Deep Sleep is a product from Genuine Health, a Canadian company that makes all-natural science-based supplements and they recently released a sleep aid that they wanted runners to try. BlackToe Running in downtown Toronto is where I train, and we had Michelle Lostracco, a well-known runner and Genuine Health VP explain her product to my crew.
“It’s not a magic pill,” she said, to the nineteen runners who attended our event, all with fall goal races before them. “We just think that if a runner can get 5% better recovery from 5% better sleep, then it will be something a lot of members in our community would want to try.“
The Deep Sleep capsules are made from 100mg of Organic Reishi mushrooms, 100mg of Theanine, 50mg of GABA, 50mg of Magnesium and 1.5mg of Melatonin. “The Reishi mushrooms are the star ingredient, and we use the whole mushroom, from the root to the fruit,” says Lauren Hauswirth, Genuine Health’s manager of product development. “The ground mushroom helps adjust stress levels and brings down the cortisone spikes, signalling the brain to tell the body that it’s time to unwind.“
Deep Sleep combines Reishi mushrooms with gentle botanicals and it quiets the brain without disrupting the hormones. It’s a product I’ve been using for months leading up to my goal race this weekend, and, after taking the product for six weeks, this is what the BlackToe runners said.
“Overall I noticed a big difference,” said Sarah, training for her first marathon. “I tend to not be affected by many things, so I was a bit surprised that I responded so well to these. My smartwatch also noted I had more REM and deep sleep on nights I take the capsules. I also think they make me fall asleep faster.”
80% of respondents said that the Deep Sleep capsules helped them fall asleep faster and 100% of respondents said that their sleep was deeper after taking the Deep Sleep capsules. Of course, not everyone will have these responses. But, of the runners we had test the products, the results were overwhelmingly positive.
Chris, who was also training for a fall marathon, had this response: “I already sleep pretty well, but my watch showed better sleep quality when taking the capsules,” he said, adding that he took two pills while Sarah only took one. (I also take two at a time).
“I didn’t think there was a change to how I felt in the morning, but maybe I’m too stressed or dependent on caffeine to notice,” said Chris. “I think they really improved my sleep quality and duration with no negative side effects.“
None of the runners experienced a brain fog the next day and none of the runners reported feeling less energy after a night trying the Deep Sleep product. Again, these results are not guaranteed. But it could be something worth trying, especially as you begin to plan out your goals for 2023.Sign up for the Genuine Health e-newsletter by November 30 at 12pm EST and you will be automatically entered to win a $500 prize pack!No purchase necessary.To sign up,please click here.
“I don’t want you to think I’m a drinker. I can stop if I want to, only I don’t want to.” Marilyn Monroe.
The night before I broke the 28-year-old Canadian women’s marathon record, I went out with one of my running girl friends for pad thai. My final bit of carb loading before the big morning. I also had a beer. Just one, and nothing heavy—I had not yet discovered my love for craft beers and hoppy IPAs. The next morning was a whirlwind. And in my post-race interviews I talked about my dinner the night before. I really did not think anything of it. I often had a beer (or two) the night before a big workout or long-run, so cracking open a cold one was not in any way abnormal.
To my surprise, it ended up being a bigger deal to others. Almost immediately, there were comments on my social media posts that I should take running more seriously.
That a “real runner” does not drink the night before a big race.
My management team and I decided to double down and reach out to beer companies about potential partnerships. We were told that it was not a great fit—a marathon runner, a professional athlete—sponsored by a beer company. It was right around that time that Michelob Ultra started sponsoring Lance Armstrong. I was frustrated and confused.
Flash forward, and nearly 10 years later there are several professional marathon runners sponsored by major beer companies like Coors and Michelob—and even some non-alcoholic beer companies. Perhaps this is a story that’s been told before, seeing a trend or an opportunity before it takes off. I’ve been on the frontlines or ahead of the curve on a few things in my athletic career. And I have often found myself being told “no” quite often, and then later see an emerging trend of those same quirky partnership ideas (and often lucrative) pop up a wee bit later. We have national team members sponsored by Kraft Dinner! As much as what I’m writing might read as jealousy, it isn’t. I love that companies are starting to see the broader appeal of our Olympic athletes. Professional running isn’t always the easiest sport to pay your bills, and it’s fantastic to see beer companies moving to the front of the line.
Beer run clubs are a regular part of my weekly running routine. And some of our favourite runners are our Beer Milers. Heck, I even have my own beer with Forked River—theBlack Sheep 2.0. More of a passion project than a windfall into my bank account (I don’t receive any profits or proceeds)—I will say, my beer is f-ing delicious!
Running culture and beer culture seem to be blending together better than ever. And it has been awesome to see the running world come around to accepting my affinity for beer drinking—including a pre-race brew the night before.
Personally, I drink about four or five beers a week. I don’t over-drink. And I can take it or leave it. But I like to take it…
And perhaps I can take it to the same level as my beer-endorsed colleagues.
“If you drink alcohol more than two times per month, you are basically telling your body/coach/teammates that you really don’t care about becoming a better runner,” Tweeted Jonathan Marcus, a popular running coach and trainer in Portland, Oregon.
“I strongly disagree,” responded Natasha Wodak, Canada’s all-time fastest female marathon runner. “I drank two or three glasses of wine every WEEK in my build up to the Berlin Marathon, where I ran the Canadian record.”
Our readers are mixed on running and booze. Some can’t imagine giving it up while others, like myself, cut out alcohol during the final weeks of race training. Sometimes I think I quit drinking as much for the mental edge as I do for any actual health benefit, but I also may lose that mental edge in feeling stressed out, anxious, sleepless and deprived. Clearly if Natasha can have some Pinot before setting the Canadian record, and Lanni Marchant drank a beer the night before she broke Silvia Ruegger’s 28-year-old marathon record back in 2013, then I can drink a few beers in the weeks before Hamilton, trying to cross a marathon finish line under 3:25.
Dr. Greg Wells is my friend and the senior scientist in translational medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children, and training for his first half marathon in three years. “I have found that I don’t feel good when I drink and that my performance the next day both athletically and professionally suffers when I have even one drink the afternoon or evening before,” he says. “I will have the very occasional glass of wine, but only one or two per month.”
Is there not something to be said for booze, I asked him. Can it do anything good?
“I think that in general if you’re running for health and fitness then having a drink from time to time is not going to affect your running, but I also think that if you have performance goals then alcohol is not going to serve you well and you’re better to minimize it,” he said. “Also, there is no safe consumption limit so any alcohol at all increases your risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer.”
That’s a tough pill to swallow and, as usual, moderation is the key and there isn’t any simple answer to serve every runner. You need to find what is best for you and, while Natasha can drink wine in the weeks leading up to a major race, Eliud Kipchoge—arguably the greatest runner of all time—doesn’t ever touch a drop. I got Jonathan Marcus on the phone and asked him to explain his Tweet.
Does drinking really equate to sabotaging your race?
“More and more the science and evidence point to the fact that the optimal level of alcohol is none,” says Marcus, adding that while the running record book is lined with runners who famously enjoyed wine and beer, cyclists in the 70s also used to smoke like chimneys, and you never see that today. He predicts that booze will—or at least should—exit from our sport the same way.
“My big beef with alcohol is that most people drink it late at night and that impacts sleep and sleep is the number one recovery tool and so alcohol is counterproductive to the training process,” he says. “We want to ensure we have high-quality sleep when pushing our bodies; if you’re going to have one or two, it’s best to drink late morning or early afternoon—happy hour at the very latest, because the closer to bedtime you consume alcohol, the more you’re flirting with disaster.”
Champion runners both drink and don’t drink alcohol. Mediocre runners also fall along the same lines. Do you abstain from booze prior to your goal race, or do you see a glass of wine at the end of a day or a beer after your long run as a prize for a job well done?
Let us know what you think as this is an important conversation with no clear cut answer for scoring your best possible finishing times.
Andre Okenge got the call that every parent dreads—your son has been hurt, come quickly.
“It’s hard to describe, we’re devastated,” he says. “It’s just crying, crying, crying.”
Stephane is his 19-year-old son and on October 23, the young man was in a car accident, and the basketball player on a college scholarship in Lincoln, Nebraska is now quadripolegic.
“The doctors”, says Andre, “are currently working around the clock on his lungs”.
