Andrew Kastor, head coach at Mammoth Track Club and
husband/coach of Olympic silver medallist Deena Kastor, was
brought on for training guidance leading up to Beat The Sun. “I
was actually in contact with Andrew quite a bit after Boston,”
says Steinberg. “I was trying to figure out how to properly
train without injuring myself, and prepare for the mountains.”
Kastor said that his endurance was fine and just needed to be
maintained, but that he needed to figure out a way to work on
his hill strength. Steinberg lives in Barrie in order to be close
to his kids, but commutes four hours daily to Toronto, where
he works in communications with the Catholic Archdiocese
of Toronto. Somehow, he finds the time to tuck in significant
runs, and thankfully his girlfriend lives in Hamilton, right
next to the Niagara Escarpment, which was perfect for big
trail sessions. “For my last training run two days before f lying
to Europe, I ran the big hill on the Sulphur Springs course 1 4
times.” Steinberg was as ready as he could be.
The 48-year-old Steinberg showed up in Chamonix a week
ahead of time for their mandatory training camp. There he was
assigned leg five, a mostly gravel road 6k ascent on the Swiss
side of the Alps, followed by an all-out rush down the hill for
seven more kilometres. He also ran the second last leg of the
race, a super-fast downhill singletrack course. “It’s mostly root
and rock, which is a lot like the trails in southern Ontario, so
I was used to that .” There was also a harsh 90-degree turn
at a cliff. “It was about a 50-foot drop-off. I got to practice
making the turn during our training camp. It is sort of like
the Escarpment. We’re lucky to have some great trails in
Ontario. Also, there was a spotter there to catch you, just in
case,” Steinberg recalled after the race. “ The toughest section
for me was, by far, the very last section of my day,” Steinberg
said. “ The climb to Bellevue [during leg 11] included a single-
track trail that switch-backed up the mountain dozens of times
through the forest .” Steinberg compares it to trail conditions
in parts of the Bruce Trail or Killarney P rovincial Park after ataking another vacation.” He sat in his hotel the night before the Boston
Marathon filling out the Beat The Sun confirmation form, which required
that he prove his fitness with past results, and fill out a profile to begin
the 16-week training. “It was actually a good way to keep my head out of
Boston,” he laughed. “Luckily, I didn’t think about Beat The Sun while
running Boston; that could have been daunting.”
50 Canadian Running November & December 2016, Volume 9, Issue 7
Quentin Iglesis, Alexandre Buisse