… no, not a marathon swimmer… a marathon runner… but we’ll let him in anyway! 😉
So our local running buddy, Stephen Connor, was nice enough to invite us LOSTies to attend a speech with his Connor’s Runners, where he brought in Reid Coolsaet to talk! Reid is one of three members of the men’s Canadian Olympic Marathon team! Very cool(saet)! (sorry, I had to…)
It was a great chance to talk with such a knowledgeable runner. In the pic above you have me… Carla (who is our resident ultra-marathon runner, having been on the Cdn National 100 km team!), Olympian Reid Coolsaet… Joanne (4 time Ironman, multi-marathon and Boston Marathon runner) and Brett (a sub-3:00 hour marathoner and just back from his near miss at qualifying for Ironman World Championships in Kona… due to his crash on the bike at IM Wisconsin… still sporting the bandages and war-wounds!).
It was a really enjoyable and casual talk. I didn’t see Reid last time Stephen invited him in, but Joanne did… and she noticed how much more relaxed he was this time… laughing and joking. I’m thinking that is the difference between giving a speech BEFORE the Olympics, with all the pressure and expectations of the country on your shoulders… and AFTER the Olympics, when you’ve gone out and done your best and the pressure is off!
So we got a chance to talk with him one on one and listen to his talk and here’s a few things I picked up:
- this was the first time Canada has sent a runner in the men’s Olympic Marathon since 2000… and first time we’ve sent 3 in a very long time!
- now if you remember watching it on TV the big thing was that it was HOT! Guys were dropping like flies. Reid was having a very good race… until the halfway point when the heat was getting to him and he started to bonk, but still pushed on until he really bonked with about 2 km to go. It happens to the best of ’em!
- But he still managed to finish 27, just two positions of his finish at World Championships! Not too shabby!
- a bit of interesting trivia that I didn’t know… but apparently in Cross Country running it is scored as a team… meaning that you add up the positions of all 3 of your teammates and see how your team finished relative to the other teams… and although all 3 of our marathoners finished in the 20’s, position-wise, that would have ranked us as 3rd as a team!
- I’ve always wondered if there was any correlation between the popularity of marathon running in the general masses (guys like us) and putting together a strong team of Olympic marathoners (like Reid and the guys)… and turns out there is. As our marathons in Canada grow in size… the races become more profitable… which enables the race directors to attract more top quality runners from around the world… which gains more publicity… which gains more sponsors… for our Olympians! So keep running the marathons… it actually does support our Olympians and make us better at the Olympics!
- Guelph as become the hotbed for elite marathoners in Canada!
- when Carla was training for her 100 km races and Brett was training to qualify for Kona, they both topped out at about 150 km per week… Reid tops out at about 250 km per week. wow.
- … and if you think that is hard to relate to… then you don’t want to know the time he holds per km… just over 3 min/km. wow.
- Reid is already looking ahead to Rio for the next Olympics… but would be the first to admit that we have a great crop of new young guys coming up too! Something that hasn’t been said about elite Canadian marathoners in a long time! woohoo!
Good luck in your upcoming races, Reid… and we’ll all be cheering you on to break that stubborn 2:10!!!
PS. If you missed Reid last night… he’s also going to be the keynote speaker for the Hamilton marathon!
Cheers,
Rob