By Paul Gains

Inspiration can be derived from a variety of sources when it comes to marathon running. In the case of Leslie Sexton, a self -admitted Star Wars geek, the strength exuded by a fictional character has raised her spirits.

Two years ago, Sexton knocked close to six minutes off her then personal best with a 2:33:23 clocking at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Now the thirty-year old London, Ontario resident has her sights set on improving on that time at the 2017 edition of this IAAF Gold Label race.

Of her fascination with Star Wars she speaks unabashedly.

“I really like the character of Rey in ‘The Force Awakens’ because she has got this real strength and independence,” Sexton reveals. “I sort of like to think of that sometimes when I am out doing lots of miles on my own. I have a lot of fictional characters I like to think about. There are runners I look up to but I will think about Star Wars or something cool that Wonder Woman would do.”

That’s not to say Sexton doesn’t have some more earthly heroes. Watching Emma Coburn of the US strike 3,000m steeplechase gold in the recent World Championships, an enormous upset in sporting terms, stirred her soul, she admits. And there are others.

“A sort of hero for me over time has been (American marathoner) Desiree Linden because she was someone who had some talent but wasn’t a top high school or collegiate runner and has stuck with the same coach over time and had great results,” she explains. “I see her as a grinder. She does the work; she doesn’t complain and has been consistent year after year. I think she is really my inspiration for sure.”

Overcoming odds seems to be a theme that captivates Sexton. After turning her ankle while trail running at the end of last year she has been focusing on returning to form.

“I was off for four months and didn’t start running until the start of April this year,” she reveals. “In terms of racing in the summer, part of it was just spending time getting fit again. The first one back was the Toronto Waterfront 10k in mid-June. That went fairly well. Then I did a couple of track races that weren’t as fast as I wanted. The main thing of that summer block was getting fit again and getting back to interval training and a bit of racing.”

Now her confidence is soaring after running between 200 and 210 kilometres in each of the past four weeks. That includes some interval training. When she is not out with her London Runners’ training mates, she works part time at a local running store. She also coaches some club members. Under coach Steve Weiler’s watchful eye, her own fitness continues to grow, which has her eagerly anticipating Toronto Waterfront.

“I feel like every workout I am showing improvement,” Sexton maintains. “The times are coming down and I am getting fitter. I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be going for a personal best in Toronto if things keep going well.”

Sexton understands she is amongst a fine group of Canadian women who are stepping on the heels of Olympians Lanni Marchant and Krista DuChene. Going toe to toe with them in Toronto is all the more appealing especially since the race is a Canadian Championships.

“I love that the Canadian Championships are in Toronto,” she declares. “It’s a race I would do anyway whether it was here or not. But having that Canadian Championships and having a lot of good Canadians on the line makes it all the more special. It makes it a good competitive race. So, I want to be very much about running even and running a fast as possible time and hopefully the place will take care of itself.

“Right now it’s just about taking small steps. If it is only 30 seconds or a minute at a time I am knocking off I am still happy with that, because I am moving forward.  And, even this year, coming back from an injury and having a rough year last year (in terms of race results), it has taken the pressure off me to run like a 2:31 or 2:32. I am still chasing fast times but to me it would be good just to get back in that range.”

England Athletics are sending Tish Jones (2:33:56 in London this year and winner of last Fall’s Cape Town Marathon) and Anna Boniface (2:37:07 this year in London) to Toronto and no doubt Sexton will find herself in close proximity to them during the race.

Among the Canadians she will face is the aforementioned Olympian Krista DuChene who ran 2:28:32 on this course four years ago, and Natasha LaBeaud. The latter has a personal best of 2:35:33 recorded in Toronto in 2014. In addition, a trio of relative newcomers to the distance will battle for Canadian medals and prize money.

They are Montreal’s Melanie Myrand, third in the 2017 Canadian Half Marathon Championships; Arianne Raby, also from Montreal, won the Montreal Marathon last Fall then took 7 minutes off her PB in Ottawa this Spring where she ran 2:41:58; and Lyndsay Tessier, winner of the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon in June.

-30-

For more information and to enter this year’s race:  www.stwm.ca

About the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon:

An IAAF Gold Label race, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is Canada’s premier, big-city running event, the Athletics Canada National Marathon Championships, and the Grand Finale of the 7-race Canada Running Series. In 2016 it attracted 26,000 participants from 70 countries, raised $3.24 million for 182 charities through the Scotiabank Charity Challenge, and contributed an estimated $35 million to the local economy. The livestream broadcast was watched by more than 72,000 viewers from 129 countries. http://STWM.ca

By Paul Gains

Ever since its origin the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon has attracted some of the world’s best marathoners but never an athlete with such a competitive record as Dickson Chumba.

