Cam Levins to make marathon debut at STWM

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Cam Levins of Black Creek, B.C. is set to make this long-awaited marathon debut at the IAAF gold-label Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 21st.

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Levins formerly held the Canadian record for 10,000m with a personal best time of 27:07.51 (that mark has since been lowered to 27:02.35 by Mohammad Ahmed) and won a bronze medal at the same distance at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He had a stellar collegiate career competing for Southern Utah University which culminated in winning both the NCAA 5,000m and 10,000m Championships in 2012. Levins then turned professional joining the Nike Oregan Project where he was coached by Alberto Salazar and joined the likes of Mo Farah, Galen Rupp and Matthew Centrowitz. Despite improving many of his personal bests and representing Canada at the 2012 Olympics, he struggled to find a rhythm and was largely sidetracked with injury which required surgery in 2016. He left the NOP in 2017 to be coached by Eric Houle, his former coach at SUU, and since then has slowly been working on returning to top form.

His most notable performance as of late was running 1:02:15 at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia in March.

More recently, he has been putting in big miles and believes he is in better shape than ever before. “Most days I am running about 20 to 30 miles (32-48K)” says Levins, “there have been a lot of good days. I am trusting my body and how it feels.” He adds that he is anxious about making his debut but feels comfortable and confident in how he is preparing. “More than anything, I am excited to do it [run the marathon] at this point, however it goes.”

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Levins trains primarily at elevation in Cedar City, Utah but also spends time in Portland, Oregan where his wife Elizabeth works as a pharmacist. He will run a half-marathon in Philadelphia on September 16th as a tune-up race to gauge his fitness before returning to Utah to put in his final training ahead of STWM.

Levins joins an already stellar field at this year’s event including reigning champion Philemon Rono of Kenya, who set a Canadian All Comers’ record of 2:06:52 last year; New Zealander Jake Robertson who set a national record of 2:08:26 in the spring and intends to run much faster this fall; and local favourite Reid Coolsaet of Hamilton, the second-fastest Canadian marathoner of all-time with a personal best of 2:10:26.

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Edited from a press release by Paul Gains