Malindi Elmore: Third Time Still a Charm
Third Time Still a Charm
Having broken the Canadian marathon record in early 2020, Malindi Elmore is a virtual lock for a Team Canada spot for Tokyo. It’s a great comeback story for someone who hung up her spikes in 2012, having narrowly failed to make her second Olympic team in the 1,500m. Now a mother of two, Elmore also spent some time as a pro triathlete before landing on the marathon as her chosen discipline (and third athletic career).
Rarely does an athlete rise to the level of Olympian and then successfully transition to a parallel sport. Malindi Elmore, thanks to her phenomenal Canadian-record-breaking performance at the 2020 Chevron Houston Marathon, has clearly embarked on what amounts to her third athletic career.
After withdrawing from the 2019 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon ( stwm) due to injury, Elmore ran Houston 12 weeks later, shaving more than two minutes off Rachel Cliff ’s record with a stellar 2:2 4:50 clocking. It was only her second serious marathon, the first one also at Houston the previous year, when she ran 2:32:15 for seventh place. Though she ran conservatively in her record performance, she still finished third, interrupting a podium sweep by a trio of world-class Ethiopian runners. The winner, Askale Merachi, ran 2:23:29, while Elmore finished just three seconds behind Bruktayit Eshetu in second, who had won Houston the previous two years in a row. (Eshetu also finished second in Toronto in 2019.)
A podium finish in a prestigious Gold Label marathon has only emboldened the 41-year-old Elmore, a native of Kelowna, B.C. “I was thrilled with the outcome of Houston, because we knew going into it I was in 2:2 4 shape,” she recalls. “It was a very windy day, and it was cool, and I was still able to hit that target. And I was able to do it feeling in control. I didn’t ‘go to the well,’ I felt really good the whole race.
“So, absolutely, I can run faster, I can do more in training, I can be more aggressive in racing because I ran [Houston] feeling comfortable and in control. Hopefully it’s not as windy on a given day, etc. But then this pandemic happens, and here we are a whole year later, and I haven’t had a chance to race.”
Although she has not officially been named to the Canadian Olympic team, she is certainly in the driver’s seat. Dayna Pidhoresky, by virtue of her winning the Canadian trials at stwm in 2019, has earned her spot, while Lyndsay Tessier, after finishing ninth in the 2019 world championships, and both Rachel Cliff (2:26:56) and Natasha Wodak (who ran 2:26:19 at The Marathon Project in December), can all make legitimate claims to the other two spots on the team.
Nobody could have foreseen a time when five women would be eligible to take an Olympic marathon place, so now Athletics Canada will appoint a National Team Committee to discuss the merits of each of these five qualified athletes and make a recommendation as to the two who might join Pidhoresky in Japan.
This won’t be Elmore’s first Olympics. In 2004 she represented Canada at the Athens Games, where she finished 10th in her firstround 1,500m heat and failed to advance to the semi-finals. It was a disappointing result, especially since she had run a personal best of 4:02.64 a month earlier at Rome’s Golden Gala meet. Remarkably, that performance makes her the sixth-fastest Canadian woman ever.
Despite the crushing experience, Elmore persevered with an eye on another Olympic berth. In 2007 she ran the qualifying ‘A’ standard for the 2008 Olympics, with a time of 4:05.65. By the rules set by Athletics Canada, she would need only to run the ‘B’ standard of 4:07.00 the following season, during the qualifying window. But she nursed a sore foot throughout much of 2007.
After being named to Canada’s 2007 Osaka world championship team, she f lew to Singapore, where the pre-worlds training camp was being conducted. She underwent an mri when she got there, which, sadly, revealed a navicular bone fracture. With that news, she was on the next f light home. Quickly she established a cross-training routine to maintain fitness while rehabilitating. She fully expected to demonstrate fitness and run under the required ‘B’ standard the following season, thereby earning a spot on the 2008 Olympic team, but narrowly missed it.
“I ran 4:07.07 and the ‘B’ standard was 4:07.00,” she recalls. “I ran that in Paris [at the Gaz de Paris Meeting], and I kind of felt robbed for not making the team. I knew I was going to be ready, because I was coming off that injury. I really felt I should have been there. I had qualified, I had standard, I was selectable. I wanted to be on that team, and I felt I was in my peak years. I was 28 years old, and I was ready to run well.”
