Pan Am Games Preview: Women’s Marathon

The Pan Am Women’s Marathon is set to take place on Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. at Ontario Place West (OPW) along Toronto’s lakeshore.

The route starts and finishes on the Martin Goodman Trail (recently renamed the Pan Am Path) just west of Ontario Drive. Runners head west along Lakshore Boulevard W. and will complete a short 2.195K loop before starting the first of four 10K loops. The 10K portion is an out-and-back that travels west along Lakeshore, north on Parkside Dr. then enters High Park via High Park Blvd. before traveling up Centre Rd. and north along Colborne Lodge Dr. to the turnaround point.

High temperatures and humidity not withstanding—Saturday is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far—the nature of the course and the significant hill on Centre Rd. make this a challenging course at the best of times. Expect athletes to run together for a large portion of the race and keep their paces in check early on. It will likely come down to the final 5K or less and the winner will need to better the conditions in addition to the competition.

Two Canadians are set to compete in a field of 17 athletes from 11 countries. Rachel Hannah of Toronto will run just her second-ever marathon in front of hometown crowds. Saturday’s race comes less than two months after she made her marathon debut in Ottawa back in May. Her time of 2:33:30 makes her the eighth fastest in the field, but when compared to more recent qualifying times for the event, her time is fifth fastest.

Ines Melchor and Gladys Tejeda of Peru are the favourites, with recent PBs of 2:26:48 (Berlin 2014) and 2:28:12 (Rotterdam 2015), respectively. Vianey De La Rosa of Mexico ran 2:32:01 in Houston this year just ahead of Lindsay Flanagan (2:33:12) of the United States, giving them the third and fourth fastest qualifying times ahead of Hannah.

Several athletes including Adriana Aparecida Da Silva (2:29:17) and Marily Dos Santos (2:31:55) of Brazil and Erika Olivera (2:32:23) of Chile do boast better all-time PBs, but have slower qualifying times. Another American, Sarah Cummings (2:34:47), will also be in contention.

The other Canadian to cheer for is Victoria, B.C. native Catherine Watkins, a 43-year old mother of two. She comes into the race with a personal best of 2:42:35 which she set this spring in winning the Eugene Marathon. Despite having the slowest PB among the field, she will definitely have something to prove and be aiming to beat many of her competitors on home soil.

Grandstand seat tickets are still available for those wanting to get the best views of the start and finish but much of the course is also open and free to the public. There will also be several cheering zones hosted by local running clubs.

Here’s a link to the marathon course.

The unofficial start list: