On this edition of iRun Radio:
We’ll check in with longtime marathon and ultramarathon runner Eric Strand, who has some big plans for running during and after the pandemic. Plus, runner and coach Dave Emilio on what he’s learned about recovering from injuries. And we’ll talk to an expert about whether runners should stretch or not.
As an everyday average runner, I’ve been running for over 20 years and for me, running at dawn or dusk is really a personal preference. The following reasons are not about the right or wrong way of running, but rather a route to one’s personal discovery.
4. It feels like I have the city all to myself, as there are not a lot of vehicle or people traffic out (other than other runners) early in the morning. The world is still undisturbed at dawn. In addition, with less people, there is less chance of interference and weaving around other people.
5. I like to watch the sun rise. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like a new beginning every sunrise and it has a positive effect on my attitude for the rest of the day.
6. It’s quieter both inside and outside of my house. I’ve learned to appreciate stillness as it provides a break from the everyday noise of all the activities that surrounds me.
7. There is a heightened awareness of my surroundings and it has led to discovering small details about my surroundings. i.e., a poem on a sidewalk pole or free street art (Poem by Dennis Lee & artwork courtesy Jorge Molina’s the 416 project). 
8. You get to know the schedule of the city and its people, like the time the CN trains roll by a certain level crossing and if I’m lagging behind, it means I need to run around the block, thereby adding an extra kilometre to my run. Or you know it’s about 5:30am when you see Toronto’s Morning Glory Cycling Club gathering for their group ride.
9. I always feel safer in the morning. There is more traffic in the evenings and I need to be more mindful of motorized vehicles, e-bikes and cyclists.
10. My family and the people I work with are not awake during the time I go for a run in the morning, so I’m guaranteed not to be disrupted by texts, emails or calls on my run.
11. I do run slower first thing in the morning, so it forces me to give myself a proper warm-up before any taxing workout.
12. In pre-pandemic times, races are typically in the morning hence training for them in the morning makes for an easy transition.
13. Personally, I find running in the evening keeps me awake past my regular bedtime.
14. My schedule can change on a dime during the day, hence running in the morning ensures a run/workout is completed.
15. I find staying motivated during the day to go for a run after work difficult. Especially if I’m feeling tired or there is inclement weather. (Pro-tip, run with a partner to keep you honest.)
16. If I do miss my run in the morning, I do have a choice to go during the day. I have less opportunities to fit in a run if I have to work late.
17. In general I find the hours between 3pm-6pm challenging for my diet. I get hungry and need to be extra careful about the type of snack consumed or it will come back and haunt me during an evening run.
18. I can just relax at the end of the day.
What are your reasons to run in the morning?
#SunRiseChallenge #SoundMindSoundBody
On this edition of iRun Radio:
Emily MacLean of Vancouver is still running even though she is expecting her first child. She will share some wonderful stories about staying fit while pregnant. We’ll talk with Katelyn Palmer of Toronto about how much she misses racing together with others, and what she’s most looking forward to when we’ll be able to be together again. And elite runner Krista DuChene on taking on longer distances and feeling gratitude for her great running career.
With the one-year anniversary of “cancellations” approaching, I’m increasingly nostalgic for those far-too early in the morning race day wake-up alarms. The giddiness and anticipation that months of training may (or may not) result in personal bests (PB) or stretch goal accomplishments. The near universal experience of pricking a finger while trying to safely pin a bib to our chosen shirts. Those moments on the course when you realize the only barrier between the here and now and crossing that finish line is in fact you. Heck, I even miss complaining about the anatomical advantage of cis-gendered male racers who can avoid the unending quest to the porta-potties. So: this is a celebration of our deeply beloved but not forgotten in-person races.
The last time I hitched my worn-in running shoes onto a makeshift fence to jump ahead in a corral surrounded by nearly 2,000 strangers and a handful of friends with a bib crookedly attached to my favourite long-sleeved blue shirt was February 23, 2020. I was in New York City for the fifth time, running my fifth half-marathon—a 2.5 times loop around Central Park. Naively, as we all were in those final pre-COVID moments, I had two goals for this “first race of the season”: to smile throughout and to finish. Looking back, it seems fitting yet also eerily ominous that my mindset was focused on having a good time, as if somewhere deep in the confines of my subconscious I knew this might be my last race for quite some time.
Perhaps more than the intrinsic pride of a PB, I miss the sense of community and camaraderie that makes races so special for amateurs, veterans and elites. I have benefited from so much positive role modelling at these events over the years. For instance, during my first half-marathon—through the Toronto Women’s Run Series—I was concerned about layers for this slightly chilly May morning. I asked the woman sitting next to my cheerleaders and I at the picnic table for advice, admitting it was my first longer race. Not only did she provide sound advice and offer an encouraging word pre-race, but after finishing her own half-marathon, she waited at the finish line to cheer for me. Tell me, in what other spaces does this type of magic happen where we relinquish our tendencies towards busyness to pause and support complete strangers?
