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Reid Coolsaet to race Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon this October

Marathoner will contest Drayton's record again after a year of setbacks

Reid Coolsaet

Reid Coolsaet of Hamilton, Ont. has announced he will race the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 21.

A two-time Olympian and the second-fastest marathoner in Canada’s history, Coolsaet has had his eye on Jerome Drayton’s 2:10:09 Canadian record for some time. And no Canadian has run Scotiabank–or any other marathon on Canadian soil–faster. Coolsaet set that record (2:10:55) here in 2011.

Reid Coolsaet
Photo: Peter Stokes.

An interesting coincidence: Drayton’s record was set in 1975 at Fukuoka, Japan, a race Coolsaet has run twice, achieving an excellent time here in 2016 (2:10:55–the same time he ran at Scotia in 2011).

With a PB of 2:10:28, set at the Berlin Marathon in 2015, Coolsaet has been tantalizingly close to this goal for a while. He’s had to be patient through a series of setbacks, most significantly a painful foot condition in early 2017 that took him out of competition for almost a year. He came back in time for the Canadian National Cross-Country Championships in November, placing ninth. 

At the Boston Marathon this year, Coolsaet managed to stay in the race that 23 elites dropped out of due to extreme weather, finishing ninth, though because of the poor weather conditions, this year’s race is considered an anomaly as far as times are concerned. 

https://twitter.com/Speedriver/status/1003678247647830021

For anyone who’s going to be in the Greater Toronto Area on June 12, Coolsaet is participating in a Q&A session hosted by the Speed River Track Club at Alexander Hall in Guelph at 7:30 p.m. Third-place Boston finisher Krista DuChene will also be there.

 

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