Channel Your Inner Olympian
When you receive this issue, our Olympic athletes will be preparing to travel to Tokyo for the biggest event of their lives. We look forward to bringing you the results and stories from these much-anticipated Games on our website, runningmagazine.ca. Track and road events run from July 29 to Aug. 7.
In this issue, Madeleine Kelly offers readers a glimpse into the relationship between Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and her sister, Lucia Stafford, both of whom, if all goes well, will grace our screens and feeds from Tokyo this summer (p.28). And Paul Gains spoke to a number of Canadian Olympic medallists for insights into the things athletes sign up for (though possibly unknowingly) in their quest to reach the podium (p. 44). Our Olympic-themed coverage continues with runner-friendly Japanese recipes you’ll want to try at home (p.12) and a look back at the Olympic medals won by Canadians in track and field since the Games began (p.8). (But there’s plenty of great non-Olympic content in this issue, as well.)
As we went into production, the Boston Athletic Association had just announced the toughest cutoff for Boston qualifiers in at least the last 10 years: seven minutes, 47 seconds – meaning entrants needed a result that much faster than their official age-group qualifying time to be accepted into the Oct. 11 race. This was necessary because the field size has been reduced from 30,000 to 20,000, due to the pandemic, and demand is higher than ever.
For many marathoners, the Boston Marathon is our Olympics. And for more than 9,000 “qualified” runners around the world, the disappointment of not making the cut is just as acute as it is for the Olympic hopefuls who didn’t qualify.
I could have gone to Boston this year, but decided not to push my training after having knee surgery in January. There’s some consolation in knowing my spot went to someone prepared to train hard for a great result, but part of me wonders whether and when I’ll return to marathon training and if I’ ll ever make it back to Boston. At this point, my most ambitious goal is to run a 30k leg of the Monarch Ultra in September. (There are a number of stories about this unique event on our website.)
My wish – for everyone hoping to race a world major this fall – is that the races take place, safely and satisfyingly. And to our Olympic athletes, godspeed.