The 30 year-old Kenyan won both the 2015 Chicago Marathon and the 2014 Tokyo Marathon, two of the exclusive World Marathon Majors (Boston, New York, London and Berlin make up the remainder). That’s not all. In February of this year he finished third in Tokyo, the fourth consecutive year he has been amongst the top three in that race.

His best time ever is 2:04:32 which he recorded in finishing third in the 2014 Chicago Marathon.

Curiosity and a willingness to change direction led Chumba to confirm his Toronto appearance at this IAAF Gold Label race October 22nd.

“I honestly don’t know much about the Toronto (Waterfront) Marathon but my agent, Gianni Demadonna, told me that it is a good race,” Chumba admits. “In the last few seasons I have been running mostly Chicago and Tokyo. After my third place in Tokyo last February I thought I needed to run something different. My agent talked to me about Toronto and the possibility to run the course record or even the fastest time ever run on Canadian soil. I found the target interesting and I decided to run Toronto.”

Winning Chicago earns US$100,000. Along with an appearance fee, Toronto, in comparison, offers C$25,000 to the winner. However, there is a bonus of C$50,000 for beating the Canadian All Comers’ record (2:06:54 by Yemane Tsegay of Ethiopia, at Ottawa 2014). Setting a new course record (2:07:05 by Deressa Chimsa of Ethiopia, 2013) would earn C$40,000. So it’s not all about the money for this Kenyan athlete.

“So far my training has gone well,” he reports. “If I continue like that and, if the weather will be okay on that particular day, I think I can try to attack the 2:07:05”. In Tokyo I ran 2:06:25 but it was a very fast pace for the first 30km, which I paid for a bit towards the end of the race. But if I can get into similar shape I think I can run well in Toronto.”

Chumba trains at a camp in Kapsabet high up in the Great Rift Valley under the watchful eye of Italian coach Claudio Berardelli. Amongst the group are several athletes who have run 2:06 or faster. One of the up and comers is Chumba’s younger brother, Benson Kipruto, 26, who ran 2:09:51 in Prague this year.

“Kapsabet is a very hilly area and we like training along the tea plantation there which is a very good place for our long runs,” Chumba explains.

“The rain in Kenya is a factor that we have to consider because it can rain quite a lot (April to June) and the roads become very muddy. But our coach has made us use tarmac roads when it is not possible to use the dirt roads. The tea plantation is also a good solution during the rainy season. Roads there are the best because the tea factories are maintaining them in perfect conditions.”

The camp is not too far from Chumba’s home village where his family is located. Though he prefers to remain in the camp when he is focusing on a marathon, he does enjoy going home occasionally to visit his family and to check on the businesses he has established with race earnings. Those visits are only undertaken when Berardelli hasn’t scheduled a group workout. Otherwise, he is totally committed to the training camp.

“I am married and I have three children, two boys of seven and five years and a girl who is one year old,” he reveals. “My wife stays at home with them and she takes care of the land we have around our home. We usually plant maize and some vegetables.

“When I am in off season, I like staying with my kids. I don’t have any particular hobby but when I am not fully in training I take care of my other business. I have built some rental houses and I hope to build some more. I like building because, for someone like me who comes from a poor family, it allows me to visualize what I have managed to achieve in all the years of hard training. It gives me satisfaction.”

Unlike many Western athletes, who will race at some point to test their fitness in the marathon buildup, Chumba has no plans to leave Kenya before his trip to Toronto, which will be his first time in Canada.

“During the preparation for a marathon we always have two or three key workouts which give us some feedback about our shape,” Chumba says. “It can be a fast, long run around 35km or a session of 22/24km very close to marathon pace with the last portion faster than that. But, honestly, over the years I have gained experience about my body and I can feel day by day if I am doing the right things or not.”

Among the world class field Chumba will face is defending Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion, Philemon Rono and a pair of Ethiopian stars:  Solomon Deksisa, who ran 2:06:22 at the 2016 Rotterdam Marathon and Endeshaw Negesse the 2015 Tokyo Marathon champion who has a personal best of 2:04:52.

Clearly, this is the strongest men’s field the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon has ever assembled and an indication of how far the race has come over the past decade.

-30-

For more information and to join this year’s race: http://STWM.ca

About the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon:

An IAAF Gold Label race, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is Canada’s premier, big-city running event, the Athletics Canada National Marathon Championships, and the Grand Finale of the 7-race Canada Running Series. In 2016 it attracted 26,000 participants from 70 countries, raised $3.24 million for 182 charities through the Scotiabank Charity Challenge, and contributed an estimated $35 million to the local economy. The livestream broadcast was watched by more than 72,000 viewers from 129 countries. http://STWM.ca

By Paul Gains

Trevor Hofbauer will make his eagerly awaited marathon debut October 22nd at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon which is both an IAAF Gold Label race and the Canadian Championship.

