iRun - Issue 6 October 2016

MARATHON MOM
KRISTA DUCHENE, COLUMNIST
HOW DO
YOU SOLVE
A PROBLEM
LIKE RIO?
Krista DuChene takes a long hard look in the mirror after racing
an Olympic marathon and approaching 40 and reaches a bold
conclusion: the best is yet to come.
n preparing for the 2016 Olympic Games
I did not allow myself a backup plan. I was
going to approach what would likely be my
only Olympic experience with no alternative
in mind; I was not going to let a planned fall
marathon allow me have a sub-par Olympic
marathon. If the going got tough, I was not
going to mentally check myself out of the race
because I had another one lined up.
Then I had a great Olympic marathon. My
heat and humidity-focused training allowed
me to successfully execute my race plan; to
start conservatively and move my way up the
ield to place above my ranking. I was elated,
particularly when I ran into the arms of my
loved ones immediately upon inishing. A
dream come true. Becoming an Olympian was
incredible and something that can never be
taken away from me.
Back to thoughts of a fall marathon, I must
be honest. During my Olympic training, I did
have the idea in the back of my mind. I just
didn’t say anything to anyone nor allow myself
to think much about it. So once I felt recovered
from my OIympic marathon, I started jogging
and swimming in the village while continuing
to enjoy the sweets I had gone without for
weeks. I spoke with Coach Rick and expressed
my desire to compete with Scotiabank Toronto
Waterfront Marathon (STWM) Race Director,
Alan Brookes. I’d be racing in another
STWM! Then, like every other return to
training, the novelty of the sweets wore off as
the hunger for competitive racing returned. My
over-indulgence in my aunt’s butter tarts solidiied
the desire to resume my routine — time to
get serious again.
I transitioned from recovery to full-time
training for my two marathons that would
be nine weeks apart. I’ve always believed that
one can run two quality marathons per year
so a fall marathon made sense since my last
marathon, my Olympic-qualifying marathon,
was in April 2015.
Many of the marathoners who had to compete
in 2016 marathons called it a season. That
wasn’t the case for me.
In preparing for Rio, we took very little risk
so I was happy to change things up by committing
to race the STWM, my favourite race
in the world. The opportunity to run a faster
race between two championship races, 2016
Olympics and 2017 Worlds, made sense. I had
nothing to lose. I was an Olympian. Once the
kids were in school full-time, I’d have six weeks
to log serious kilometres and tidy up my diet.
Many athletes are asked their post-Olympic
plans, sometimes even immediately upon completing
their event, good or bad. When I was
in Rio amongst other Olympians having these
conversations it revealed a set of mixed emotions.
Some knew they were done. They had
been at it a long time, needed to focus more
on family or establishing a career, or had given
everything possible to achieve their goals.
Others knew they’d target Tokyo, 2020. Then
there were those of us somewhere in between.
At 39, and with three children and a history of
signiicant injuries, one would easily conclude
that Rio was my one and only Olympic experience.
While this may be true, I’m not retiring
DAVID JACKSON
any time soon — nor ruling out Tokyo.
There are reasons for this:
1. I have only had one year of training with all
of our children in school full-time.
2. I have only been competing at this level for
six years.
3. I have already established my other professional
career as a Registered Dietitian, which is
less fun than marathoning!
There are athletes with running careers
well into their 40s. I’m still going to bed and
waking up with energy and motivation to train
and compete.
I’ve never done the research to determine
the odds that I’ve already likely had my fastest
marathon. Likely, they’d say I have. But so far
I’ve beaten the odds in so many ways that I
refuse to stop reaching high and aiming to run
another personal best. There are things we
haven’t tried in my training and now’s the time
to try. So I continue to press on and make the
sky the limit. Here are some future possibilities:
1. Championship races: 2017 Worlds in London,
England, 2018 Commonwealth Games
in Gold Coast City, Australia, 2019 Worlds
in Doha, Qatar and 2020 Olympic Games in
Tokyo, Japan.
2. Masters records of various distances. I’ll be
40 in January 2017!
3. World majors: Tokyo, London, Berlin,
Chicago, New York. I completed Boston in 2005.
4. Travel to each continent for training or racing.
I’ve been to Asia, South America, Europe
and obviously North America. I’ll likely omit
Antarctica (but who knows!); only Africa and
Australia remain.
I’ve always said to set the bar high and make
your ceiling your loor. There’s no stopping me.
Krista DuChene holds the second fastest female
marathon time in Canadian history. Racing the
Canadian Half Marathon Championships, DuChene
inished the course on a broken leg. She took
second. Her website is KristaDuChenerunning.
blogspot.com.
12 2016 ISSUE 06 iRun because it makes me feel like a winner. I’m nine years old. — Kali Sevier, Montreal
iRun because it’s empowering. — Shannon Lipson, Toronto
iRun.ca 13