Either people say that it inspires them or makes them want to stop running altogether,” he says with a laugh.

Perhaps it’s not the most encouraging thing to eat the dust of a guy simultaneously performing two tasks that require rigorous training and practice, but Michael hopes that’s all outweighed by the extra entertainment and interest joggling can bring to running as a whole.

It’s a fool’s game to predict whether or not Bergeron’s achievements and the subsequent media attention indicates that joggling will catch on further. But the fact that Bergeron will continue to chase records, and do so by competing with a healthy rival at a big city race, is perhaps at least an illustration that running and the accompanying pursuit of excellence that comes with can always finds new ways to express itself. If it does so in a way that brings more attention to the sport and that entertainment factor that Bergeron describes, then we can at least we can have certainty that it’s great for running.

The Return of (Race Mode) Krista DuChene

By

Ben Kaplan

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August 27, 2018

It’s been a wonderful summer, one of my favourites in fact, but eventually all good things must come to and end. September seemed like years ago, but is now just around the corner. Sigh. You can read more about my summer cabin life here. It was absolutely everything I hoped it would be. Our family found a good balance between life at home and life at the cabin. I completed my workouts and higher volume at home then headed to the cabin with the kids each Wednesday to Friday. I could rest and relax, logging fewer and easier kilometres, while we enjoyed our precious time with my sister and her three kids. The kids just love spending time with their cousins (also two boys and one girl) and my sister and I cherish the quality time we get in our quiet two months of the year.

Last weekend I travelled to Edmonton where I finally competed in the half marathon, a race I had planned to do a few other times but didn’t due to injury (2015, 2017). Competition was going to be strong with elite Canadians including Rachel Cliff, Dayna Pidhoresky, Rachel Hannah, Emily Tallen and Catherine Watkins. The biggest concern was the air quality due to the forest fires in British Columbia, but after a bit of rain, the rating improved and race day was a go. Like other races in a marathon build, I was not going for a personal best, rather a solid effort. Right from my first kilometre I knew it was not going to be a fast one. At all. I’m not one to overthink things and dwell on slow times but I think I’m simply a sucker, even at the slightest bit of elevation. I realize Edmonton isn’t that high and I’m not that deprived of oxygen, but yikes, a 1:18? I think I was more capable of 1:16, but reflected on my 2016 year with a 1:16 in Calgary in May after my 1:12 in Montreal in April when preparing for the Olympic Games. When I returned to Ontario, Coach Dave gave me a lower volume week to ensure I was fully recovered from the race, the travel and the solid 170K week I had completed a week before race day.

Today I was happy to give a solid 70 minutes at marathon pace effort with running friends, Mitch, Rachel, Tanis and Rob. Just last month I failed to keep Mitch and Rachel in view, but today I succeeded. Dave K. was a great support on fuel stations and a wonderful encouragement to all of us. We replenished with recovery drinks and stretched while Rachel Hannah finished her longest marathon-paced workout in her build to Berlin. It’s been encouraging to see Rachel’s build, five weeks ahead of mine; a reminder that with consistency and good health, everything will come together. I’m excited to see her run a smart and strong race in Germany on September 16. After we snapped a quick group shot we chatted and later texted about how much we’ve enjoyed training together.

Right now I’m trapped under our gazebo with the rain pouring down, happy that we weren’t drudging through it this morning, and grateful for this life of faith, family, friends and running. After achieving the summer what I had hoped for, and even with a bit of uncertainty ahead as I take on the task of coaching my daughter’s rep hockey team, I am confident that in eight weeks I will have one of my best experiences at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

iRun Radio – August 26th, 2018

By

Why I Run

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August 27, 2018

Tim Powers has completed the Inca Trail Marathon and 30K in Peru, and shares his experience of being captivated by one of the seven wonders of the world. Then Dave Proctor, an ultra marathoner talks about his goal of crossing the country in record time in an effort to raise awareness of rare diseases. Plus, as many runners are getting ready for of the Canada Army Run, we speak with one runner about why everyone

Final Run for the Justice League

By

AttheRaces

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August 24, 2018

It’s been almost five years…nearly five years since I dressed up in black light compression top and bottom, a cape and rubber cowl to run the 2013 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, my first. I never stopped to say, “I’ll do this again and again because it’s cool!” I only expected to do it the one time on that fateful Sunday.

I did that because I wanted to say “thank you” to the Hospital for Sick Kids, a place that (when I was seven years old) saved my life when I had a sudden appendix rupture. I owed them my life, as the doctors told my parents I was near death when the brought me through the ER (and explains why most of that night is a blur). I donated to the foundation over the years but it was never with my own unique way of displaying gratitude.

So deciding to make the SickKids Foundation my charity of choice for my first marathon was a no-brainer; that it would continue for the next half decade and it’s that part which was not in the cards.

