The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon (TWM) returns on Sunday, doubling because the Canadian Marathon Championships. For our Canadian elite athletes, Sunday’s race offers an opportunity to qualify for the marathon on the 2025 World Athletics Championships, to be held in Tokyo. Canadian file holder Natasha Wodak will toe the road in Toronto for the primary time in 11 years, setting her sights on her first-ever Canadian marathon title.
Wodak made her marathon debut right here in 2013. The 42-year-old from Vancouver has been on a golden streak this yr, profitable the Vancouver Half Marathon in June and Vancouver’s Eastside 10K in September. However earlier this yr, she fell wanting her aim to qualify for Canadian Olympic group after finishing 4 marathon builds and taking three makes an attempt on the race within the span of 18 months.
Natasha Wodak misses Olympic marathon normal in remaining try
“The marathon is a beast”
“Nothing is assured,” Wodak says. “By no means in one million years would I’ve thought that after operating 2:23:00, I wouldn’t be capable of come inside 4 minutes of that, 4 totally different instances in 18 months.” Wodak accomplished the 42.2K occasion on the 2023 Budapest World Championships, 2024 Houston and Hamburg marathon occasions, falling wanting the Olympic normal every time, and had scratched from the 2023 London Marathon after coming down with a abdomen bug. “The marathon is a beast; you’ve bought to have the fitting day, the fitting health, the fitting climate–the whole lot has to click on on the fitting day.”
The 2-time Olympian holds a private greatest of two:23:12, which has stood because the Canadian file because the 2022 Berlin Marathon. “The A aim is to win the Canadian marathon championships,” she says, hoping so as to add that title to her already spectacular resume. “Everybody needs to be a nationwide champion.”
After steering away from her authentic plan to race on the Valencia Marathon, Wodak is taking a special method at Toronto’s big-city race; she will lastly get pleasure from racing in Canada in entrance of household and associates with out the strain of hitting the Olympic normal. She provides that the beneficiant prize purse supplied by TWM was an incentive. She revealed she plans on beginning out conservatively, with the hope of getting a quick second half. “I’ll exit at 2:25 to 2:26 tempo, and hope to catch a number of of the ladies who exit too laborious,” she says. “It could be very nice to position within the prime three. If all goes properly, possibly I can shock myself and others by having a very quick final 10K.”
After her makes an attempt to qualify for Paris 2024, Wodak says she has discovered to not take something without any consideration. She says she started to leap into exercises with associates, operating as a result of she needed to and doing what felt good. “I did benefit from the course of over time, so I’ve no regrets,” she says. “It’s a privilege to do that.”
Erin Mawhinney to make marathon debut
Defending TWM half-marathon champion Erin Mawhinney shall be doubling her traditional distance to make her first-ever try at 42.2K. The 28-year-old, a two-time winner of the Beneath Armour Toronto 10K, has been slowly build up her mileage whereas coaching for the previous three years with coach and two-time Olympian Reid Coolsaet; on the peak of her construct, she reached 190 km in a single week–fairly a distinction to the utmost of 43 km she used to run weekly in college. The rise in mileage means elevated time devoted to coaching, including to her already-busy schedule; the Hamilton native works full-time as a nurse, with the occasional night time shift. “My residence is a multitude on a regular basis, and I’m all the time out of groceries, since I’m consuming extra to help that mileage,” she says.
“You go in a bit of bit blind,” Mawhinney says. “You possibly can form of predict from the half-marathon what would possibly occur, but it surely’s additionally a very totally different occasion.” Her half-marathon greatest stands at 1:11:50, which she ran in March. “Someplace within the low 2:30s can be an excellent day, however I’m principally simply excited to check out a marathon.”
Anne-Marie Comeau to hunt redemption
Anne-Marie Comeau of Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., is the reigning Canadian Marathon Championships silver medallist; the 2018 winter Olympian in cross-country snowboarding led for 42.1 kilometres of final yr’s race earlier than being handed by Quebec Metropolis’s Caroline Pomerleau, who nabbed the title. Comeau, who’s 28, struggled during the last 10 km, and goals to pack her pockets with gels this yr to keep away from fading within the remaining stretch. “I had a tough yr,” she says. “I’ve carried out a whole lot of marathon builds with out really racing.” Comeau was set to race the Houston Marathon and the Boston Marathon, however needed to scratch from each, first as a result of Covid, after which to a shoulder dislocation whereas snowboarding.
Lastly getting the prospect to race, Comeau has set large foals for herself. “I need to get a private greatest,” she says. “My marathon PB (2:34:51) is from final yr on this course. I’m going to begin a bit slower, at 2:31 to 2:32 tempo, and see if I’m capable of push more durable towards the top.”
Worldwide discipline
Waganesh Mekasha of Ethiopia has her eyes set on the course file this yr. The 32-year-old holds a private greatest of two:22:45 from the 2019 Dubai Marathon and took second in Toronto final fall, with a time of two:23:12. “I loved the race final yr,” she says. “The course was nice. The pacer dropped early and it affected us.” Her greatest time sits simply off the course file of two:22:16. The 2023 Ottawa Marathon champion feels as if she has ready even higher than final yr. “If the tempo goes out properly and the climate is nice, the course file is feasible,” she says.
Ethiopia’s Roza Dereje comes into the race with the quickest private greatest within the ladies’s discipline (2:18:30), and also will be combating to take down the five-year-old course file. “I’m prepared and ready to problem the course file,” she says. Dereje, 27, completed fourth within the marathon on the Tokyo Olympic Video games, and have become a mom in 2023. That is her first time visiting Canada.
For the primary time within the race weekend’s historical past, the 5K race, historically held on the identical day because the marathon and half-marathon, has been moved to Saturday; the race has already raised greater than $3,000,000 for the TCS Charity Program.
The best way to watch
The 2024 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Canadian Marathon Championships might be streamed on Sunday, Oct. 20, on World Athletics Inside Monitor, CBC Sports activities, or the CBC Gem app. The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is likely one of the first North American marathons to be featured on the WA Inside Monitor worldwide feed. This yr, 30,000 individuals from 70 nations will participate in Toronto’s race weekend (a file). All runners might be tracked utilizing the official TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon app, obtainable for obtain on the App Retailer and Google Play.
