Elites chasing unknown standards in Rotterdam Marathon

The Rotterdam Marathon has for a long time been a popular race for athletes looking to run fast marathon qualifying times early in the season, but for two of Canada’s star marathoners, the race comes a bit too early this year.

Reid Coolsaet and Krista DuChene are racing alongside other Canadians this weekend in Rotterdam, looking to run a time which will hopefully qualify them for next summer’s 2016 Olympics in Rio, but they don’t yet know how fast they’ll need to run to make the team.

Athletics Canada, the organization which sets Canadian standards in track and field and road racing, hasn’t yet been able to publish their standards because the International Association of Athletics Federations hasn’t published theirs. Athletics Canada can’t publish standards without knowing what the IAAF standards are. Head coach Peter Eriksson says the IAAF standards are set to be approved next week, but that doesn’t help Coolsaet and DuChene, racing Sunday.

“Yes, this is a tough one,” says DuChene about the situation. “We all know that the end of the marathon is tough. Super tough. At that point it would be nice to know the target but because I can’t control that, I will just run the best race I can, hoping I am within the required time.”

Coolsaet, who ran the Olympic marathon in 2012, says his goal is also a standard for Rio but is racing with the assumption it will be similar to the mark he hit leading up to the 2012 Games.

The 2012 standards were set at 2:11:29 and 2:29:55 for men and women, respectively. Coolsaet didn’t run a time that quick in 2014, though elite marathon runners generally only get two solid shots at fast marathon in a year. DuChene missed most of her 2014 race season due to injury. In 2013 she ran her personal best 2:28:32, the second best Canadian result ever, finishing behind contemporary Lanni Marchant at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Coolseat has spent large chunks of the winter in Kenya training, for the first time staying at altitude until right before the race. He left the East African country Thursday morning for Rotterdam.

In contrast, DuChene spent a week in Disney World with her family.

Another Canadian racing in Rotterdam this weekend is 21-year-old Tristan Woodfine, notably young by marathon standards. Coming from a background in triathlon, the Speed River athlete ran cross-country for the University of Guelph in the fall and was one of the top runners in the country. He missed the indoor track and field season on exchange in Portugal. While away he ran a 1:06:18 half-marathon.

“When I first switched over to running from triathlon, I had the marathon in the back of my mind since I always enjoyed racing longer,” said Woodfine in an email. “However, I figured I’d focus on the 10K until I could build up enough mileage to support the training load that the marathon requires. That build up ended up being quicker then I thought as last summer-fall I was able to hold 130ish-mile weeks, so after CIS cross-country I brought the idea up to [Speed River coach Dave Scott-Thomas] about doing a spring marathon and he was on board, so that’s what we planned for.”

The Rotterdam Marathon is scheduled for 10 a.m. local time, 4 p.m. EDT.