Canada Names 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championship Team

March 11, 2016

Earlier today Athletics Canada named the qualifying members of the 2016 IAAF World Championship Marathon Team. The championships will be taking place on Cardiff, Wales on March 26th. Leading the team is Canadian marathon record holder Lanni Marchant and 2012 Olympian Reid Coolsaet.

As always check in with iRun for the latest up-to-date news on all things running!

2016 IAAF World Championships team

Name, hometown, coach, club, affiliation, qualifying time

Men
Reid Coolsaet, Guelph, ON, Dave Scott-Thomas Speed River ON 1:03:37
Robin Watson, London,ON, Pete Watson Unattached BC 1:03:58
Brandon Lord, Sudbury, ON, Pete Watson Unattached BC 1:04:03

Women
Lanni Marchant, London, ON, Dave Mills London Western ON 1:12:05
Laura Batterink, Port Perry, ON, John Lofranco McGill Olympic QC 1:13:13
Tarah Korir, St. Clements, ON, Ron Mann Unattached Ontario ON 1:13:39

According the Athletics Canada,

“This initial IAAF World Half Marathon national team project was a resounding success, as 10 women and 11 men met the qualification standard of 1:16:00 and 1:06:00 respectively.”

Here is the list of the qualifying performances for the men and women this year:

Qualifying performances:

Men
Reid Coolsaet – 1:03:37
Robin Watson – 1:03:58
Brandon Lord – 1:04:03
Dylan Wykes – 1:04:14
Thomas Toth – 1:04:28
Sami Jibril – 1:04:30
Trevor Hofbauer – 1:04:30
Evan Esselink – 1:04:52
Kip Kangogo – 1:05:02
Eric Gillis – 1:05:31
Kelly Wiebe – 1:05:48

Women
Natasha Wodak – 1:11:20
Lanni Marchant – 1:12:05
Rachel Hannah – 1:12:25
Sasha Gollish – 1:12:35
Laura Batterink – 1:13:13
Tarah Korir – 1:13:39
Krista DuChene – 1:14:01
Erin Burrett – 1:14:49
Dayna Pidhoresky – 1:15:11
Natasha Labeaud – 1:15:18

Under Amour and Philosophy’s New “Breathe” Campaign

TheBuzzonGear

March 10, 2016

Under Armour and Philosophy have joined forces and launched the next social media ready-to-go viral campaign. These two wellness brands have teamed up to tackle an important topic: breathing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_QymN_Z9FA

The new campaign includes a video, starring US athletes Kelley O’Hara and Misty Copeland, highlighting the new Under Armour Breathe Bra as well as Philosophy’s oxygenating gel cream.

UA has been dominating the running scene this year – with the rising popularity of their running apparel and shoes, the purchase of Endomondo and MyFitnessPal, and its claim as “the world’s largest digital health and fitness community.”

UA’s newly launched bra claims to be the perfect compression piece, ultra-light, and fitting like a second skin. The built in HeatGear construction ensures minimal over-heating while still providing a contoured natural shape.

Philosophy’s newest “Breathe” line promises to re-oxygenate the skin, recover from daily life and resist aging.

Head over to breathingchangeseverything.com to order your FREE (yes, free) gel cream, snap a picture of how you #dontforgettobreathe and post to Instagrams with the site’s assigned filter.

Expect more good things this spring from these exciting big brands.

8 Tips For Running In Extreme Weather

Nutrition

March 9, 2016

For most highly active Canadians the reality is that we must be able to adapt to training and performing in both very warm and very cold weather. Most Canadian cities have the potential to become extremely warm in the summer and extremely cold at pretty much any point throughout the rest of the year. If you are a year-long outdoor runner you can certainly relate to the unpredictable nature of our climate. And it also affects other outdoor athletes that may begin or end play on the fringes of the seasons.

By Andy De Santis, RD MPH

Rather than going to extremes in your training, you can optimize your success during these more extreme weather conditions, by adapting your nutrition and hydration strategies. Doing so will not only ensure optimal performance, but it will also keep you safe, here’s how.

