Natasha Wodak believes that the joy of the process will be reflected in the results.
The 40-year-old from North Vancouver, BC, who had grown to love training for the marathon, broke the Canadian record for the distance in Berlin on Sunday.
Wodak finished 12th in the Berlin Marathon in two hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds, beating Malindi Elmore’s 2020 record of 2:24.50.
Wodak, who finished 13th in the marathon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, was a 10,000-meter specialist on the course for almost a decade and said she didn’t enjoy her first marathon experience in 2013.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know how much I want to do this,'” Wodak said.
“But as I’ve gotten older and a more disciplined runner and in a better place in my life, I’m really enjoying the training. And I’ve had a lot of fun with every marathon setup and every challenge myself. Because it’s new, right? Switching to the marathon has been a lot of fun doing new workouts and challenging myself and I’ve really enjoyed it. And I think that’s a big part of the success, because I really enjoyed the training.”
Ethiopian Tigist Assefa won Sunday’s race in 2:15.37. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya broke his own men’s marathon world record, winning the men’s race in 2:01.09.
Wodak, who is coached by Trent Stellingwerff, said her last workout showed she could run 2:24.
On Sunday she increased the pace on the 42.195 kilometer route. Her second half was over a minute faster than her first.
“I knew at 35km because we had slowed the pace significantly for the last 5km that we were well below the Canadian record pace,” said Wodak, just before she sat down for a celebratory drink with her family.
“I had a pacemaker and he just said, ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’ “And I just stayed on it. I was tired in the last 5km, I was working really, really hard. But I knew it was just because we were running fast.”
“I didn’t think I could do 12/24…when I saw that time at the finish line I was like, ‘Oh, wow, what?'”
Wodak’s record comes amid a surge in Canada’s women’s long-distance running.
The Canadian record is down five minutes over the past nine years, although Wodak noted that the huge improvements in footwear technology have meant that distance run times have fallen across the board in recent years.
Despite this, Elmore was ninth at the Tokyo Olympics and the battle between the Canadian women for that team was fierce.
“It’s really exciting to be a part of women’s distance running right now,” said Wodak. “We kind of feed off of each other. If Malindi hadn’t run 2:24.50, I don’t know if I would have set my goal to run 2:24 flat.
“So Malindi is going to be running in Toronto now (Waterfront Marathon on October 16) and she’s going to be like, ‘OK, I want to run under 2:23.’ We’re always raising the bar and it’s great when we all build each other up. She wished me luck (Saturday) and said “I hope you have a great race.” It’s a really cool running community to be a part of if we all support each other.”
Elmore tweeted on Sunday“Congratulations Natasha! A huge impressive run today!”
Wodak planned to vacation in Germany with her family. She has no plans to race for a while and is considering competing in the Canadian Cross-Country Championships on November 26 in Ottawa.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on September 25, 2022.
Congratulations Natasha! Huge impressive run today! https://t.co/pQBZugAxgm
— Malindi Elmore (she/they) (@MalindiElmore) September 25, 2022