“The lung doesn’t look good—the doctors are working on his breathing,” says Okenge, originally from Rwanda, a father of six, who has been timing races across Canada and the US as a member of the Sportstats team for the past nineteen years. “His spirit is strong, but obviously all of us are quite shaken. We’re trying to take our cues from Steph, but the moment is really hard.”
Steph has been an exceptional athlete all his life. While in Uganda since 2014, his passion for basketball took off. He played first at KISU then at Heritage, always in the High School varsity teams despite his young age. At 14 years old, he left home to join Canada Top Flight Academy in Ottawa where he was the only grade 9 recruit in the team, and lived with a host family in order to fully focus on the program. During the summers, he traveled to Oklahoma to train with AJ Hawkins. This is what led him to be recruited to Casady school in Oklahoma City where he played for three years and, again, lived with two different host families. During this time, Steph struggled with injuries from time to time, but always worked hard to overcome them. He broke his hand playing football in November 2020 which resulted in a plate being put in his hand. Covid was not friendly to his basketball ambitions- he missed out on key playing opportunities when the AAU season of 2020 was shut down and the hand injury likewise affected his 2020-21 season. Finally back on the court in summer 2021, he joined an AAU team was playing at his first AAU tournament in Orlando, FL in July 2021 when he tore the labrum in his left shoulder. He tried to tough that one out, but this injury kept him more hesitant on the court despite it being his senior year in High school with significant pressure to be recruited on his mind. The 2021-22 school basketball season was characterised by several subsequent hospital emergency visits to reset his shoulder and major shoulder surgery was scheduled for August. Steph decided to take a half-ride scholarship offer to York University in Nebraska, an NAIA Div 1 school, for his freshman year in order to focus on his shoulder recovery. He joined York in August, the day after his shoulder surgery follow-up appointment. He has been treated like family since joining York and we are so supported by the York community.
Andre is giving, caring, loyal—the kind of guy who takes on the difficult tasks, works overtime without complaining, never calls in sick and always approaches our sport with gratitude.
“He’s laid back and positive—always encouraging—a dude you want on your team,” says Trevor Dieleman, Andre’s close friend and running partner, who’s worked with him at Sportstats for years. “As a new parent myself, Andre’s story kills me. It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t wish on anybody, but especially somebody like him.”
Andre is stoic, but the family is reeling. Medical bills are piling up and the family needs help. Sportstats has made a donation and the team at iRun are pooling money together for our friend, but we’re reaching out to our network for help. Andre is part of our community, the best part, and it’s time we work together and chip in.
“Andre Okenge has been part of the Sportstats team every single weekend for nineteen years and he is loved by the entire Sportstats team, as well as the race organizers he has worked with over the years,” says Marc Roy and Isabelle Fradette of Sportstats, who are helping with the drive to raise money for Andre’s son, promoting a GoFundMe page set up by Stephane’s brother. “We invite everyone to make a small donation towards the $400,000 he needs. If you cannot make a donation, we ask you to simply share this with friends and family.”
Andre hasn’t led an easy life, fleeing genocide, but nothing can prepare a parent for the situation our friend and his family now find themselves in. If you’ve run a race in Canada over the past two decades, Andre has supported you. Now, it’s time to lend a hand to him.
“It’s been wonderful to hear from the community and, on behalf of Steph and our family, we appreciate the support so much,” says Andre. “We’re doing the best that we can.”
To help raise money for Andre and his son Stephane, please click on our GoFundMe page, here: https://gofund.me/0498dda2.
Apple has long set the stage for technology and they’ve been pushing the envelope in wearable fitness innovation for the past five years. With the popularity of the Apple watch and the innovations to the latest iPhone, Apple is now offering their Fitness+ application to everybody, even athletes without an Apple watch. We recently demoed the Fitness+ app that offers yoga workouts, artist playlists from musicians like Taylor Swift, and training programs from race legend Scott Jurek.
“We built Fitness+ to be the most inclusive and welcoming fitness service in the world, and the response from our users has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s now easier than ever to get started on your health and fitness journey,” said Jay Blahnik, Apple’s vice president of Fitness Technologies. “Whether users want to get outside and go for a walk, improve their running with ultramarathoner Scott Jurek, or get moving to one of their favourite artists, like Taylor Swift, there really is something for everyone to stay motivated.”