4 Steps to Performing Your Best in the Heat

The potential for heat-related issues in runners and other outdoor competitors is most likely to occur when heat, humidity and event-duration are all very high. If you are a long-distance or marathon runner, tennis player or engaged in an all-day outdoor tournament on a hot day, you are at the highest risk of heat-related harm and should pay extra attention to this guidance.

Consume between 5-10 ml of fluid per kilogram of bodyweight in the 2-4 hours leading up to the event to ensure hydration. Your urine should be pale yellow in colour in the hours prior to the event or training.
Train in the conditions you will be competing in to help you acclimatize to the conditions and to better understand how your body’s hydration needs in such conditions.
Opt for colder fluids for re-hydration as these will help regulate your body temperature
Consider choosing an electrolyte-enhanced beverage rather than water to help make up for the fluid losses that occur on hot days. Sports drinks may be a great option if you are training or competing for longer than 60 minutes.

4 Steps to Performing Your Best in the Cold

Just like the heat, the cold brings with it unique nutritional challenges. Some days we expect it be cold, other days unseasonably cold days might force us to train or play in less than ideal conditions. In either case, Canadian runners and other sport participants must be able to adapt in order to stay safe and perform their best

Dress appropriately, but do not over dress. This may take some practice, but excessive overdressing may lead to increased sweat losses and could potentially impact your performance if you do not hydrate and/or rehydrate sufficiently.
Eat a carbohydrate rich meal before you train or compete. Your energy requirements from carbohydrates may go up in the cold due to your body expending energy to maintain its core temperature.
Keep in mind that, for points #1 and #2, lighter and leaner individuals may need to approach things differently because they may be at greater risk of hypothermia and require greater energy expenditure to maintain body temperature due to less body fat insulation.
People who train or compete in cold weather may experience a reduction in their perceived thirst (quite a common phenomenon) that may lead them to drinking less. Try to re-hydrate as you normally would despite a reduction in thirst sensation.

Regardless of the weather, passionate competitors will not let it step them, but that does not mean they should not take the steps be prepared and safe.

Note: I would like to credit the Dietitians of Canada, Academy of Diet and Nutrition and The American College of Sports Medicine for the recent release of their sports nutrition position paper from which today’s article content was gleaned.

Andy is a private practice dietitian and nutrition blogger based in Toronto. You can learn more about him at AndyTheRD.com.

I once tried to run like Terry Fox

RunningForAReason

March 9, 2016

In the summer of 1980, I scampered up and down my parents’ driveway, trying desperately to copy Terry’s irregular gait. The rhythm wasn’t easy, but it was familiar and appealing to me, having watched it so many times on the news. Stride, hop, shuffle. I practiced it over and over again. I didn’t want to run. I wanted to run like Terry.

Like most Canadians, I had only a vague sense of the Marathon of Hope when it started. Maybe I saw something on the news when Terry dipped his foot in the Atlantic Ocean – the six o’clock news was a ritual in our household – or maybe I know that image from all the times it’s been replayed in the intervening decades. But once he crossed into Ontario, passing through my hometown of Ottawa, I started to pay much closer attention. I remember my sister talking about a runner with one leg and, if I recall correctly, there was a welcome banner hanging somewhere in the centre of the city.

I never saw Terry run in person, but I eagerly watched the highlights of his visit to Parliament Hill and an Ottawa Rough Riders game. And I tracked him as he continued on to Toronto, where he received a hero’s welcome in Nathan Phillips Square.
A few weeks later, with the momentum building, my family happened to catch up to the Marathon of Hope somewhere between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, while we were on a family vacation. By then, I was reading about him in the newspaper every day. Our paths didn’t cross, but the anticipation in the communities we travelled through was evident.

And then, shockingly, just a few weeks later, it was over. I saw the clip of Terry announcing that cancer had returned. I bought an extra copy of the newspaper that day, so I could have my own, separate from my dad’s.I never imagined the story could have such a tragic ending. I kept thinking Terry would soon be running again. Looking back, I think the Marathon of Hope was the first and most powerful lesson of my life that it’s the journey that matters,not the destination. The fact that Terry never made it to the finish line doesn’t diminish his accomplishments; indeed, it’s what made other people so determined to adopt his cause and make it their own, rather than simply keep watching him from the side of the road.

Terry has been with me throughout my life since I hopped and shuffled down that driveway as an 11-year- old boy. The Marathon of Hope was a landmark event in my young life so it’s no surprise that it still resonates with me today. But one of the measures of how significant Terry Fox was is how he means just as much to people younger than 35 as he does to me.
To all of us, Terry Fox is a hero, an icon, an idol. But we should also think of him as an ordinary man. Terry was extraordinary because of his choices and his actions, meaning the same potential exists in all of us.

None of us can match Terry Fox (it still bugs me that he came only second in the Greatest Canadian poll a decade ago). But even if we don’t copy his gait, we can all run like him. We can test our limits. We can raise money and awareness. We can use running to prove a point, to show we’re prepared to do something hard—if in some way that can change the world.

Mark Sutcliffe is the founder
of iRun magazine and co- chairman of the United Way Ottawa campaign. He hosts The Running Show on TSN1200.ca, a talk show on 580 CFRA and is the author of Why I Run: The Remarkable Journey of the Ordinary Runner.

What winning a gold medal can’t teach

RunningForAReason

March 9, 2016

By Adam van Koeverden

In sixth grade I joined something called the “Fitness Club” at my elementary school. There was a cute girl involved, as I recall, and that provided enough of a reason as any to get involved at age 11. One of our first projects was to promote the annual Terry Fox Run in our neighbourhood. That was my first introduction to Canada’s most beloved runner and cancer advocate. With a little research I was quickly fascinated by his tenacity and stubbornness. Canada was so big! (It still is…) And he was going to run all the way across it? On an artificial leg? It just seemed too incredible to be real. I wasn’t born when Terry Fox ran his Marathon of Hope. But he represents something so significant in Canada’s sporting history, that young kids today still know his name and recognize his accomplishments. He left such an inspirational legacy, for cancer patients and survivors, for runners, for every Canadian. He was a pioneer in a way; one of the very first true athlete ambassadors – now almost every pro athlete has a foundation or a charity they work with.

When I think back to when I first became excited about sports, I’m reminded that I was a bit of a late-bloomer. I wasn’t a competitive athlete as a kid, I didn’t really watch sports on TV. My dad would bring my brother and I to an Argos game, but I recall being more interested in the SkyDome’s retractable roof and how many more litres of water went down all the toilets with one flush than over the Niagara Falls in two minutes. A few years later I wandered into the Burloak Canoe Club in Oakville, expecting to try a new sport. I wanted to be the best at something, and since there weren’t any other kayakers in my class, I suppose I was taking the easy route to accomplishing that goal. It didn’t take long before I found further inspiration among the ranks of the Oldershaw clan and Olympic Gold medalist, Larry Cain on the 16 Mile Creek, and started to set some long-term goals.

After competing at the Olympics in 2004 I went back to school full-time at McMaster University. I was 22 and anxious to get back to school after taking a year to concentrate solely on my preparation for the Olympics. A day before my first final exam in December, I got a phone call from my coach. He told me I’d won the Lou Marsh Award, as Canada’s athlete of the year for 2004, for winning gold and bronze in Athens. I was expected to do some TV and radio the next day, which was exciting, but what about my exams?

Thankfully my professors appreciated my situation and let me write my exams after my interviews. But amidst all that studying, I had some other research to take care of. As I said, I wasn’t a huge sports fan. I recalled that Mike Weir won the Lou Marsh the year before and I knew that Wayne Gretzky certainly had as well. But I didn’t know who Lou Marsh was, or what an amazing honour it was at the time.

As I read the other names of the Lou Marsh Award recipients I saw a lot of very familiar ones; The Great One was on there four times, fellow kayaker Caroline Brunet won in 1999 and I remembered that Donovan Bailey and Mark Tewksbury had also won the prestigious prize.

But one name stood out among all the others. 1980 — Terry Fox. I was so struck by emotion at the idea of having my name on a trophy alongside Terry Fox’s that I couldn’t do anything except cry. It was too surreal. He wasn’t like me, he was a legend. He didn’t try to paddle a little boat or score goals, he tried to change the world. He was so much more than just an athlete, way more than a winner. Terry lost his fight with cancer, but he won a much greater battle. The Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $600 million for cancer research in Canada, creating a legacy or giving that will live on in perpetuity.
If Terry’s story can teach us anything, it’s that sport, and the people who do it, can truly create positive change. Sport isn’t just about medals and records and victory. It highlights real human stories, creates awareness, inspires us to dream and believe in ourselves and those around us. Terry was maybe the first athlete who advocated for a cause greater than his own campaign to win. Terry paved the way for people who do sports to be more than just athletes.

Terry challenged the notion of disability, he wanted people to hear his message, so he set out to do something that nobody thought was possible. He said: “I just wish people would realize that anything is possible if you try. Dreams are made if people try.” I hope that as Canadians we continue to have the guts to dream as hard as Terry did. I hope kids hear about who Terry was and why he did what he did, and I hope that inspires them to set goals of their own and to be champions at whatever inspires them. Not just the kind of champion that crosses the finish line first or scores the winning goal – but the kind that Terry was, and continues to be, for us all.

Adam van Koeverden is a four-time Olympic medalist, including gold at the 2004 summer games. The current kayak world champion in the K-1000 metre sprint, Koeverden is a contributor to iRun.

In His Words: A page from Terry Fox’s diary

RunningForAReason

March 9, 2016

saturday, april 26th, 1980
day 15 / 25 miles / total 337 miles

Slowly the seeing double went away, but my eyes were glossy and I was lightheaded. I told myself it is too late to give up. I would keep going no matter what happened. If I died, I would die happy because I was doing what I wanted to do. How many people could say that? I went out and did fifteen pushups on the road and then took off. My head was light but the double sightedness went away. At five miles Doug and I talked about it for a while. I cried because I knew I was going to make it or be in a hospital bed or dead. I want to set an example that will never be forgotten. It is courage and not foolishness. It wasn’t a waste.

Terry Fox: By the Numbers

RunningForAReason

March 9, 2016

When Terry Fox dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland on April 12, 1980, he embarked on a journey that was fueled by a single dream: a world without cancer. Today, millions of children, youth and adults around the world have been moved by this young man’s determination and commitment. Dedicated to funding research, the Terry Fox Foundation continues to share Fox’s remarkable story, inspiring the next generation to follow in his footsteps. Here’s a look at how Terry Fox and the Foundation have impacted the lives of many and how his legacy continues to live on.

650,000,000: dollars raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry Fox’s name.

143: days that Terry Fox ran during the Marathon of Hope.

5,373: total kilometers he covered

42: average kilometers Fox ran through the Maritime provinces, Quebec and Ontario.

18: months of training that Fox completed before he began his cross-country run.

9: number of shoes Terry wore over his six-month journey
8: on his real foot
1: on his prosthetic leg

1980: the year that Terry was voted Canadian of the Year by Canadian Press editors
2: other major awards he won that year—the Companion of the Order of Canada and the Lou Marsh Award for outstanding athletic achievement.

1,700,000: dollar amount raised for cancer research during the Marathon of Hope.

3,500,000: dollars raised during the first Terry Fox Run held on September 13, 1981.

1,152: number of cancer research projects the Terry Fox Foundation has supported worldwide over the past 35 years.

February 1, 1981: day Fox’s dream of raising a dollar for every Canadian was realized
24,117,000: total amount, by that day, which was raised.

84: cents from every dollar raised by the Foundation that goes specifically for cancer research

45678: number you can text “Terry Fox” to make a five dollar donation to the Terry Fox Foundation.

524: average number of Canadians diagnosed with cancer each day.

63: percent of today’s likelihood of at least a 5-year survival after receiving a cancer diagnosis.

45 and 41: percent of Canadian men and women, respectively, who will develop cancer in their lifetime.

14: number of Canadian schools named after Terry Fox
15: number of roads

83: number of kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway, situated between Thunder Bay and Nipigon, renamed the Terry Fox Courage Highway.

9,000+: number of runs held in Terry Fox’s name
9,000+: number of Terry Fox runs led and organized by volunteers

“When my kids need me, they need me.” Goals and sacrifice by Krista DuChene

Krista DuChene

March 8, 2016

Photo: Fleur-Ange Lamothe

After writing a blog for the Chilly Half Marathon, I was hoping to have an exciting post-race report.

Unfortunately, it’s not the case.

Going into Sunday’s race, my training proved I was fit. The mileage was appropriate and I was hitting workouts close to when I ran my PB of 1:10:52 in 2013. The time to beat to make the World Half Marathon team was 1:13:13 and I knew it was within my capabilities. I ran 1:14 earlier this year in January and training had only improved since then. Other than a slow 1:16 in February in Vancouver due to inclement weather, I was confident that I could get the job done. Then I got sick. Now, I’m not new to this sport and know that when one gets sick or injured, it can be an indication that you are in too deep. You push your body to the limit but sometimes it fights back, telling you to take it down a notch.

Enter the Marathon Mom explanation.

Feel free to quit reading if my parenting talk exhausts you. That’s fine with me. Or, think about everything your mom did for you as a child—I am no different.

For reasons I don’t feel necessary to explain, I have not slept well for the past two months due to being up in the night multiple times for multiple reasons with multiple kids (and at times, the dog!). It’s been exhausting. Five days before the race I had that trickle in the throat that hinted something was up. I continued with my normal routine, tapering for Sunday’s race, having solid afternoon naps, eating well, drinking plenty of fluids, and getting to bed at a decent time. I even slept in our basement with earplugs for the two nights before the race.

But it wasn’t enough.

I thought I was fighting this nasty virus that was going around, and went into the race refusing to make it known because a) I was denying it myself and b) I was proud and didn’t want people to think I was giving an excuse for a bad race before even starting. The two indicators that proved I was sicker than I thought were that my resting heart rate was high, averaging about 39 all week. Normally it would be in the mid-30’s. (My RHR tells me lot about myself). Also, due to my pounding headache, I took something for it the night before the race. The last time I took any sort of pill for pain was two years ago when I had my stress fracture. That tells you something.

Race morning was uneventful; everything was routine and going well. The weather was perfect and my legs were fresh. I was close to target at 5 km, but as the race progressed, I slowed. I felt like my effort was there, but I just didn’t have the pop or the numbers to prove it. At some point in the race I started to think about my B goals. I still had my time from last year that might earn me a spot on the team, and I still wanted the win. Then at 17 km, Leslie Sexton made her move. She’s training for Rotterdam and had the steady-pacing rhythm nailed perfectly. Her coach rode past me on his bike and my body just didn’t respond. She gained a decent distance from me and secured the win. After crossing the line, I was pretty upset. I congratulated Leslie. She’s a solid runner, starting to make her mark. Normally I’d stick around for pictures and the like, but this time I just wanted to change my shoes, do my cool down, and have a good cry.

Upon finishing, my head was pounding and fellow Saucony runner and masters champ, Predrag came to the rescue when his wife found me an Advil. He was also there for me when I broke my leg, two years ago. I was so desperate that I swallowed the pill dry before heading out for my cool down. Once I returned I found a quiet corner and let the tears flow with Coach Rick and Josie. I’ve had my share of letdowns, but this one stung. As a mom, you hear every cough, sniffle, sneeze, cry, moan, shriek, sigh, door close/open, toilet flush, and faucet run in the middle of the night. It’s not something you can easily turn off. When my kids need me, they need me. My husband’s an incredible dad who works hard to provide for us, but when his head hits the hay, he hears nothing.

My tears were flowing because even though I’ve learned to be better at saying no more than yes this year in order to put everything into my Olympic year, I struggle. Making sacrifices is one thing. But trying to be a princess with perfect sleep, rest, nutrition, training and preventative maintenance and etcetera is another.

It’s tough, incredibly tough.

In a few days the announcement will be made for the World Half Marathon team and I will not be on the list. Running the Around the Bay 30 km race was always the alternative so that’s the plan now. I have a bit more time to get over this cold, do some decent workouts, and run one of my favourite courses. I’ve done it several times and it will be an excellent way to prove my fitness for Rio, and end my winter/spring season. I was looking up some verses on disappointment to help encourage me and remembered my own words: “God’s plan is better than mine.”

Onward I go.

You Ask, JP Answers

Training

March 8, 2016

Running injury gets everyone, even super hero humans like JP Bedard. Here’s how the triple marathon runner recovered from his most challenging injury yet.

Dear JP:

What is the most difficult running related injury you have had, and how long were you not able to run? What did you do to recover from it?

Sincerely,

Lotta (from Finland)

Dear Lotta:

Running is so much more than merely a physical pursuit: It’s a way of life, or more accurately, a way of being within your life. We run to make us happy. We run to extinguish our anger and resentment. We run to escape, and we run to find ourselves.But what happens when injury sidelines us, and we are temporarily denied our outlet, our escape, and our safety valve?

I’ve been running long enough now to have experienced my fair share of running injuries – planter fasciitis, shin splints, torn muscles, and the dreaded piriformis syndrome. Over time, I’ve become better at listening to the cues from my body, and diving into a more proactive approach to injury cure and prevention.

Far and away the most debilitating and nagging injury I’ve had was a two-year flare up of IT pain (iliotibial band syndrome). No matter what I did, there was zero relief, and I did everything! Nothing seemed to have any long-term impact – icing, stretching, not stretching, strength training, Theraband stretches, massage, and far too many ibuprofen for human consumption. My IT band usually felt fine before I went out for my run, but around 40 minutes into a workout, the pain quickly became unbearable.

In the end, I cut way back on my mileage. And I dropped out of most races over an 18-month period. I finally found my magic bullet when my massage therapist suggested that what I really needed to do was to simply tire-out the IT band so that it would have no choice but to release the tension on my knee. So, now I had mission: All I needed to do was figure out a way to tire out my nemesis. I started doing lying down scissor kicks three times a day. I would lie on my side and raise the upper leg and drop it back down under a controlled motion. I started out doing 50 reps of 3 sets on each leg, and eventually worked my way up to 150 reps of 2 sets. I would do this three times a day, and after 6 weeks, the IT pain had completely disappeared. Today, I continue to do this every morning after my run as a way of keeping my hip flexors strong and my IT loose and subtle.

Send your advice and questions to JP runjprun@gmail.com. Want more tips, tricks and practical advice from JP Bedard? Check out his previous posts with questions from elite and everyday athletes.

How To Find A Running Coach

UpToSpeed

March 7, 2016

By Robyn Baldwin

To hire or not to hire a run coach that is the question. I’ve only run one road half marathon ever in my life. When I started training for the January 2016 Disney Half Marathon in the fall of 2015 I thought it might be best to hire someone who could help guide me a bit more than myself. For my first half marathon I thought running 5km during the week and then a long run on the weekend where I’d tack on an additional 2km every weekend was the best way to train. While it got the job done it may not have been the smartest. I wouldn’t really know personally unless I tried training for my next half marathon a different way. So cue hire a run coach thoughts. I had a great experience with a run coach this fall but I’ve heard not so great stories. Here’s my list of positive reasons to hire a run coach and four questions that you should ask them before sending over payment.

Upside of A Coach

Someone tells you when to work out
There is accountability of sticking to your workouts since you report back to a coach
They schedule out your tempo vs. speed workouts so everything is balanced out in case you have no idea on how to plan workouts
They adapt based on your feedback

Before Hiring A Coach

You should interview them ahead of time to ensure it’s a good fit
Ask for references so you can ask others experiences with them
Ask for certifications
Ask ahead of time how & what platform they will work with you.

Here’s What I Did

Before hiring my run coach for the Disney Half Marathon I talked with two runners who these coaches were currently training to get a real perspective on their coaching style. I also talked to them in person to ask how they like to work. I found out that I get my training schedule in a google doc that would be updated after I input all my feedback from training that week. Their certifications were posted on their website so I took the plunge and knew a three month period would be a great trial. It worked out swimmingly and I know I’ll use them again for my next big road race.

Find out more about Robyn Baldwin’s running journey.

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