Running toward an Olympic dream
Niagara native Mariah Kelly training year-round as a middle-distance specialist
Middle-distance runner Mariah Kelly’s time of 4:12 in the 1,500 was fast enough to give her the bronze medal at the Canadian World Trials in Montreal.
Imagine where the 27-year-old Niagara Falls native would have wound up on the podium had she raced against the clock in her own shoes.
“I was pretty nervous the day of the final, and I forgot my spikes at my Airbnb, which was 30 minutes from the track. I didn’t realize I didn’t have them until right before I was supposed to enter the call tent,” the Saint Michael Catholic High School graduate recalled.
Kelly tried on one pair before squeezing into a pair that Kristina Popadich offered in the frantic time of need.
“It was a half-size too small, but it was going to work,” she said. “I was able to do one stride in them, and then the gun went off.
“I ended up winning my first national medal in someone else’s spikes.”
Kelly has little, if any, time to savour that feat. She has until Aug. 24 to achieve the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world standard of 4:065 and already has races lined up in Tennessee, South Carolina, Ireland and Belgium.
Kelly is “super confident” she can better her personal best of 4:093 and achieve the world standard.
“I am the fittest I’ve ever been, and I have yet to have an opportunity where I can really showcase
where I am at.”
She has learned from experience to focus only on the things she can control when competing.
“You have to just focus on controlling the controllables,” Kelly said. “If you start worrying about stuff that’s out of your control, you just sort of throw in the towel before the gun even goes off.
“When I’ve performed my best is when I’ve been able to just
really immerse myself in the moment and just do what I can do now.”
With 28 to 32 “peak age” for middle-distance runners, Kelly figures she has two Olympic cycles to accomplish her dream of winning a medal for Canada at the Summer Games.
This is her “first real go” at trying to make the national team.
Kelly competed in the Olympic trials in 2016 but couldn’t meet the time standard to make the team.
Kelly suggested it’s “not at all” unusual for middle-distance runners to become faster as they get older.
“It’s pretty typical for people to drop time as they get older.”
She suggested the need to juggle athletics and academics can adversely affect runners when they are concentrating on school.
“That’s a lot to do. It’s sort of burning the candle at both ends,” she said. “When people graduate and, if they’re good enough, they can do the professional route. Then, they just get to run.
“I think that’s where a lot of the time drop comes from.”
Her Olympic goals are long term.
“This Olympics the goal is to get in there and really see what I can do,” she said. “But in 2024, that’s really where I would like to put a focus on the final and getting on the podium.”
When Kelly was 10, she ran for her elementary school, Notre-Dame-de-la-Jeunesse, and got bumped up to compete against 12- and 13-year-olds.
“It was just a little cross country race in the woods. I remember somehow being way out ahead of everybody, and I won the race by over a minute.
“It was just so easy, and it was fun. I think that’s when I realized that I had a natural ability at it.”
Kelly wasn’t able to outrun the running back after that.
“In high school, when I started running track I realized that I really, really enjoyed it,” she recalled.
“When I joined Athletics Niagara, then I realized I wanted to be really good at it.”
Before earning a five-year, full-ride athletic scholarship to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, Kelly was focused on doing well in the 400 and 800.
“I had never done any longer distances. I was more of a sprint-based athlete, but then in university, I dealt with some injuries in my first year.”
At her coach’s suggestion, she started running the 1,500 along with cross country and some three- and five-kilometre runs.
“That was sort of when I realized that the 1,500 was maybe a better place for me.”
Kelly, who graduated from Baylor with a health science degree in 2015, now lives in Victoria, B.C., where she trains yearround as an athlete sponsored by New Balance.
“Basically, New Balance supports me on my journey toward the 2020 Olympics,” said Kelly, who receives support from Athletics Canada.
“I don’t have a part-time job. I have enough to get by.”
She also is part of a group that has a private sponsor, 94 Forward.
“They pretty much take care of everything for us.”
Victoria is the middle-distance hub for Canadian runners because its climate allows for yearround training.
Kelly’s three- to six-week training regimens don’t leave her with much downtime: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday workouts and a second run after the workout in the afternoon; Wednesday, Friday, weight-room sessions along with a morning run and an afternoon run; Sunday, a long run and typically a yoga session as a recovery; Monday, water therapy or biking or running, or all three, on a maintenance day.
Whew, that’s a lot of eggs in only one basket of her life.
“Yeah, it’s true. My life is 99 per cent running and one per cent everything else,” she agreed with a laugh.
What keeps Kelly going is the feeling she gets when she runs.
“It’s not always there, of course. I have my bad days, but more often than not, when I’m running or when I’m training — especially, when I’m racing — there’s just this feeling of freedom and power,” she said.
“I have a deep connection with my inner-self when I’m running, and I’ve never experienced that with anything else.”
‘‘ I ended up winning my first national medal in someone else’s spikes.
MARIAH KELLY Middle-distance runner