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Hello!

What a week, what a week.

More races around the world were cancelled because of the coronavirus, including races in China, Japan and France. CBC Sports has a list of all the sporting events around the world affected by the virus. But many races went on!

The elite-only Tokyo marathon still managed to be epic and memorable. Canada put on a show at the PanAm Cross-Country Cup in Victoria and the U.S. is sending a surprising team to the 2020 Olympic Games.

Well, if they happen — IOC executive member (and Canadian!) Dick Pound did the media rounds saying the Games could get cancelled because of the coronavirus. It’s too early to tell, but they gotta decide by May. That’s fun for everyone.

If you want to reach out — send me a story, a race I should cover, some news or links to include or if you want to just say hi! — you can reach me at runthenorthnews@gmail.com.

Let’s get to it.

— Erin @Run the North

Victoria hosted the 2020 PanAm Cross-Country Cup on Feb. 29. 11 teams from the Americas came to race a brutal 10K course at Bear Mountain and the Bear Mountain Golf Resort.

On the women’s side, Canada won the team competition. Steeplechase record holder Genevieve Lalonde placed first, running 37:37 on the course.

“This is a good start to the 2020 season and looking to the lead up to the Olympic Games,” Lalonde told Athletics Canada after the race. “Going up the hill, I kept my rhythm and keeping it smooth and I took it out more than I expected. We’re here to inspire you so we’re going to keep running, keep racing.“

American Carrie Verdon came second (38:09) and Peru’s Lizaida Thalia Valdivia placed third (38:12).

Here’s how the rest of the Canadian team did: Natasha Wodak placed fourth (38:24), Victoria Coates placed seventh (38:43), Maria Bernard-Galea placed 10th (39:10), Hannah Woodhouse placed 16th (39:54) and Kirsten Lee placed 18th (40:07)

Wodak placed third in the NACAC (North America & Caribbean) division.

The second place team was USA and the third place team was Peru.

On the men’s side, Canadian Connor Black was fifth overall, and third in the NACAC category. He ran 33:25, earning his first medal in international competition.

“I played it exactly how I wanted to,” he told Athletics Canada after the race. “I’m just really happy to be here in Victoria, competing on home turf, wearing the Canadian singlet.”

Positions 1-4 went to Brazil’s Johnatas De Oliveira Cruz (32:50), USA’s Anthony Rotich (32:50), Peru’s Paul Ramirez (33:11) and USA’s Dillon Maggard (33:23).

Here’s how the rest of the Canadian team did: Canadians John Gay placed seventh (33:35), Mitchell Ubene placed 11th (34:08), Jean-Simon Desgagnes placed 16th (34:25), Kieran McDonald placed 17th (34:30), Brandon Allen placed 23rd (35:30)

Canada was the #3 team, with USA topping the podium and Brazil taking the #2 spot.

You can see the full results here.

The Boston University Last Chance Meet was also this weekend. I know. Justyn Knight broke the Canadian indoor 1,500m record, running 3:36.13. The previous record of 3:38.73 was set by Doug Consiglio in 1986.

Knight finishes his indoor track season undefeated. He also won the 3,000m at the Millrose Games and the mile at the Dr. Sander Invitational this year.

It’s called the Last Chance Meet because it’s often the final indoor track meet of the season. The world indoor track championships were supposed to be held in Nanjing, China in March 2020, but were postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus.

• In the 800m, Melissa Bishop ran 2:00.93 to tie for the win. The time is only a second off the Olympic standard, which goes Melissa is well on her way to returning to top form. Melissa had a baby two years ago and 2019 was her first postpartum competitive season.

• In the men’s 5,000m, Matt Hughes ran 13:13.38 to finish sixth, and to qualifying for the Olympics. Other Canadians in the 5,000m were Ben Flanagan (13:31.07), Luc Bruchet (13:40.13) and Mike Tate (13:41.15)

• Laurence Cote finished second in the 1,000m run, running 2:38.77. The time is a Quebec record, which Laurence first broke earlier this year.

