Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis
2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon
The pursuit of the Olympic dream led Dylan Wykes, Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis to the start line of the 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in search of the 2:11:30 Olympic standard.
Runners were greeted by cold temperatures and strong winds, which played havoc with the large contingent of east African runners. Coolsaet had a single pacemaker assigned to him, but, considering the foul weather, he wondered if the fellow was up to the challenge. Concerned he might wind up in no-man’s land, Coolsaet made the bold decision to go out with the lead pack.
Passing the halfway mark in 63:58, he benefited from running in a group. “I ran with the lead pack, but I had to stop at 23 km to use the bathroom, and when I got back on the course, my pacemaker realized I had dropped and came back and helped me get back into the lead pack,” Coolsaet reveals.
“By the time we turned around and were at 33 km or so, my pacer dropped off and I was running with Kenneth Mungara [of Kenya] and Shami Dawit [of Ethiopia]. I was getting excited, thinking if I play my cards right I could win it. I was feeling great! Then, by 37 km, I was not feeling great.”
While several elites dropped out, Coolsaet pushed hard to the finish, claiming third in 2:10:55. It was the nearest anyone had come to Drayton’s record. “When I looked up at the finishing clock, it still said 2:10, and I pushed the last 50 metres. I was really excited I had run a 2:10,” he continues. “Then it dawned on me there was still time for Eric to get under standard. I could see Eric coming around the corner, and, looking at the clock, it was too close to call. He ended up making it by less than a second.”
Gillis finished fourth, in 2:11:29. For Coolsaet and Gillis to finish in the top five in a race that has been considered one of the world’s best (carrying the iaaf Gold Label since the standard’s inception) was an astounding moment in Canadian marathon history.
The duo would be joined in the London Olympics by Dylan Wykes, who had missed the standard in Toronto, where he finished sixth. The following spring Wykes ran 2:10:47 in Rotterdam, at the time the second-fastest Canadian performance. Wykes would be the only one of the trio to finish in the top 20 in London. Against this backdrop, what would happen in Rio four years later was extraordinary.