After that first race, having people reach out to me through social media with the hopes of creating a team…what? Why? “Because we want to help.” That was deep; the birth of the “Justice League Runners” was so amazing that we’ve done other races around the province, just to put smiles on faces and be an example. How do you even dream that?

Now, here we are – on the verge of the team’s final race together (as well as mine). That we will will gather one last time for the new SuperPower 5k race, among other kids and adults dressed as their favourite superheroes, is very poetic and fitting. I couldn’t be more honoured that I was able to leave a unique stamp on my running career in the city that I love, running for charities that are more heroic than Batman or Superman put together. We as a society, as human beings…we can be more than what separates us, because that what makes us different has the power to unite us. That has never been more important than now; remembering that is make makes a hero super. People can really shine if they were to listen to what Batman once said, “It’s not who I am underneath, but I do that defines me.”

I loved being able to say “I’m Batman” (and not as a punchline). I loved even more that through those races. I was a part of something helping to make a difference. I met so many amazing people, people who are close friends and loved ones. I will carry all those memories for the remainder of my days.

My favourite lines from the “The Dark Knight” film sum up how I have been rewarded for what I did for five years: “Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.” Witnessing the best of the human spirit in marathons, my faith was rewarded many times over. I will miss, but Batman can be anyone – that was the point of what I did. And I can’t wait to see who takes over for me.

Have You Heard: Santa’s Race Needs Your Help

By

AttheRaces

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August 24, 2018

As we all know race day is about so more than about runners crossing finish lines. Its about runners building community, developing healthy lifestyles and supporting one another. Burlington Ontario’s Santa Race, is a 5K event that hits each of those marks, cheering crowds, creating a sense of community and promoting healthy living. So when we found out the 2018 Santa Race need a little extra support behind it, we wanted to get the word out to our iRun community. If you’ve ever participated in this event, you know the incredible experience that it is. For race directors Mark and Kelly Arnott, it’s an event that gives the city of Burlington an opportunity to shine, brining more then 2,000 race parcitipants tot he city each year. Please click here for a survey indicating your support for the race to be held on a Saturday in December. And if you’ve never run the Santa 5K in Burlington, you can learn more about the event and offer your support too. From start to finish, it’s a most wonderful season for runners.

10 Reasons Why You Should Run the SSQ Quebec City Marathon, a healthy invitation from Brunet

By

AttheRaces

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August 21, 2018

Reasons to run in Quebec’s capital are numerous. Considering that, event producer Gestev decided to review the SSQ Quebec City Marathon’s course, formerly on both sides of the St. Lawrence River, and to trace 42.2K directly in the middle of Quebec City. If being part of the first edition of the brand-new course has not convinced you yet to sign up for the event taking place October 12^th to 14^th, here are 10 reasons why you should be part of the SSQ Quebec City Marathon.

1. To see Quebec’s best attractions in one run

Imagine seeing the Château Frontenac, Place Royale, the plains of Abraham, the Old Port, the fortifications, the Parliament Building, and much more, all that, in only one run. This is what awaits the participants of the 42.2K and the half-marathon of the SSQ Quebec City Marathon.

2. Because Quebec’s scenery in fall is to die for

If you have never experienced Quebec City during Fall, this is your chance. The city is famous for its wide green spaces. When they turn red/orange/yellow, it brings magic to the scenery.

3.For a weekend with the family

If you are looking for an occasion to get sporty with the kids, you will be pleased with the SSQ Quebec City Marathon’s program. The SSQ Health 5K and the Kids Race 2K both taking place on Saturday October 13^th are perfect for grandparents, parents and children looking to put on their running shoes together.

4.To qualify for Boston

The Association of International Marathons and Road Races (AIMS) accredits the SSQ Quebec City Marathon. Therefore, times achieved at this event are accepted as qualifying times for the Boston Marathon.

5.To be moved by music and cheering

A brand-new energy and vibe will come with the marathon’s new course. About thirty music and animation stations will be spread out along the 42.2K to entertain spectators and bring motivation to the thousands of participants.

6.Because Fall’s weather is perfect for long distance runs

Let’s be honest here. The outside temperature has a serious impact on your running performance. Average weather in October in Quebec City is about 15˚ Celsius, runners’ favorite forecast.

7.To release stress before your race with the SSQ Fit+Yoga

New this year! The SSQ Fit+Yoga will kick off the marathon’s weekend on Friday night, October 12^th. A big outdoor yoga session combining a 30 minutes fitness training and a 30 minutes Vinyasa flow will be held in the middle of the city, gathering hundreds of yoga aficionados and runners looking for a pre-run stretching. Live DJ music, free drinks and more surprises await the participants.

8.To be part of the first ever edition of the new course

You want to be part of the new course’s history? Sign up and be among the firsts to ever cross the finish line!