• Mariah Kelly placed 16th in the 1,500m, running 4:15.37.

Full results from the meet can be found here.

What we knew about the U.S. Trials: the field was deep. The course was hilly. It was really windy. It was anyone’s race.

And yet. Everyone was surprised by the outcome.

The men’s race saw some bold front running by lesser known contenders like Luke Puskedra, C.J. Albertson, Brian Shrader and Dan Nestor. But they eventually dropped back, and were overtaken by the lead pack of Galen Rupp, Abdi Abdirahman and Leonard Korir. At some point, Galen broke away from this pack and cruised to the victory, successfully defending his marathon trials championship. But also at some point, Jake Riley caught this pack, passed them, and took home second place, leaving Abdi and Lenny to battle it out for third. Abdi won the final team slot, and at 43-year-olds made his fifth Olympic team.

March 1, 2020

Jake Riley wasn’t even on people’s radar, really, until Chicago 2019, when he was one of the lead American men in the giant pack of American men who ran 2:10-2:13. And this weekend, he bettered his PB, put his name on the map and stamped his ticket to Toykyo. Jake is unsponsored. Surely he won’t be for long.

In the women’s race, a very large, deep pack stayed together well through the halfway point. It was anyone’s race.

Then, at some point, Aliphine Tuliamuk made a move. Molly Seidel went with her. And the rest of the pack broke up. I wish I could tell you more but NBC did not broadcast this part of the race, so I only know what happened via tweets from people on-site.

Aliphine and Molly ran together for several miles, putting a gap between themselves and third-place finisher Sally Kipyego. Eventually, Aliphine broke away to take the victory, but Molly — who looked like she was HURTING from about mile 22 onwards — held on to take second.

The two, who are friends and ran together a bit in Flagstaff, worked together on their surge, and Molly credits Aliphine for much of her success. From Let’s Run:

“I told Molly, ‘let’s do this,” Tuliamuk said. Seidel said, “Aliphine needs to take a lot of credit for this…I feel like I wouldn’t have been as calm in that breakaway with anyone else. Aliphine is someone I look up to so much…To feel like this is a friend of mine who I know and I trust right now [was great].”

Tuliamuk and Seidel were all alone up front as they continued to push and pull away from everyone else. “If we were going down we were going down together. There is no one I would rather get to share those miserable last 5 miles with,” Seidel said.

Sally Kipyego also looked rough towards the end, but fended off a charge from eventual fourth place finisher Des Linden and fifth place finisher Laura Thweatt. I think if there had been a mile left, Des would have had it. But that’s the marathon for you: it’s heartless.

Aliphine trains with NAZ Elite and has had decent marathons under her belt, but had yet to have a breakout race that showed she was meant to be a marathoner. She was born in Kenya and became a U.S. citizen after competing in college. But she’s always been a competitor: she had claimed nine national titles before the trials.

March 1, 2020

Molly is 25 years old and made her marathon debut at the trials. She qualified with her half-marathon time. She competed at Notre Dame in college. She’s struggled with an eating disorder for a few years, but has rebounded, is healthy and just became the first American woman to debut in the marathon at the trials and punch her ticket to the Olympics.

March 1, 2020

Sally was a Kenyan citizen, even winning a silver medal for them in the 10,000m at the London Olympics in 2012. In 2017, she became a U.S. citizen. She’s struggled since the birth of her daughter that same year, but had finally rebounded and is now an Olympian again, this time for her new country.

March 1, 2020

What’s amazing is that all the podium finishers hit the crazy hard Olympic standard (2:11:30/2:29:30) on a crazy hard course — in fact six men and six women beat the standard.

The same thing happened in Canada, both our guaranteed Olympic spots went to people who smashed the standard. Which goes to show: if you raise the bar, people are going to work hard to jump over it.