Running is one of my life’s key coping strategies, so its no surprise that despite the cancellation of in-person races, I lace up daily and run as far as I can. I try to carry the spirit of the running/racing community with me. This means when I see a runner struggling to run up that hill, I offer an encouraging thumb’s up. Or when I see someone interchanging between walks and runs, I smile and praise their efforts. In these moments, I think of all the runners who on various courses have encouraged me not to give up over the past eight years of my running life. To keep moving forward. To cross that finish line.
I admit, I haven’t pivoted to virtual races. I thrive on the energy and momentum of in-person ones, even when it includes others unintentionally running into my heels or my tripping over a pylon. Yet, as this pandemic persists my longing for a good old fashion race intensifies. It may come as no surprise then that on my Sunday morning long runs, I have begun dreaming of setting up my own race and asking family members to cheer me on at various mileage points. In this vision, I adorn myself with a technical shirt that says something along the lines of, “If you can read this, honk.”
In this state of nostalgia, I also think of the tens of thousands of volunteers who have dedicated their early Sunday mornings to set up race courses, nourish us racers with water/Gatorade/nuun on the course, present us with our finishers’ medals, and tend to our injuries with such care. How are they coping during this pandemic? Are they also runners who can find strength in this hobby—or, perhaps more, accurately—this lifeline? If not, where are they turning to, and how can I pay it forward?
For starters, I will continue to run as it produces my best self. I also will cheer on fellow runners in my neighbourhood—it’s a lifeline. I hope you do the same—it’s what makes the running community so special, after all, knowing we are not and cannot be cancelled.
In running solidarity.
André Picard has been Canada’s keenest interpreter of medical issues since he began his medical beat at the Globe & Mail in 1987. He recently wrote a column about the agonizing decisions each person needs to make as they try and do what’s right for their families while balancing their own basic needs, like attending funerals or whether or not kids should go back to school. iRun editor Ben Kaplan caught up with the Montreal-based Picard, an avid runner, to hear his take on the latest news.
Ben Kaplan: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about Canada’s current state in the fight against COVID-19?
André Picard: I’m always cautiously optimistic, I guess. You have to remain hopeful if you want to keep doing this job, reporting on health.
BK: But in a nutshell?
AP: There are some good signs—but we have to be vigilant.
BK: Let’s start with the good signs. What are they?
AP: The numbers are coming down again.
BK: So why do we need to be vigilant?
AP: We’ve seen this before. The pessimistic side of me knows that we tend to be impatient and once that happens, the numbers jump up again.
BK: I think everybody wants this to end. So be specific. What can each of us do to finish this thing?
AP: The simple old stuff.
BK: Washing hands, distance.
AP: Yeah, it’s really simple, and wear a mask. Don’t gather in groups, and limit social contacts. The virus spreads by interactions, and so the less we interact, the less the virus spreads. It’s really the boring old stuff, but the problem is we just get tired of doing it.
BK: Some of it also is that there’s mixed messages. Like, we came down hard on politicians that travelled and yet, if we really didn’t want them to travel, why not make travel illegal?
AP: I do think there’s been lots of mixed messages which again means that people have to take personal responsibility, but I know what you mean. It doesn’t make sense for Air Canada to have flight sales to the Bahamas while we’re told to stay home.
BK: So what do we do?
AP: A lot of other countries have cracked down on travel. Of course it’s necessary for some goods to travel between countries and maybe it makes sense for some travel for business, but the travel for fun part? We shouldn’t be doing it and that message needs to be much clearer from the government, with stricter rules.
BK: It’s strange how a lot of things like whether to have a distanced beer with a friend, hold a race or take the kids to the park, become moral dilemmas.
AP: The simple most basic rule is to limit your contact with others. Don’t get in your car if you don’t have to. Don’t go to the Bahamas. Now, if your grandmother dies, do you have to go to the funeral?
BK: Do you?
AP: Maybe. My father-in-law did die and I did go to the funeral, but this was in the summer in Montreal with ten people spread out in masks in an auditorium when the cases were very low, but these are tough personal choices. I think rituals are important but they should be done as safely as possible.
BK: It’s funny to talk about rituals when we see 18,000 American football fans in the stadium watching the Green Bay Packers play against Tom Brady. How can the Americans do that?
They’re in total denial. It’s just nuts.
BK: How can they justify it?
AP: I watched a Dallas game with 35,000 people in the stands, and that’s just crazy, especially since the virus in the US is like three or four times worse than in Canada.
BK: Part of me is jealous. I feel like Toronto is the only place in North America where our kids still aren’t in school and meanwhile, they’re drinking draft beers at football games in Florida!
