good day of raining. “ The sustained steep ascent was like
nothing I had ever faced before; it was a really humbling
part of the race for me.”
Weeks after the race, Steinberg looked back on the
event, which clearly altered how he now approaches
running. “Firstly, I have a sense of what it might be like
to be a professional athlete,” he said after spending a long
day immersed in an environment with Asics’s global
elite stable. But it was his fellow amateur teammates
who affected him most. “ The feeling of camaraderie and
community was truly affirming,” he said back at his day
job in Toronto. “As is often the way, running brought
together people from really different backgrounds,
different countries, different interests and created
a point of contact to bring us all together.” Inspired
by the experience, Steinberg has increased his mileage
and committed to a more disciplined strength training
program. “Maybe there still are a few PBs in my aging
legs,” he joked. That may indeed be the case, as he won
the Creemore Vertical Challenge 50k a few weeks after
returning to Canada. “Before I went to Chamonix, I
really loved running. Coming home, I love running more
because of the experience.”“When we reached
the rifugio, our guide
turned to us and
said nonchalantly,
‘about 10 years ago,
an avalanche tore
the roof right off this
building.’”
runningmagazine.ca Canadian Running 51Paul Calver, Gilles Reboisson