Tuesday, October 21, 2025 – The hard days
Hey Gang!
Congrats to all who ran the TCS Waterfront Marathon this weekend! Michelle S, Sam F (BQ!), Sam R (PB!), Jeff S (BQ!) and in the half, Cindy, Madalyn, Carol and Zoe look like they all had solid days. And thanks to our cheer squads out there! I heard from athletes that you were noticed, heard, and much appreciated!
I’ve been thinking about this marathon and others this year, because it seems to have been a particularly tough season for marathons. (We are actually lucky because the Cape Town marathon was canceled on the weekend due to weather conditions). I think the consensus yesterday in Toronto was that if you ran within 5 minutes of your PB, you had a great day. More elites dropped out than ever, and people were passing out or just barely making it in. I think what made it so tough was the combination of the wind and the very high and unexpected humidity. This meant people were working harder at the start to stay on pace, and their bodies were struggling way more to stay cool. What happens in marathons is that every little shift the wrong way in the beginning becomes exponential. 5 seconds per kilometer too fast, or with too much effort and not enough cooling could mean minutes per kilometer added on the back end. And for many people, this is what happened. This sucks, because we train hard and make sacrifices and we want to be able to represent all our hard work with a time. It is so hard to let go of this time goal in the first few kilometers, so we double down and hope for the best. This is brave, and gutsy, but unfortunately rarely works in a marathon.
The other thing about marathons is that most of us have not run a whole lot of them. Each one is a new data point. Very experienced marathoners could maybe adapt and adjust and slow down just enough to keep everything online. Rachel Hannah was our top Canadian female, and I’m not sure how many marathons she’s run, but I believe it’s over 20. And you can bet there were some tough ones in there. And the only way to learn how to adapt or get through them is by experiencing them. In shorter races, I don’t mind if an athlete goes out way too hard and blows up. That is the best way to learn where your limit is. It probably has to happen multiple times in order to get it just right too. In a marathon we don’t have the luxury of multiple races, and blowing up that way is very painful and hard on your body. But it is still experience. And every experience counts towards moving us forward.
No one wishes a day like Sunday on any athlete. I had multiple discussions with other coaches about how much carnage there was out there. But there is growth through hardship. Whether it’s how to mentally and emotionally deal with it, or just the wisdom of learning how different conditions affect you. I was thinking about my kids, and how my first impulse and desire is always to remove all adversity, failures and disappointments for them. I hate watching them struggle as they deal with hardships. But I know they have to learn how to pick themselves up and keep going. If everything were a straight, predictable, easy path, they would not learn to be resilient and tough and compassionate and wise. Some hardships are more difficult to handle than others. But we get served what we get served. And we learn how to deal with it. And as much as our loved ones and supporters want to fix it and make it better for everyone, they can’t. We have to learn how to get through and keep going. As a wise friend told me, sometimes the best and only thing is to say “that sucks – it must be so hard” and give them a big hug. So hugs to all the marathoners who have completed their races this season through heat (Berlin), duct taping their bodies together (Chicago), underfueling (Wine Glass), and wind and humidity (Toronto). It is these experiences which make marathoners such beautiful people, and you are all beautiful people!
On to tomorrow’s workout!
Lakeshore and Leslie – 6:05 drills, 6:15 GO!
We’ve done the continuous workout (fast and float) for 400’s a couple times. Let’s try it with 600’s this time. 600 at around 10K pace straight into 600 at marathon pace. Let’s do 3 sets continuous, 3 minute break then 3 sets continuous. This is a new one for all of us so we’ll just show up curious and see what happens!
That is all – see you in the am.
xo
Seanna