AP: They’re just giving the virus a chance to spread. And the US numbers speak for themselves, how bad they are. Now the school question, that’s complex and interesting.
BK: Why’s that?
AP: To me, schools should stay open. We can’t stop life altogether and it’s not like if the schools are closed, the kids won’t gather. The big question is how do you best control the environment? The school question is really about harm reduction and there’s no perfect approach. Though I do think they got it right in Quebec.
BK: How so?
AP: The Premier said that the number one priority is opening the schools and that everything else is secondary.
BK: And so what did Quebec do?
AP: The lockdown was much more strict than the one in Ontario and we applied a curfew, but the schools are open. The communication was clear and the politician did what he said he would and the message was clear—all you could want from a politician.
BK: Can you foreshadow our next few weeks, next month?
AP: January, February and March are the single hardest part of the pandemic. But there’s hope on the horizon with vaccines. There’s hope. But the vaccines won’t be here this spring and if the numbers come down, there will be the temptation to open up too much, and with this new variant, the numbers could go through the roof.
BK: So we just have to make it to April?
AP: I think in April, we’ll start having serious vaccines available, especially in Eastern Canada. And when the weather warms up again, it’s easier to go outside.
BK: How freaked out should we be about this new variant?
AP: We knew this was coming. We knew there’d be changes and this new variant seems to spread more quickly, but we don’t really know the details yet and I think it’s in line with what we’d expect. I also think social distancing and masks work well against this new variant, so it all comes back to what I first said: we need to do the old boring things.
BK: I could deal with a curfew, but I really miss running with my group. When can do that again?
AP: Running together in a group, even outside, is best avoided until everyone in the group has two shots of the vaccine.
BK: Oh, man.
AP: It’s just the distance and the time spent together on a Sunday long run is susceptible for a spread. 30 seconds when you see someone in a park? No big deal. But 25 people going on a Sunday long run together is a bad idea. We’re not all hysterical now like we were back in March, when there was a fear of runners, and surfaces. We know it’s safe. But a lot of time spent with a stranger, even outdoors, is dangerous. You’re interacting with every person that they’ve interacted with.
BK: Will we be able to race again in the fall?
AP: It’s up in the air. I think by September, maybe we’ll have half the population vaccinated, but a race with 30,000 people? That won’t look good. I don’t think it’s going to happen this year.
BK: On that note of depression, how’s your own running going?
AP: I plod along—as always.
BK: Is running still good?
AP: There’s nothing quite like getting outside and going for a run or a walk.
BK: Thanks for your time, man. Always a pleasure. Can you tell iRun readers about your new book?
AP: It’s called Neglected No More and it’s coming out March 2. It’s about how to improve home care and treatment for the elderly.
BK: Feels timely.
AP: There’s a lot more we can do and it’s time for a change.
On this edition of iRun Radio:
Elite runner Reid Coolsaet still has Olympic dreams. He’ll join us with an update on his own running and some advice for runners. We’ll talk to runner and running shop owner Lynn Bourque about how the pandemic has led to an increase in running and runners. And Jen Miller will share the experience of participating in a 24-hour race to start the new year.
On this edition of iRun Radio:
We’re going to catch up with an old friend, the amazing adventure runner and explorer Ray Zahab. Also, Andrew McKay shares his experience and tactics about running the Honolulu Marathon on a treadmill. And we’ll introduce you to a new app for runners, called Bannister.
Like many races in 2020, the Tamarack Ottawa Marathon Race Weekend went virtual for the very first time. This year race organizers were set to take the virtual racing experience to the next level. Rather than looking at the limits of virtual racing, they considered it as an opportunity to better connect with runners, giving much more for runners (and walkers) to look forward to in the lead up to race day in May. “Virtual racing is an opportunity to bridge the gap between where we are, and where we are going,” says race director Ian Fraser. With that positive spirit in mind, here’s a quick rundown on some of the ways Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend is helping foster an active, healthy lifestyle lifestyle and keeping, runners and walkers on track every step of the way!
ONE: Goal For It
Whether you’re running your first 5K or 50th marathon, setting goals not only helps you get across the finish line it makes your training that much more enjoyable. “We really want to focus on the journey to race weekend,” says Fraser. “This year it was more important for us to help people have more fun getting to race weekend.” As part of registration, runners will have access to Run Coach, an app that offer personalized training programs for all distances along with coaching tips and advice from experts.
TWO: Boost Your Motivation
Between the chilling cold weather and not having your run crew with you on that long runs Sunday at some point during your training, your motivation can dip, or even plummet. Needless to say having your own personal cheer squad can be just what you need to get out the door. Along with Run Coach, registering for Ottawa Race Weekend also gives you access to Motigo, an interactive platform that sends inspirational text messages that will help you stay focused when you need it most. In addition, runners can create personalized pre-recorded messages to play on race day, giving you a personal cheer squad to help you go the distance.