The move up in distance comes less than a year after he moved east to join Guelph, Ontario based Speed River Track Club. The club, under the direction of Dave Scott-Thomas, counts Olympic marathoners Eric Gillis, Reid Coolsaet and Krista DuChene as members.

For fourteen years Calgary had been the 25 year old distance runner’s home. Leaving behind his family and friends not to mention employment as the New Balance Technical Rep for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, was a dramatic move that he hopes will pay dividends. The sacrifices were many.

“A lot,” he emphasizes. “Calgary is my home. I have a lot of really good lifetime friends. We went to junior high and high school there and spent a lot of time together afterwards. The past ten or fifteen years I have created this unbelievable network out there, just charming individuals I had to leave. One of the toughest to leave was my grandmother, who is getting old. She is like my angel. That was most difficult.”

Hofbauer first attracted attention with his performance at the 2015 Philadelphia Half Marathon where he recorded a good personal best of 1:04:30 the equal tenth fastest ever by a Canadian. A third place finish at the 2016 Canadian Cross Country Championships earned him a spot on Canada’s team for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala, Uganda. There, he finished 71st in the senior men’s race and was Canada’s top finisher. The half marathon, though, he admits was a turning point.

“64:30 is a cool time but it’s nowhere close to where I think I can go,” he says of the Philadelphia race. “I need to stay consistent and patient and all the stars to align and something faster will happen.

“I am going into the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon with a very open mind because I have never actually raced a full marathon before. To do that it is going to be a very different experience. I have an ‘A’ goal which is a preferred time, then I do have a ‘B’ goal which is for placement in the race. But my ‘C’ goal is to just finish the race and to learn as much as I can. I feel the marathon is where a lot of my potential can be found.”

The success of Speed River’s distance program was the principal attraction when Hofbauer first contacted Scott-Thomas by email. That initial contact was followed by a two hour telephone conversation. Their first face to face meeting, Hofbauer laughs, was a little awkward.

It was during the 2016 Canadian Olympic Trials in Edmonton. Hofbauer was driving down Whyte Street near one of the meet hotels when he spotted the coach walking along the sidewalk.

“I ripped into a McDonald’s parking lot and came jumping out of the car and I was like ‘Dave Scott-Thomas, how’s it going?’ I caught him off guard,” Hofbauer remembers with a laugh. “It was so awkward. I was like ‘Dave I am not a super fanboy I saw you walking on the street and I wanted to introduce myself and wish you luck this week. I don’t even go to McDonald’s for lunch.’ That was my first encounter with him.“

These days Hofbauer has settled into a routine in the ‘Royal City’ with a typical week including as much as 200km of running. Until recently he trained three days a week with Eric Gillis but the three time Olympian has since moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia to take up a coaching position at St. Francis Xavier University.

Nevertheless, training partners are close at hand. He shares a rental house with fellow Speed River distance runners Evan Esselink (2017 Canadian 10,000m champion), Andrew Nixon and Chris Dulhanty. He admits his lifestyle is quite uneventful in order to best focus on athletics.

“I try to stay way from my smart phone as much as possible,” he declares. “Once or twice a week, Evan and I will go out to the coffee shop. He studies for school and I try to get some work done on my computer whether it’s writing or talking to people through emails. We will go for an afternoon run and then eat dinner. Typically we will watch a movie or play video games in the evening.

“Over the summer it was difficult. I didn’t have much time to myself because I was working 45 hours a week at a golf course. Some days I had to work from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. so I had to go for a run at 4:00 a.m.”

Now that he is no longer employed he admits he is living off the savings accrued over the past few years. He studied hospitality management at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology for two years earning a diploma in the subject. Maybe a career in that industry will eventually follow. But for now money doesn’t appear to drive him even though he is aware that winning the Canadian Marathon Championship would earn him $5,000.

“I decided to pack my bags and move out to Guelph to join SRTC and really try and give this sport of running a go,” he declares.  “I want to find my maximum potential and see where I could really set the bar. At times you have to make sacrifices. sometimes they are big and sometimes small.”

Come October 22nd running fans across the country will know if the sacrifices have paid off and if Hofbauer can follow in the footsteps of his more famous clubmates.

-30-

For more information and to join Trevor at this year’s race: http://STWM.ca

About the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon:

An IAAF Gold Label race, the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is Canada’s premier, big-city running event, the Athletics Canada National Marathon Championships, and the Grand Finale of the 7-race Canada Running Series. In 2016 it attracted 26,000 participants from 70 countries, raised $3.24 million for 182 charities through the Scotiabank Charity Challenge, and contributed an estimated $35 million to the local economy. The livestream broadcast was watched by more than 72,000 viewers from 129 countries. http://STWM.ca