🥇Get to know Galen Rupp: Relieved and happy, Galen Rupp relives his victory at the Olympic marathon trials (Oregon Live article) | Galen Rupp Is Hard to Love (Outside Magazine)

🥈Get to know Jake Riley: Comeback Kid Jake Riley (Podium Runner) | Jake Riley talks training, engineering ahead of cross country nationals (ESPN, from 2015) | Unsponsored Jake Riley Makes All the Right Moves to Earn Olympic Berth in Atlanta (Let’s Run)

🥉Get to know Abdi Abdirahman: Citius Mag (podcast) | C Tolle Run (podcast) | How Abdi Abdirahman Trained to Make the 2020 Olympic Marathon Team (Podium Runner)

🥇Get to know Aliphine Tuliamak: I’ll Have Another with Lindsey Hein (podcast) | Women’s Running NAZ team profile (profile) | The Morning Shakeout (podcast) C Tolle Run (podcast) | The inspiring story behind Aliphine Tuliamuk's rise to the top of elite running (ESPNW)

🥈Get to know Molly Seidel: Running on Om (podcast) | The Olympic Marathon Trials Are Just the Start of Molly Seidel’s Comeback (Runner’s World) | Molly Seidel’s Improbable Marathon Debut (Podium Runner)

🥉Get to know Sally Kipyego: I’ll Have Another with Lindsey Hein (podcast) | Sally Kipyego After Childbirth: “My Body Is Different. But Mentally I’m Stronger” (Runner’s World)

Yeah, I don’t know many of those names either. I am here for it.

• A number of the top contenders in the women’s race DNFed: Allie Kieffer, Sara Hall, Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson and Roberta Groner. Molly told Runner’s World after the race that if she was running poorly, a DNF was the plan so she could regroup for track season. Emily Sisson has the same plan, and it looks like Allie Kieffer might too.

• Jordan Hasay, who wore a yellow and purple kit to honour Kobe Bryant, was with the lead pack about halfway, then faded to finish in 2:37:57, which was 26th place.

• Sarah Sellers, the 2018 Boston Marathon runner-up, ran a strong race to finish 11th place. Her 2:30:39 time is a PB, which is amazing on such a tough course.

• Jared Ward, who was on the 2016 Olympic team, had a tough day and ran 2:15:55 to finish 27th.

February 29, 2020

• Scott Fauble, who was one of the most hyped men heading into the race, ran 2:12:39 to finish 12th. He had a tough buildup, he told Podium Runner, as he dealt with a hamstring issue for most of last year.

• Ultrarunner Jim Walmsley ran 2:15:05 to finish in 22nd place.

• 45-year-old Bernard Lagat — the oldest man at the trials — ran 2:14:23 to finish in18th place. Lagat was hoping to make his sixth Olympics team.

March 1, 2020

• Canadian citizen Kyle Wyatt ran 2:25:04 to finish 101st in the men’s race. Kyle grew up in the U.S. but moved to Canada for school and got his citizenship a few years ago. Kyle was selected as an athlete to profile by Kelly Vanegas, a sports media student at the University of Georgia, for a school assignment. I shared her first piece about Kyle in last week’s issue. Part of her assignment was to follow Kyle on the course and report on his progress through Twitter. You can see her whole Kyle Wyatt thread here:

• Canadian resident Tony Tomsich ran 2:25:16 to finish 102nd in the men’s race. Tony grew up in Alaska and moved to Vancouver a few years ago, where he’s now a coach with Mile2Marathon. I didn’t have a profile for Tony in last week’s issue. Mile2Marathon published a blog post by him about how running in the trials was a dream come true and how coaching helped get him there:

  In the spring of 2019, I went down to Eugene with a crew of M2M athletes. Each and every one had different goals and reasons to be there, but they all shared a love and passion for the sport. Most importantly they all showed a genuine interest in one another’s goals. The excited chatter on the group shakeout run the day before showcased this fact perfectly. As the race commenced everyone started the day knowing that we were all out there together. This day was also my second attempt at the standard. Whether it was the additional experience, sights of familiar faces on course, or just a lucky day, the stars aligned and I ran 2:18:49 to sneak under the time standard. It was a day that I will remember forever. And although, It was the first major running goal that I had ever achieved I quickly realized the most rewarding part of it was sharing the experience with the people around me and those that helped get me there. 

