10 Questions
Cross-Country Champ Sasha Gollish
After a 10-year hiatus from the sport, 34-year-old Sasha Gollish stormed back to running in a big way. First, she tore up the track as a graduate student, winning a cis title while studying engineering at the University of Toronto. In 2015, Gollish represented Canada at the Pan Am Games, winning a bronze medal in the 1,500m. After just missing making the Olympic team, Gollish capped off 2016 with one of the most impressive half-marathons in women’s Canadian history (1:11:05) and won the Canadian Cross-Country Championship.
1 What would you say are your defining characteristics as a runner?
My ability to look at it and say “this is just running.” Don’t get me wrong, it takes a lot of hard work, resilience, patience and grit – but it’s also just chasing times and laps. When things get tough when running, I remember just how good I have it. I guess I’d have to say I am relentlessly positive and confidently optimistic.
2 What do you admire most in another runner?
Tenacity, resilience and the ability to love what they do, especially when things get tough.
3 What is your idea of happiness?
This changes all the time, but not in a bad way. I guess I don’t want to be one of those people that is wishing their life away trying to chase “ideal happiness.” Love, laughter and friends bring me happiness. And a blissful long run surrounded by nature really does put a smile on my face.
4 Who are your athletic heroes?
I grew up as an alpine ski racer, so Kate Pace Lindsay was someone I always followed. I couldn’t wait to videotape (yes, videotape!) the races and watch them. Chandra Crawford, a Nordic skier, is also in there. She represents everything super badass about women’s sport. She founded Fast and Female after she retired. It’s an organization dedicated to the empowerment of young girls through sport. As for a runner, definitely Paula Radcliffe; so much grit, grace and gratitude.
5 Where would you like to live?
Right here in Toronto! I love to travel. But there’s nothing better than coming home to my friends and family. And yes, “embrace your inner winter” and find some amazing things to do in and around the frozen north. And cottage country in Ontario, there really is nothing else that compares to it. I have some amazing times with my family up in Muskoka, and at the new place I built with my boyfriend up on Thunder Beach in Georgian Bay. Those sunsets, and the training terrain around these places – just amazing.
6 What is your greatest running related regret?
My 10-year hiatus. Sometimes I wonder, ‘ what if I kept training consistently on my feet?’ But really, I live by no regrets, and I do not regret my 10-year hiatus. I would never have achieved my academics or career, and perhaps I would have hated running if I’d trained full-time back then.
7 What is your greatest fear?
Spiders. Big, hairy spiders.
8 If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would like to stop procrastinating. I’m working at it – making plans, creating steps to achieve those plans, and I’m getting better at it. And maybe my feet? I look like the human “L .” Or perhaps, I could just be taller to match my rather large feet (size 10, in case you were wondering).
9 What’s one thing you can’t live without?
Coffee. My parents grew up drinking delicious French press dark roast, and the smell of it reminds me of some amazing family mornings. I introduced my boyfriend to this coffee making method when we got together. Our coffee mornings are sacred times. And I’m not addicted, I actually can go cold turkey and nothing happens. But I love the taste and I love the memories that it invokes.
10 What is your motto?
Always play. You have to love what you do and be passionate about it; it will get you out of bed on those mornings when it just seems so tough.