Timed to the launch of Midnights by Taylor Swift, Fitness+ offers HIIT workouts in rhythm to the propulsive music. Scott Jurek, for his part, one of the most decorated practitioners ever of our sport, says his yoga workouts for runners are designed to increase an athlete’s longevity.
“Throughout my running career, I have pushed my body and mind to new limits by running longer distances. Having optimal strength, flexibility, stability, and balance is crucial to running efficiently, and yoga is one of the many ways I get the most out of my body,” said Jurek. “Whether people are new to running or seasoned veterans, I hope these 10-minute workouts in this program on Fitness+ will help users feel more confident and comfortable incorporating yoga into their training and recovery.”
As we wind down the running season and look to goals and resolutions for the new year, it’s great to see companies like Apple making their products more democratized by opening them up across a variety of platforms. Fitness+ could help you achieve big things in 2023, even if that just means running safely. For more information, see apple.com.
The extraordinary true story of the 10-year-old girl who ran 3:49-per-kilometre to win first female at the Niagara Falls International Marathon last weekend has caused quite a stir. Should a little kid be running that fast? Is the child being too aggressively pushed by her parents? In Canada, might we see something like they witnessed in Cincinnati, where a 6-year-old ran a nearly nine-hour marathon at the Flying Pig? The remarkable Sawyer Nicholson, of Stouffville, Ontario, pictured, who has won two of her last three 5K road races—beating adults—sees no problem with her results.
“I don’t want to try a marathon,” she says. “It’s too long, like a long car ride but, for me, a 5K is really fun.”
Nicholson has raced three 5Ks in the past six weeks and took first female in two out of three; she also nabbed first female at the Oasis Zoo Run, finishing in 19:25. Speaking with the young runner and her father, who started his eldest out running during the lockdown, both father and daughter seemed happy and well-adjusted. Sawyer, an avid soccer player who sites Jessie Fleming and Steve Prefontaine as her heroes, plays on her soccer team and runs 5K two or three times a week at a pace where she’s able to maintain conversation.
“I used to try and get PBs in 3Ks during training, but now I really only run 5Ks at a pace where I can talk, around 4:30,” she says, and it brings to mind the Kenyan style of running: where the more you run, the slower you go on your easy days—saving your greatest efforts for speed work and race day. Sawyer, who might spend one day a week at the track and says warming up and staying hydrated help her prepare, gets most of her speed work from soccer and has no magic beans in her arsenal besides a great attitude.
The night before a race? She eats pasta. The morning before? A protein bar. “Before a race, I don’t like to have too much in my stomach,” she says. And what do you do about nerves? “To calm my nerves I try and push it to my feet so I run faster,” she says. “It just makes me excited.”
My children are 11 and 8-years-old and both 5K veterans. What they couldn’t believe, when meeting Sawyer over Zoom, was how she controlled her paced. My 8-year-old asked her, what even was your pace? “I wanted to go for like between 3:45 and 3:50-per-kilometre and my first one was 3:43, then 3:50 and then 3:50 and then 3:54 and then 3:40, so my average kilometre was 3:49.”
My son couldn’t imagine being so disciplined (and neither could his marathon running father) and Sawyer does not run with a pacer. She tracks herself on a tiny Garmin.
“She seems to have some uncanny internal clock,” said her dad.
Diane Chesla, co-race director of the Niagara Falls International Marathon, says Sawyer seemed happy at the race and totally in control of herself, and in the zone. “She had her backpack in the start chute and she put it aside—she was running up and down to warm-up and doing leg swings,” says Chesla. “She was totally focused. She seemed very confident and didn’t need anyone else to tell her what to do.“
It’s not often that a 10-year-old takes first female in a 5K—twice—and her story is still being written. They don’t make carbon-plated shoes that fit Sawyer Nicholson, who is just over 4-feet-tall and wears size one shoes. She says she’d love to go to the Olympics and thinks she can get faster. For now, however, just days before her eleventh birthday, she has her eyes set on just enjoying the ride.
“When I went to get my bib in Niagara, the guy couldn’t find it and he was like, ‘Are you in the elite section?’ I thought about it, ‘Oh, am I?’ He was joking, but then we started talking and he was like: ‘Hey, maybe you’ll win your age group!’ I said, ‘Hey, maybe I’ll win the whole thing,’” Sawyer says with a laugh. “Turns out, he knew the girl who placed second and that’s been my approach to racing. It’s fun and I don’t really do much talking—I show them.”
