Madeline Wighardt: Run Your Way

Madeline Wighardt may not live at altitude or have miles of mountainous terrain in her backyard. That hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of the best ultrarunners when it comes to high-altitude races with major climbs. The Ancaster, Ont., native is a fan of going long–really long. “I like anything from road marathons to trail ultras,” she says. “Anything shorter and I’m not a fan: marathons and ultras, that’s my jam.”

At the beginning of the summer, she qualified for the Leadville 100 run by completing the Leadville Trail Marathon, where she finished in the top 10. Two months later, she ran to third place in her first 100 miler ever, at over 10,000 feet of altitude.

The 22-year-old may be young, but she’s been running longer than plenty of professionals. “I’ve been running my entire life: my dad used to always take me on runs when I was six years old,” she says. “I did cross country and track all through high school, but I was always just OK at it. And then I decided to do the Around the Bay, the 30K road race in Hamilton, when I was in Grade 12. It was the greatest day of my life, and the most fun I ever had running. And I realized that I was way better at long-distance running than any sort of short-distance running.”

Wighardt’s journey hasn’t been straightforward: last November, she fractured her hip in a crash on her bike. “I had surgery the next day, and I now have three giant screws in my hip that will probably be there forever,” she says. Coming back wasn’t easy. “The first two months sucked. Every run was very difficult, and because I was so out of shape, it just felt so hard. I found myself actually hating it. I wasn’t enjoying my runs because it’s hard to have fun when you’re constantly suffering.”

Lindsey Butterworth: Run Your Way

“I really struggled with finding the love of running again, because it was so difficult,” she says. As her fitness slowly returned and she was able to train the way she used to, she started to find that joy again.

“What does run your way mean to me? I think it means keeping running really fun and just training the exact way that you want to, while also taking it seriously in a way that stays enjoyable.”