Canada sent 28 athletes to Beijing, but none in the women’s 1,500m.
“I describe that as our soul-sucking years with Athletics Canada,” says Mike Van Tighem, who coached Elmore from the beginning and still consults with her. “That was a tough gig, going through the repeatable ‘A’ standards and the ‘A+’ standards. She and Hilary [Stellingwerff ], especially that window in ’08, they would have run
for any country in the Olympics, other than Canada, the way the standards were set up. It was tough.”
Still, she remained undeterred, winning national titles in both 2009 and 2010 and a Pan Am Games bronze medal the following year in Guadalajara, Mexico. Although she won the 2012 Canadian Olympic trials, she hadn’t achieved the qualifying standard, and so remained at home, while Stellingwerff and Nicole Sifuentes, who finished second and third at the trials, made the team bound for the London Games. It was another disappointment, but one she accepted.
“I knew if I didn’t make the Olympic team I was done,” Elmore now admits. “In 2012 I was ready to move on, and wanted to go back to school and become a teacher. I wanted to have kids. I wanted to go camping with my family. It was time to move on, and at 32, I was ‘old’ for the sport.
“That was the messaging we got. ‘You are in your peak in your late 20s, then you are done.’ I wasn’t interested in moving up to the 5,000m, which was probably an event that would have been good for me. So I definitely hung up my spikes in 2012 and put away any kind of harbouring regret, and moved on with my life.”
Van Tighem remembers her decision to retire as a natural evolution and one that was not unexpected. Seeing her win those Olympic trials, though, was a source of immense pride for him personally.
“One of the most amazing races I saw her run was winning that 2012 Olympic trials,” he says. “In one sense it didn’t mean anything, because she didn’t have standard, and couldn’t make [the Olympic team]. But on the other hand, it meant everything, because she knew she could win it, and knew she would win it. And she did. We knew that was it when she finished that race. That was the one that stands out for me.”
Elmore moved on with her life and forgot about athletics. She and her husband, Graham Hood (the second fastest Canadian miler ever, at 3:51.55), have been married for 14 years and have two children, Charlie (six) and Oliver (two). Although they never made national teams together – their respective international careers didn’t overlap – they had chance encounters. Their first remains a source of amusement. When she was in high school, Elmore was given the duty of presenting the winner’s bouquet for the 1996 Harry Jerome 1,500m race, which Hood won in 3:36. 46.
But they would meet again as young adults. She fondly recollects their first date. “He happened to come down to the 2004 Pre meet [the Prefontaine Classic, in Eugene, Oregon], and I had a dream day – I finished third,” she remembers. “Kelly Holmes [the eventual 2004 Olympic 800m and 1,500m champion] won the race, and I ran a big PB of 4:04.06 and that was Olympic ‘A’ standard.
We went out for pizza with a bunch of people afterward. We never looked back.”
Hood, who is now manager of strategic land development for the City of Kelowna, writes his wife’s marathon t raining program while collaborating with Van Tighem and exercise physiologist Trent Stellingwerff of Victoria (who is married to Hilary Stellingwerff ). Hood also was instrumental in Elmore’s second career as an Ironman triathlete.
At first, it was a means to stay active and answer her desire to be competitive at something. In her debut at the distance at the 2016 Arizona Ironman, she clocked eight hours 57 minutes 22 seconds, which included a 3:00:52 marathon after the gruelling 2.94mile (3.9k) swim and 112-mile (180.2k) bike segments. Only six Canadian women have
Elmore’s 4:02.64 performance a month before the 2004 Olympics makes her the sixth-fastest Canadian woman over the 1,500m distance
ever beaten nine hours in an Ironman, to date. “I didn’t do Olympic-distance triathlons,” Elmore explains. “The swimming is so critical, because there is drafting on the bikes, so if you are not a good swimmer, you are not going to be competitive. So I did long-course triathlon. I took my pro card in 2015, so I was competing in the professional division in Ironman distances.”
By her own count, she reckons she had run as many as 20 half-marathons during
“She and Hilary [Stellingwerff] would have run for any country in the Olympics, other than Canada, the way the standards were set up,” Van Tighem says. “It was tough”
triathlon competitions, which fuelled her desire to broaden her running career and ultimately become a marathoner. Van Tighem watched at a distance.
“I always joked of the triathlon that, you know, if you ever got over your crazy warmup with the swim and bike, you would be great!” he laughs. “You are spending too much time in the warmup.”
When Elmore told Hood she would like to try a proper marathon, her third career was born. Training was rewritten, and the journey to Tokyo 2020 began. The one constant through her athletic life has been Kelowna. Apart from her university years spent at Stanford University – which included a six-month placement in Paris as part of her international relations studies – the town in the heart of the Okanagan Valley has always been home. Resplendent with orchards and vineyards, the area is perfect for cycling and running.
“I do know the roads really well, and we are a best-kept secret in terms of a place to live and run,” she says proudly. “We have amazing options. We have this rail trail, which is about 60 kilometres long. Then we have great trails in the mountains. It’s really an amazing
When Elmore told Hood she would like to try a proper marathon, her third career was born, and the journey to Tokyo 2020 began
place to live and train, and we have quite mild weather. People think because it’s the interior of B.C. that it’s rugged. But this is the Okanagan, and it’s pretty good.”
The Okanagan is also bear country, with a rising number of grizzly bears making the valley their home. In the late autumn, when bears are fattening up before going into hibernation, Elmore takes precautions, watching for bear scat or staying away from the nearby Mission Creek when the Kokanee salmon spawn. Elmore says she has only once had a bear encounter, and that was during a triathlon in Osoyoos near the Washington-B.C. border.
“A bear crossed in front of me. I was on my bike,” she recalls. “That was pretty cool to see, but it’s more like you drive by on the road, and you see a bear foraging. The worst animal encounters are dogs on extendable leashes.”
The subject of diet is a source of amusement. While many of her contemporaries take great care in what they choose, and, more significantly, what they eliminate from their diet, Elmore says she isn’t fussy.
Her diet ”must include chocolate,” she drinks two or three cups of coffee a day and occasionally wine and beer. Homemade meals vary from grilled meat, fish and eggplant to burritos, lasagna and quinoa bowls.
This cavalier approach is hardly a surprise, considering she longs for weekends filled with downhill skiing, while maintaining a steady running base of 135 to 140 kilometres a week. Hood writes the program around 14-day cycles, the end of which is a skiing weekend. Of course, Elmore’s mileage will increase significantly during her marathon buildup.
“I do most of my workouts on my own,” she admits. “But I coach at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, so sometimes I will co-ordinate their workouts to overlap my workouts, and will jump in with the team and do my workout if it makes sense for them and makes sense for us.”
A recent workout included hard efforts of 5 km, 4 km, 3 km etc., and she drove down to Summerland, where Van Tighem oversaw the session in his car. The 5k split of 16:10 was a good indicator of how decades of running has benefited her. Van Tighem remembers her 5k PB was only slightly faster, at 15:40 from the 2007 Carlsbad 5k.
It’s a busy household, with kids and training and such. Yet Elmore does stay up on the various controversies in the sport. Whether women should be running the same cross-country race distances as men is currently debated on both sides of the Atlantic. Elmore offers an opinion, while admitting she can see both sides of the argument.
“Personally, I would not have liked to go to 8k or 10k when I was 17 or 18 years old. I would have really struggled, as much mentally as physically,” she admits. “Of course, now I realize that I could probably have done it, physically.
“I understand that the perceived message that women can’t run as far as men is sensitive because they can, obviously. But I think it’s a big ask of a 17-year-old boy coming out of high school to suddenly run 10k in ncaa cross country. It’s just a big step developmentally, as well. So, personally, I like the 6 or 8k distance, because it’s nice to have a distance where you can have middle-distance runners and distance runners meet in the middle and not make it exclusively for your 5k and 10k distance runners.”
The Canadian record performance earned Elmore a financial contract with Saucony, which will allow her to train through the next Olympic cycle. Returning to the top level of her sport, and at what many would consider an advanced age, can only provide inspiration to runners across the world.
“I feel fresh in so many ways, and I feel so grateful that I have had this second or third chance,” Elmore says, thoughtfully. “In the beginning of my running career I felt the sky was the limit, and that I was in control. I can take the ups and downs with grace now.
“At the end of the day, my life is where I want it to be, even if I didn’t have running, whereas I felt at the end of my 20s and in my 30s that I was putting everything on hold: my career, my family and finances. Now, I feel I can have my cake and eat it, too.”