Malindi Elmore told the papers that, running along the streets of Toronto, she could hear the cheers of the crowd. Elmore, two-time Olympian, Canada’s second all-time fastest female marathon runner, won the Canadian Championships on Sunday at the TCS Waterfront Marathon and gracefully completed her goal, afterwards watching the hockey game with her kids.
How many of you did the same thing this weekend?
How many of you raced on your city’s streets and heard the roar of the fans and completed a race and then celebrated with family and friends?
Racing, for most of us, isn’t about Championships or the Olympics. It’s about pushing boundaries and trying something hard and intentionally putting ourselves in discomfort, only to find new finish lines and achieve something that, for most people, is out of reach. Racing is the one day the average back-of-the-pack runner becomes a star—when we’re all Auston Matthews, Caster Semenya, and Bianca Andreescu.
In-person racing is back in full force and with it comes corrals packed with new runners. Talking to the team from the Running Room, from ASICS, from New Balance, they were all so excited by the new people they met. Here was a chance for someone, someone who perhaps started running during COVID, to get to feel like Malindi Elmore.
In Toronto, Trevor Hofbauer won the Canadian Championships for the men. Hofbauer is tall and strong and young and fiercely independent, he’s trained in part by Malindi Elmore, and when my 9-year-old approached his 5K finish line, his heart skipped a beat and he smiled widely, just like my friend Trev.
When the Stampeders play, it’s at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. When the Senators play, it’s at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre. The Canucks play at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Trevor and Malindi run on the same course as my 9-year-old, the same course as you.
Racing is a celebration of running. It’s a chance to take your fancy sneakers out for a spin on a race course. It’s the Autobahn, the Grand Prix. For people who will never play professional sports, it’s a day when we can all be Eliud Kipchoge. And here’s the thing, like the TCS Waterfront Marathon, the Running Room, New Balance and ASICS, our community is always open, and welcomes everyone.
How many of you already know what you’re racing this spring?
Who’s going to Calgary, to Vancouver, to Ottawa, to push your limits, test your fancy sneakers, and enjoy the roar of the crowd?
Racing is back in our sport and running’s popularity is once again peaking—from Malindi Elmore’s crossover appeal to Eliud Kipchoge’s decency while rewriting history to all of you, welcoming new runners and returning to racing across Canada, in droves, and around the world.
This past weekend was a triumph for Malindi and Trevor and my 9-year-old.
Let’s keep it going, because a triumph for running is a triumph for you.
Finding the right shoe that offers both stability and lightness isn’t easy. As a recovering heel-striker, this is a combination that can make all the difference by giving me the added support needed to kick this bad habit and keep me on my toes. When ASICS brought out the NOVABLAST, in 2020, it was one of the first shoes featuring FlyteFoam (FF), a material that has since been adding more bounce across the brand’s stellar lineup. More bounce—and lightness—is a frequent rally cry among runners, and ASICS had answered the call with innovation in this popular neutral shoe.
When the NOVABLAST 3 landed on my front porch in early October, a lunchtime test run was in order. Even on a quick fall run through my neighbourhood, I felt a welcoming energetic bounce off the sidewalks in every step. In early fall, with conditions and temperatures fluctuating erratically, I’ll take all the energy I can get. Feeling that power underfoot, propelling me forward a little lighter, it’s exactly what I need to keep going.
The NOVABLAST 3 also features that pillowy sensation that has come to be expected from the shoe, and it’s still a welcomed and consistent level of comfort. Even better for this runner who still finds herself lapsing into those old heel-striking habits? This new version also includes the addition of foam to the heel and forefoot—along with a trampoline pod on the outsole. And really, who couldn’t use a little more bounce in every stride? My feet are grateful.
Lightness and durability don’t always hit the right mix in a shoe. The NOVABLAST 3 is a pleasant surprise, with the outsole giving runners the right combination of both thanks to the addition of AHARPLUS. This lightweight material is the secret to added traction underfoot, a feature that’s welcome for runners navigating these rapidly changing weather conditions of fall. In addition, the heel stabilizer offers the support needed to help runners establish a more balanced stride.
