a national team in her 40s. Reid Coolsaet, the
two-time Olympic marathoner from Hamilton
who also trains with Scott-Thomas, turned
40 in July and will make his masters mara-
thon debut this fall. And North York-athlete
Lyndsay Tessier, who ran a 2:30 personal best at
the 2018 Berlin Marathon at the age of 40, was
named to the Canadian World Championships
team for the marathon this year.
“Seeing three marathoners in Canada in
their 40s doing well at that stage of the game is
great. I’m not sure it’s a precursor for anything,
but hopefully, it is,” Scott-Thomas says.
“I would like to think that part of the
messaging there is not just about the Olympics,
it’s actually about being a healthy person later
in life. 40 ain’t that old any more.”
Smoliga says seeing runners like DuChene,
Coolsaet and Tessier who are performing at
very high levels in their 40s may become
increasingly common.
That’s because the science and wisdom
around training and recovery has improved
over time and each generation of masters
runners will have more years of smart
training behind them than previous genera-
tions of athletes.
“ That might have some major effects, some
potentially physiological effects, on their
longevity – just the fact that the quality of
their training and the quality of their recovery
has been better for a decade,” Smoliga says. “It
just sets them up for more success later in life.”
When Coolsaet set out to qualify for the
national team for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics,“I would like to
think that part of
the messaging
there is not just
about the Olympics,
it’s actually about
being a healthy
person later in life.
40 ain’t that
old anymore.”
—Dave Scott-Thomas,
Krista DuChene’s coachrunningmagazine.ca Canadian Running 45Ma
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