ON THE COVER
LY N DS AY T E S S I E R is the
Canadian female masters
marathon record holder
and an elementary school
teacher in Toronto.KRISTA DUCHENE competed
for Canada in the
marathon at the 2016
Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro and placed
third that same year at
the Boston Marathon.PHOTO Jess Baumungrunningmagazine.ca
Visit for breaking running
news, features, product
reviews, recipes and your
favourite writers.Follow us
on Facebook
@CanadianRunningMagazine
@CanTrailRunning
on Twitter
@CanadianRunning
@CanTrailRunning
on Instagram
canadianrunning
canadiantrailrunning
on Snapchat
canadianrunning
on YouTube
Canadian Running Magazinerunning
magazine.ca/
category/
shakeout-
podcastShakeout
THE
PODCASTONLINE
The Morphing Marathon
I
magine, as a typical, middle-of-
the-pack marathoner, that you
happen upon a very particular kind of
time machine while out for a run – one
that allowed you to travel back in time
to the start line of a randomly-chosen
Canadian marathon. Feeling adven-
turous, you enter this quirky machine,
poke a few buttons and an instant later
find yourself at the start line of the
first-ever Ottawa Marathon in 1975.
You think, OK , I can do this. It’s just
another marathon. Then you take a
look around and the race is tiny, maybe
150 runners, and it’s almost all dudes
with mustaches. The horn goes off,
and you try to relax and settle in to a
moderate pace. In less than a kilometre,
though, you’re getting dusted by just
about every other competitor, male
and female alike. Lucky for you, there’s
barely any spectators lining the route
to witness you fading farther back from
the pack, so you keep going. By 15k,
you’re already feeling dehydrated and
bonking, but there’s nary an aid station
in sight , just you, chasing a pack of ver y
speedy runners in skimpy shorts along
the Rideau River.
Flash forward to today, and the
makeup of marathon participants
has changed dramatically. According
to a global report by RunRepeat.com
in partnership with the iaaf titled
“ The State of Running in 2019,” we’ve
slowed down – a lot. In 1986 the
average marathon finishing time was
3:52:35. Today, it’s 4:32:49 – a full 40
minutes and 1 4 seconds slower. Yet,
the fact that current marathoner paces
pale in comparison to when the race
was the domain of a fringe group of
athletic fanatics stems from a democratization of the
marathon over the past few decades, leading to a greater
breadth of participants – especially female participants
and particularly here in Canada, with the third-highest
proportion of female runners in the world at 57 per cent.
While total marathon participation has dipped some-
what in the last few years globally, it certainly doesn’t
mean that the world ’s most iconic race is going away any
time soon. Marathon participation has simply splintered,
due to the growing ranks of runners who choose to
participate in the 5k, 10k and half-marathon distances
now widely on offer at marathon race weekends in
Canada and around the world.
The authors of the global running report also suggest
that a wider variety of participants also value the life
experiences that running facilitates as much, if not more
so, than competition. Consider the rise of the runcation
in recent years; there are now myriad options across
the globe, such as getaways to Paris that include guided
running tours of the city, from the Eiffel Tower to the
trendy Marais district, or an annual trip to Jamaica that’s
as much about the warm, sandy beaches and reuniting
with friends as it is about participating in the annual and
spirited Reggae Marathon (p. 40).
Meanwhile, a new wave of young, urban runners
across the country are well on the way to re-envisioning
the entire culture and experience of running. Examples
include the plucky North End Runners in Halifax, who
proudly embrace this slowly revitalizing part of the
city as much as the diversity of their own club members
(p.69). Then there’s Toronto’s youthful RunTOBeer
series of evening runs, that start as three separate groups
who weave their way through Toronto’s busy downtown
streets, ultimately joining as one toward the end for a
beer or two at one of the city’s many craft breweries.
Although the marathon is the focus of this issue, we
hope that runners of all stripes derive value and inspira-
tion from the following pages while training for race day,
from the 5k to 42.2k.Dave Carpenter, Managing Editor
@CanadianRunning4 Canadian Running September & October 2019, Volume 12, Issue 6Matt^Stetsoneditorial