There’s something subtly different, too. As runner’s know, when your favourite shoe changes—even ever so slightly—you can feel it, like a pea buried somewhere deep down beneath your mattress. In the NOVABLAST 3, you can pinpoint the difference to the midsole. Along with this added lightness, the shoe’s newfound responsiveness is thanks in part to an upgrade in the full midsole with the FF Blast, PLUS cushioning. With its subtle changes combined at 7.8 oz, it’s officially the lightest NOVABLAST to date: 30 percent lighter than its predecessor.
Thankfully, runners are taking into consideration their impact on the planet and brands, as a result, are opting for practices that reduce their overall environmental impact. With an ongoing focus on creating more sustainable production methods, ASICS continues its strong committed to the environment.
In the NOVABLAST 3, the upper is constructed of at least 75 percent recycled materials while the dying process of the sock liner reduces water usage. This makes the shoe better for runners and better for the planet.
Wherever running is taking you this season, the NOVABLAST 3 will help you get that extra spring into every step—making you feel a little lighter all season long.
Anna Lee Boschetto is a writer, runner and iRun contributor. She lives north of Toronto with her two daughters.NOVA BLAST 3launches November 1. For more information, pleaseclick here.
Sasha Gollish is that rare kind of brainiac runner—she holds the 40+ indoor mile Canadian female record and won gold at the 2022 NACAC Half Marathon Championships. She’s also a civil engineer with a PhD and a humanitarian, plus she has a good sense of humour.
“I feel like there’s space in the community for a smart, monthly virtual book club, where we get the author involved on YouTube, Instagram and as part of iRun radio,” says Gollish. “Engaging conversations with leading lights from the community about topics that matter will only improve, I believe, all of our approach to the sport.”
With that in mind, Gollish is launching Sasha’s Stories with Running While Black by Alison Mariella Desir and Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman. With her deep ties to the running community as an elite athlete, Gollish knows most of the international running stars and certainly all of the world-class Canadian athletes. Gollish also has an open-mind. What book do you love and want to discuss? Which athlete would you want to hear Gollish speak with? Who do you admire and who can we learn from and how would you like to get involved?
Sasha’s Stories is designed to be interactive, fun, and a chance to meet great people and hear from different perspectives. So here’s your invitation to join Sasha’s Stories, in the comments tell us what book you recommend, who she should reach out to, and what you’d like to see in our group.
Natasha Wodak is one of the fastest all-time Canadian female 10K finishers and, after her race last month in Berlin, the fastest all-time female Canadian marathon runner. How does she do it? And, equally important, how can you? Obviously she’s inherited preternatural gifts and her work ethic and ability to endure pain can not be duplicated. But there are other things—her preparation, her mantra, her race plan—that can be imitated by mere mortal runners. After returning home from Europe to her place in BC, we caught up with Wodak and asked for her ten racing tips that anyone can use.
10. Visualize your race.
Before lacing up her sneakers, Wodak has mentally put herself through the race course. “Picture different scenarios—you’re halfway and not feeling well, visualize how that will feel,” she says, and, after she’s placed herself throughout the course and imagined both the good and the bad, she prepares her responses. “Positive affirmations that you actually write down are extremely helpful,” says Wodak, whose affirmations are Yes, You Can, and This Is My Race. She says she has no problem with other runners telling themselves the same things.
9. Handle your logistics.
How are you getting to the race? What will the temperature be like in the corral? Where are you meeting your family afterwards? Please lord tell us you’ve decided before race day on your shoes. All of these decisions, these choices, are stressful, and competing in a race is stressful enough: “You don’t want anything taking you out of your zone on race day,” says Wodak, adding that the universe is jam-packed with surprises, but where the start line is located and which shoes to wear are not one of them. “You don’t want to feel anything stressful,” says Wodak, whose family and friends now know that she puts up boundaries on race day: Wodak is good-natured and friendly, but when it’s time to go to work, she works. “Let everyone in your circle know before race day what you need.”
8. Go easy on your watch.
Wodak competes in the Olympics and to set Canadian records and when she races, she doesn’t check her watch every K. In Berlin, it was the 5K splits, not the single kilometre times, that she was interested in. “You don’t need to know every single kilometre timeand it’s best when you organically feel the pace,” she says, adding that racing within five or even ten seconds of a per-split-kilometre is OK. “Analyzing every second stresses me out,” she says. “It’s easier, and more accurate, to check the clock on the timing mats, and those generally appear every 5K.” Don’t get hung up on your watch. Relax.
