Canadian Marathoners

For the first time since 1996, Canada will have three male marathoners at the Olympics.  We haven't had a marathoner compete since 2000.

Dylan Wykes qualified at the Rotterdam Marathon to become our third Olympian.  Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis qualified last fall at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.  You can read my post about them here.

You can follow our Olympians on Twitter or on their blogs:

Reid Coolsaet:  
www.twitter.com/reidcoolsaet 
www.reidcoolsaet.com

Eric Gillis:
www.twitter.com/nishrunner
www.ericgillis.org

Dylan Wykes:
www.twitter.com/dylanwykes
www.dylanwykes.com

Dylan's marathon didn't start well as he stumbled and scraped his knees.  He posted a photo of his knees after the race on Twitter.  It's amazing that he ran a personal best after that incident.  His time of 2:10:47 is the second fastest by a Canadian all-time.  The women have not surpassed the Canadian standard and haven't qualified for the London Olympics yet.

The great thing about following athletes on Twitter is that you can find out when they are racing.  Often times you can catch the races on television, on live-stream online or even in person, like I did on Sunday.

The Toronto Yonge Street 10K was starting in my neighbourhood.  A few times a year, races start in my neighbourhood.  Sometimes I go watch the start, while other times, I sleep in or don't realize there's a race.  When Reid tweeted that he'd be racing, I took the opportunity to see an Olympian in person.

I got there early enough to see him warm-up.

The beginning of the race

Reid would win, with Kip Kangogo 2nd and Josephat Ongeri 3rd. Tara Korir won the women's race, with Kate Van Buskirk 2nd and Rachel Hannah 3rd.

I did drive downtown to see if I could capture the finish, but unfortunately, the runners were faster. It was an exciting finish as shared by Canada Running Series on YouTube: