It was an exciting morning in Guelph, Ontario today where the Canadian Olympic Committee held an event to officially announce Canada’s 2012 Olympic Marathon team.  Despite the rain and the initial plan to hold the event outdoors, there was an excellent turnout including busloads of elementary school students, community members, athletes, the team physician and physiotherapist, and members of the media.

Rob Guy, CEO of Athletics Canada, praised the accomplishments of the athletes, saying, “It’s been since 1996 that we’ve sent 3 marathoners to the Olympic Games. This is a tremendous accomplishment. We’re not just there to participate, we are sending guys who are unbelievably fit right now, and we know will perform unbelievably.”

Gord Peterson, a vice president of the Canadian Olympic Committee, was on hand to make the official announcement.  Before referring to Reid Coolsaet, Eric Gillis and Dylan Wykes by name, Peterson said:

These outstanding athletes embody everything the Canadian Olympic Team has come to symbolize: hard work, sacrifice, determination. Canadian Olympic team for 2012 has a very ambitious goal: top 12 in 2012 and achieving this will not be easy, but our Olympians have an entire country in their corner.

Dave Scott-Thomas, coach to Coolsaet and Gillis on the Speed River Track and Field Club, advised that he wants the country to know what kind of people these athletes are.  He told the crowd, “You know their talent level…but you should know their depth of character is outstanding.”

“They’re awesome guys, they’re tough – mentally tough – and also very generous of spirit. They represent our community, they represent Canada, and they represent the running community incredibly well,” said Scott-Thomas.

The following is a guest post by Julie Drury. Check out this episode of iRun: The Running Show, where Julie chatted with host Mark Sutcliffe!

“iRun for Those Who Can’t” ~ Julie Drury

In November 2011, my four year old daughter was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of mitochondrial disease. The diagnosis marked the end of an incredible medical and diagnostic odyssey that had taken us to several top hospitals in search of answers for the first four years of her life.

Mitochondrial disease is an energy robbing disease. The mitochondria are the ‘power generators’ of the cell, and if they fail or don’t function properly cells can die. Too much cellular death and you get the failure of organs and systems in the body.

At the age of 9 months, my daughter started having bouts of acute unexplained illness characterized by an unstable heart rate, difficulty breathing, and cyclical vomiting. At the same time we had noticed developmental delay and hearing loss.  As her health investigation got underway, and specialists began investigating her, other chronic and unexplained health conditions were identified. Slowly a picture of a possible mitochondrial condition was being considered and focussed on.

Mitochondrial diseases are not well known, despite the fact that they affect 1 in 4000 people. They are not rare they are just ‘the new kid on the block’. There is no known effective treatment for mitochondrial diseases and there is no cure at this time.

I have always been involved in team sport and athletics. I love to move my body and to push my limits. When my daughter became sick, I began to spend endless hours in emergency rooms, consulting with specialists and walking the floors as in-patients at the children’s hospital. It was an emotional and physical marathon.

There came a point when I knew I needed to hold onto something for me.  I was giving so much of myself to care for my daughter, and my family, that I knew I needed something to keep my physical strength and stamina up, but more importantly to hold onto something for myself emotionally. Having never run a marathon before, I decided I wanted to run the Boston marathon and I selected a qualifying race.

I qualified for Boston and ran the race last spring (2011). It was one of my proudest moments in sport. I could not have done it without the incredible support of my running partners and my family.

After Boston I knew I wanted to run more marathons, and I started to hone in on a new goal – what I call Running for a Reason. I had become involved in a new Canadian charity for mitochondrial diseases, called MitoCanada. MitoCanada was started to help raise awareness about mitochondrial disease, to support individuals and families living with the disease and to raise funds for research.  Then, in the fall of 2011, Team MitoCanada was formed. Team MitoCanada is a multi-sport team that participate in various races and events in an effort to raise awareness and funds for mitochondrial diseases.  With the start-up of Team MitoCanada and my goal of running the marathon at Ottawa Race Weekend in May 2012, I was able to realize another goal of running for a reason.

For the past 6 months I have been organizing Team MitoCanada Ottawa, a group of runners that will participate in the running events at Ottawa Race Weekend as a participant charity. We have 63 runners to date and hope to have 100 on the starting line May 26^th and 27^th. Our team aims to raise over $10,000 for mitochondrial diseases awareness, support and research.

I feel so inspired by the runners I have met as I pull together this team. Some are friends and family that I know well, while others have simply heard of our organization. Some are seasoned runners having run more races than they can count, while others are running their first 5k, 10k, half marathon or full marathon. In many cases they are running in support of a cause that is new to them.

Running a distance race such as a marathon is perhaps one of the best ways to appreciate what a person with mitochondrial disease goes through. This energy robbing disease causes extreme energy loss and depletion of the systems of the body to the point where system failure occurs.  For people living with mitochondrial disease, life is a marathon every day. They must push through pain and extreme fatigue everyday just to get through a regular day. It is hard for most of us to appreciate, unless we get out and run for them.

Team MitoCanada Ottawa is still recruiting runners who are registered for Ottawa Race Weekend. If you would like to run for us, we would love to have you. Please visit www.mitocanada.org/team or contact julie.drury@mitocanada.org

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If you, or someone you know, is Running for a Reason, please send your story to webeditor@irun.ca and we might feature it right here on this blog!

By: Magi Scallion

I occasionally flirt with swimming and now is one of those times. I am attracted to the sport because it is easy on the body, a great workout, and a gateway, for me, into the world of Triathlon or XTERRA. The downside of swimming, for me, is that I just hate going to the pool.

Running is so easy to do – you get to be in the great outdoors with the birds singing, the sun shining and the scenery zipping. Those things I love about running simply do not exist when you’re swimming – face in the water, earplugs keeping the water out of your ears and only the pace clock for scenery.

Enough on the negative aspects of swimming. As a runner, I realize that I have lots of tight muscles. I also tend to think of my legs as being the strongest part of my body (and my arms the weakest). That said, when we’re doing drills in the pool I am extremely slow at kicking (legs only) and quite fast at pulling (arms only). Why is this?

Apparently one of the weaknesses of runners is our lack of ankle flexibility. Have supple ankles is really key to being a good kicker in swimming. The ankle joint needs to be supple so that it acts like a flipper at the end of your leg. I did some research and found that you can help increase your ankle flexibility and suppleness in a few ways (sorry, but they all take time):

• having your ankles adjusted by a chiropractor (my favourite because it’s fast)
• doing ankle circles (just like you do in soccer) on a regular (twice-daily) basis
• sitting with your ankles extended (toes pointed behind you) while at your desk or in a chair. This will provide a stretch down the front of your ankle.

Obviously you could also stop running… but we’re not that desperate to be good swimmers!

Keep running! … but also keep cross-training to help identify weaknesses you may not know you had and improve upon them. Here’s to a whole healthy body!

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Born in Nova Scotia and emigrating to British Columbia via Ontario and Alberta, Magi has been running the entire way. Primarily defined as a cross country ski racer, Magi has competed nationally and internationally in that sport. The highlight of her career was competing in the World University Games and the World Cup races in Canada in 2007. Cross country skiers rely heavily on running for cross training and Magi has become an accomplished trail and mountain runner, representing Canada at the World Mountain Running Championships in 2005 and the winning numerous national championships medals.

Today Magi runs for fun… and it’s a lot of fun! Epic mountain runs, city cruises with friends, and more keep her happy and occupied outside of work and school.