7. Settle in.
“At the start of a big city race, it’s very easy to go out too fast and also very dangerous to get stuck behind a big group of people who are slower than you,” says Wodak, who adds to her race day prep both where she wants to line up and who she wants to be pacing with. “Without a pacer, I would go out too hard, so I stick with someone I trust,” Wodak says, adding that by 10K in Berlin, she knew it was going to be her day. “I was hitting Tony’s heels and saying, ‘Are we going too slow?’ And he said, ‘You’re on pace,’ and that’s how you want it to feel—settle in, and save your big effort for the end.” In Berlin, Wodak increased her speed at 30K and maintained her 3:15-per-kilometres even at 35K. “I started passing women then and then it was like: ‘Let’s go!’” Wodak’s speed and strength are generational. But that race approach will produce universal results.
6. Have your checklist for the pain.
Wodak knows, as we all must, that racing at sometime is going to be painful. We’re pushing our limits and that hurts. So, when that happens, how will you respond? Wodak has a checklist of six things she does when the pain sets in.
Relax you arms
Breathe in through your tummy
Let your pacer help you
Quicken your stride
Take a few deep breathes
Shake out your arms
“Even if those things don’t work for you, after you try them all, you’ll probably have passed half a kilometre, and that’s good!” Wodak says. The main thing you want to do on the race course is avoid panic. “Staying calm is the trick employed by every racer,” she says. “Don’t freak yourself out, and so when you feel that sensation happening, have actionable tools in your toolbox to talk yourself down.”
5. Take your fuel.
In Berlin, Wodak took six gels. And at the Olympics, she and Malindi Elmore took their uniforms to the seamstress, to sew in pockets to hold their gels. Gels are serious. You need the energy. “Have gels on you and also practice taking gels on the course,” she says, and mentions that now, as she coaches runners, she’ll stage race rehearsals where her athletes pick up water from tables in race simulations. “I advise a gel every 5K,” she says and this is important: practice with your gels and use them.
4. Trust your community.
One of the best things about our sport is the people. Wodak, in Berlin, couldn’t find a gel. She didn’t panic. She yelled out her predicament to her pace group and, magically, a gel was produced. “Work together with the people around you,” she says, and this is for pacing, for sharing nutrients, for pumping each other up. Wodak, after receiving a gel, shared one of her bottles. At the end of her race, a runner approached her with a hug and started to cry. “Everyone out there is doing this together,” she says, “Spread the energy, and good vibes, around.”
3. Hold nothing back.
There will come a moment when it’s time to let loose and go like mad. This is what the speed work is for, the long runs—race day is time to lean in. “If you can get to 35K in a marathon, that’s when you can pick up the pace,” says Wodak, and here she differentiates from a mortal runner, but it is universal that also in a 10K or half marathon, when you see the finish line or bear down at the end, leave nothing in the tank. “Be prepared for the hurt and have the confidence to know you can take it,” she says, “Trust yourself and discover how long you can take the hurt for. Race day is when you show what you can do.“
2. Celebrate your race.
In Berlin, after breaking Malindi Elmore’s Canadian marathon record, Wodak had lunch with her parents and then champagne with her athletes. “Even though I was crippled,” she says, with a laugh. You’ll be tired after your race and let’s just assume you won’t set any records, but completing a race while half the country is sleeping is an extraordinary achievement and, after you’re done, it should not be like any other day. “It’s a feeling like no other,” says Wodak. “It’s why we do it, so drink it in.”
1. Do it again.
Not immediately. Wodak says she has no clue when she’ll race next and she enjoyed taking two weeks off before returning to training. All of that is important for avoiding burn out. But here’s the thing: stick with it. You get better at it the more you do it. And the beauty of our sport is that there’s always another race. “It always comes back,” says Wodak, of her will to compete. “I like to wait for it to come back organically, no pressure—there’s always, thankfully, another race to be run.”
“Good luck to everyone racing this weekend,” says Wodak, “and congratulations everyone who has recently raced. There is nothing better than our running community and I thank everyone for their amazing support.”
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