THREE: Support Local Business
Going beyond race day meant considering how runners live. For most runners, coffee is high on their beverage roster which made the idea of creating Run Ottawa coffee, a natural fit. Supporting local has becoming increasingly important, and as a result Run Ottawa offered a local coffee roaster the warehouse space to roast and produce an exclusive coffee for Run Ottawa. Word has it that there might even been a brewery partnership in the works too.
FOUR: Charity Challenge
In 2020, Ottawa Race Weekend raised over $400,000 for local charities, a tremendous feat considering the circumstances of this past year. This year, runners from coast-to-coast will have the opportunity to go the distance for charities, helping charities score additional funds with prize money award to charities with the largest number of registered runners, largest total dollars raised and the largest amount raised by individual runners. In addition, runners who raise $500 or more will score free entry to the 2022 Ottawa Marathon Race Weekend.
FIVE: Get Walking
Walkers have always been welcomed at Ottawa Race Weekend, but this year it’s a little different. In the theme of encouraging everyone to move more for their physical and mental well-being this year: walkers will notice a few differences. This year’s virtual event offered a unique opportunity to expand the walking event to include the same distances as running. In addition, registered walkers will be able to track their results on a dedicated race page.
SIX: Take On A Challenge
While one race might be a challenge for many runners, for anyone looking for something a little extra, Ottawa Race Weekend has you covered. In 2020, the Bytown Challenged launched which called upon runners to race three back-to-back races in a single day, for a 17K total. This year, runners racing the Voyageur Challenge (3 events totalling 36.1K) and Lumberjack Challenge (four events totalling 59.2K) will receive swag for the challenge as well as race medals for each event.
SEVEN: Build A Whole New Life
Running is a lifestyle, one that creates connections and a community among individuals who may never have had reason to meet. As we look ahead, this past year has given way to deeper connection between runners and race organizers. It has enabled Fraser and the team at Run Ottawa to consider more mindfully, what runners really want beyond race weekend. And it has helped guide what runners can expect beyond virtual racing, and how Run Ottawa can be a part of their everyday life, long after they cross the finish line.
On this edition of iRun Radio:
Natasha Wodak ran the second fastest marathon ever by a Canadian woman in late December. We will catch up with her and she will share the story of that run, and what it means for her Olympic dreams. We’ll talk about the documentary, “The Secret Marathon”. It’s the remarkable story of the trailblazing women who run marathons in Afghanistan. And the race director of the Boston Marathon, Dave McGillivray, who is a prolific runner himself, shares his advice on how to set goals and survive the pandemic.
As we enter a new year, not only do we get to say goodbye to a rollercoaster 2020, runners alike welcome a new lineup of running shoes. After reviewing the ASICS Gel-Nimbus Lite 2, we can safely say that this is going to be one of the best daily trainers of 2021, and up there with the top trainers ASICS has ever released.
The Gel-Nimbus Lite 2 is as innovative as any other shoe on the market, and is vastly different from its traditional models like the longstanding Cumulus, Nimbus, Kayano, and co. Ignore the fact that this shoe shares its name Gel-Nimbus; the Lite is very much its own, and not just a variation. The Gel-Nimbus Lite 2, designed for runners who underpronate or who have a neutral landing pattern, has a wide landing base built of Flytefoam, thick cushioning for long runs, and a soft lightweight mesh upper.
When you first put the shoe on, it’s about assessing the comfort. For us, the plushness of the tongue was immediately noticeable. Plus, the upper is a single breathable slab of mesh that reduces any sort of hotspots in and around the toe box. Even in -10 C conditions, the mesh was insulated enough to keep in the warmth.
BASIC FACTS:
Now, on to how the shoe actually performs. We put roughly 100km on these shoes in the first two weeks of testing, and the single slab of foam underfoot makes for a smooth transition from landing to take-off. The foam and feel most closely resembles Nike’s Epic React foam—springy, light, and durable.
ASICS’s tech team used 3D modelling to improve the overall feel of the shoe including a softer heel for maximum absorption, and a midsole constructed for durability. On the soft-to-stiff scale, the Gel-Nimbus Lite 2 would be on the softer side in regards to cushioning.
Typically, with soft midsoles, durability is sacrificed, but given the thickness of ASICS’ underfoot here, these trainers should last 500+ kilometres. In fact, there is additional rubber on the outsole in areas of high use (heel, outer edges of the sole, and around the toes) to extend the life of the shoe. That said, this isn’t necessarily designed to be a winter shoe with meaty treads, so be extra cautious in slippery conditions.
Given its versatility for shorter and longer runs, we see this shoe fitting in nicely in a runner’s lineup, alongside a faster racing shoe, and a lightweight workout shoe. A really good shoe that’s a value for the money and a great addition to the 2021 pursuit of PBs.
Get your pair here or at your local running retailer.
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