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 12 months, successful the Vancouver Half Marathon in June and Vancouver’s Eastside 10K in September. However earlier this 12 months, she fell in need of her purpose to qualify for Canadian Olympic crew after finishing 4 marathon builds and taking three makes an attempt on the race within the span of 18 months.
“The marathon is a beast”
“Nothing is assured,” Wodak says. “By no means in one million years would I’ve thought that after working 2:23:00, I wouldn’t have the ability to come inside 4 minutes of that, 4 completely different instances in 18 months.” Wodak accomplished the 42.2K occasion on the 2023 Budapest World Championships, 2024 Houston and Hamburg marathon occasions, falling in need of 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 obtained to have the suitable day, the suitable health, the suitable climate–the whole lot has to click on on the suitable day.”
The 2-time Olympian holds a private finest of two:23:12, which has stood because the Canadian file for the reason that 2022 Berlin Marathon. “The A purpose 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 unique plan to race on the Valencia Marathon, Wodak is taking a unique method at Toronto’s big-city race; she will lastly take pleasure in racing in Canada in entrance of household and buddies with out the stress 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 just a few of the ladies who exit too arduous,” she says. “It will be very nice to put within the prime three. If all goes effectively, possibly I can shock myself and others by having a extremely quick final 10K.”
After her makes an attempt to qualify for Paris 2024, Wodak says she has realized to not take something with no consideration. She says she started to leap into exercises with buddies, working 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 will probably be doubling her standard distance to make her first-ever try at 42.2K. The 28-year-old, a two-time winner of the Underneath Armour Toronto 10K, has been slowly increase 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 evening shift. “My house is a large number on a regular basis, and I’m all the time out of groceries, since I’m consuming extra to assist that mileage,” she says.
“You go in slightly bit blind,” Mawhinney says. “You’ll be able to kind of predict from the half-marathon what would possibly occur, nevertheless it’s additionally a very completely different occasion.” Her half-marathon finest stands at 1:11:50, which she ran in March. “Someplace within the low 2:30s could be an awesome 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 12 months’s race earlier than being handed by Quebec Metropolis’s Caroline Pomerleau, who nabbed the title. Comeau, who’s 28, struggled over the past 10 km, and goals to pack her pockets with gels this 12 months to keep away from fading within the closing stretch. “I had a tough 12 months,” she says. “I’ve accomplished a variety of marathon builds with out truly racing.” Comeau was set to race the Houston Marathon and the Boston Marathon, however needed to scratch from each, first as a consequence of Covid, after which to a shoulder dislocation whereas snowboarding.
Lastly getting the possibility to race, Comeau has set huge foals for herself. “I wish to get a private finest,” she says. “My marathon PB (2:34:51) is from final 12 months on this course. I’m going to start out a bit slower, at 2:31 to 2:32 tempo, and see if I’m in a position to push tougher towards the top.”
Worldwide subject
Waganesh Mekasha of Ethiopia has her eyes set on the course file this 12 months. The 32-year-old holds a private finest 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 12 months,” she says. “The course was nice. The pacer dropped early and it affected us.” Her finest 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 12 months. “If the tempo goes out effectively and the climate is sweet, the course file is feasible,” she says.
Ethiopia’s Roza Dereje comes into the race with the quickest private finest within the girls’s subject (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.
How one can watch
The 2024 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon and Canadian Marathon Championships will be streamed on Sunday, Oct. 20, on World Athletics Inside Observe, CBC Sports activities, or the CBC Gem app. The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is without doubt one of the first North American marathons to be featured on the WA Inside Observe worldwide feed. This 12 months, 30,000 members from 70 international locations will participate in Toronto’s race weekend (a file). All runners will be tracked utilizing the official TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon app, accessible for obtain on the App Retailer and Google Play.