• Megan Youngren ran 2:50:27 to finish 230th, becoming the first openly trans person to compete in a U.S. Olympic trials.

• Lauren Philbrook and Rachel Hyland ran the trials PREGNANT. According to Runner’s World, Lauren ran 8 miles before stepping off the course and Rachel made it halfway.

There was one elite Canadian set to run Tokyo this year: Rachel Cliff. However, she dropped out the week before the race. She told Canadian Running it wasn’t because of the coronavirus, but because of the elite time cut-offs. Men had to run 2:21 or under to run the elite-only race. And since Rachel was looking to run “2:21-2:30,” as she told Canadian Running, it seemed silly to travel around the world to run a marathon pretty much solo. She has yet to commit to another spring marathon.

The race went on, and it was bananas fast.

On the men’s side, he top 17 men ran under 2:08, the Japanese and the Belgium national records were broken. 15 Japanese men ran under 2:09.

Birhanu Legese won the men’s race, running 2:04:15 to successfully defend his title. Bashir Abdi placed second, running 2:04:49 to break the Belgium national record. Third place went to Ethopia’s Sisay Lemma, who ran 2:04:51.

Suguru Osako broke his own Japanese national record, running 2:05:29 to finish fourth overall.

The selection process for the Japanese Olympic marathon team is BRUTAL. They held their national trials in September, with the top two guaranteed to make the team. The two runners who nabbed the top spots were Shogo Nakamura and Yuma Hattori.

The third place finisher could be replaced by another runner if they broke the national record during the qualifying window. Osako was the third place finisher at the trials. But he can’t breathe easy yet, there’s one more race where runners have a chance to oust Osako from the team: the Lake Biwa Marathon is this Sunday.

In the women’s race, Irsael’s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter set a course record and an Israeli national record with her 2:17:45 finish time.

The second place finisher, Ethiopia’s Birhane Dibaba, also broke the previous course record with her time of 2:18:35. Third place went to Ethiopia’s Sutume Asefa Kebede, who set a personal best of 2:20:30.

Several top contenders in the women’s race DNFed, including defending champion Ethiopia’s Ruti Aga, dedending Frankfurt maratohn champ Kenya’s Valary Jemeli Aiyabei, and top Japanese runner Kaori Yoshida.

Despite the impressive times, the race was still a little depressing.

Tokyo asked people to refrain from spectating and many of those who did come out wore masks. The Wall Street Journal has a good article about the atmosphere (this link is behind a paywall).

March 1, 2020

On Sun. March 1, Burlington hosted the Chilly half-marathon, a popular race that many use as a tune-up for spring races.

The men’s race was won by Reid Coolsaet in 1:04:34 and the women’s race was won by Krista DuChene in 1:16:20.

According to Reid on Twitter, he raced it while Krista was using it as a workout. Krista is scheduled to return to the Boston marathon for the third year in a row on April 20.

Chris Balestrini took second in the men’s race in 1:07:25 and Josh Lumani took third in 1:08:22.

In the women’s race, second place went to Madeleine Davidson in 1:18:20 and third place went to someone running without a registered name in 1:19:55.

2017 Canadian marathon champion Leslie Sexton was supposed to run, but withdrew due to an SI joint injury.

Phil Parrot-Migas (29:34) and Allison Drynan (37:31) were the 10K champions.

Shawn Master (15:16) and Amanda Mcleod (17:42) were the 5K champions.

That’s it for this week!

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Run the North comes out every Monday morning at 5am ET. Except when Monday is a holiday — then it comes out Tuesday.

Thanks for reading and keep on running!

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