9.To run in the middle of one of the UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites

The Historic District of Old Québec is the product of more than four centuries of history. Quebec City is the only North American city to have preserved its ramparts, together with the numerous bastions, gates and defensive works. Because of it’s authenticity and history, it is considered as one of the UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.

10.Because Quebeckers are friendly, welcoming and festive

Everyone who traveled to Quebec City will agree to say that Quebeckers are very welcoming and friendly. Imagine thousands of them out in the streets to cheer you up as you are crossing the finish line… Big adrenaline rush and thrill guaranteed!

So, you want to be part of the celebration this October 12-14^th ? Choose your race among the SSQ Quebec City Marathon, a healthy invitation from Brunet’s five distances and make sure you pack your running shoes.

iRun Radio – August 19th, 2018

By

Why I Run

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August 20, 2018

On this week’s show, you’ll find out more about Toronto’s Shakespeare’s Run and hear thee inspiring story of an MS patient who is running the PEI Marathon. Plus, how a five kilometre race showcases how supportive the running community really is.

Nike Brahaus is Back in Toronto

By

TheBuzzonGear

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August 18, 2018

By Karen Kwan

Nike has brought back its Brahaus pop-up shop, this time in the Toronto Eaton Centre. Book an appointment and get professionally fitted for a sports bra. The fitter will chat with you about your usual workouts and then provides a few sportsbra that’ll provide the support you need for your favourite activities.

Some of the exciting innovations at the Brahaus? The Swoosh Pocket Bra, which is a flattering length (slightly longer than your usual sports bra). It features several pockets in which you can tuck gels, your smartphone and keys. Another cool design is the FE/NOM Flyknit bra; it’s made of the same material of Flyknit shoes and it felt lightweight and moved effortlessly with the body when we tried it on.

Also at Brahaus is a ponytail bar (complete with Just Do It scarves and hankerchiefs for your hairstyle), a juice bar, gluten-free doughnuts, and a customization bar. Here you can select from an array of iron-on designs (think swooshes and Just Do It) or have something embroidered onto your bra in the thread colour of your choice.

Open until Sunday, August 19th. You’ll find it beside the Nike store in the Toronto Eaton Centre. Book your spot here.

Karen Kwan is a regular iRun fashion and travel contributor, and you’ll find her running fashion posts every Friday on Instagram. She contributes to a number of publications and you can also follow her travel and running adventures at Health & Swellness.

Why can’t I sleep after a race or hard workout?

By

Ben Kaplan

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August 16, 2018

25,000 runners took to the start line at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2017.

You’re totally exhausted, and in a proverbial rut because of a hard effort, a race or workout, earlier in the day. It’s nighttime, you’re lying in bed, so tired that even the thought of getting out of bed seems daunting. Sleep is as important as ever in this moment, for recovery purposes. This could be you.

And yet, you remain wide awake, unable to fall asleep for minutes, if not hours. What’s going on?

“I do see that [sleeplessness after hard exercise] a bit with the athletes I work with,” says Dr. Amy Bender, a sleep expert who holds a PhD in experimental psychology from Washington State University, an adjunct professor in the faculty of kinesiology at the University of Calgary. Bender has worked with hundreds of national-calibre athletes and published “The Clinical Validation of the Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire” which provides framework to determine sleep assessment.

Why it happens

Sleeplessness post-hard effort can in part be due to the body’s release of chemicals including, but not limited to, adrenaline and cortisol, Bender says, which makes it more difficult to sleep if levels remain high. Exercise-related sleeplessness may also stem from muscle pain or soreness from exercise itself. (Post-marathon aches, anyone?)

Consider too that timing of a hard effort could be a factor, as your body needs adequate time to cool down from a spike in core temperature. So, a run in the evening may leave you wide awake while a morning run may not have the same effect, given the additional hours for your body to recover throughout the day. There are certain habitual limitations to this, depending on your work schedule, and when you’re able to get a run in. Fortunately, for the sake of sleep and if you find this can be a problem for you, morning races are more common than night races.

What to do if it happens and how to prevent it

Bender suggests having a consistent bedtime routine, or a to-do list to off-load your mind and relax, both of which can act as a signal that it’s time for your body to sleep. Such a routine may consist of putting away electronic devices with bright screens in the lead-up to bedtime and breathing exercises.

Alternatively, one can perform certain cognitive techniques, like the cognitive shuffle. Simply, the cognitive shuffle involves taking a neutral word, like ‘bedtime,’ and imagining an object or thing beginning with each letter repeatedly until you need to move on to the next letter. The purpose of the exercise is to scramble your thoughts. Repeat the exercise for each letter of the word. Chances are, Bender says, you won’t make it to the final letter.

Last call

Alternatively, take a warm shower or warm bath an hour before bedtime. Bender says that although your core temperature will rise, it will just as quickly cool down. Making sure one’s bedroom is dark and cool, think cave-like, because that’s also helpful.

Have your own nighttime routine that helps you sleep? Share them!