MAKE YOUR MARK
Alexi Pappas Had to Change the Face of Running—So That Everyone Could See
WHOEVER
SAID
“OTTAWA IS
BORING” WAS NOT A RUNNER
October 2024,
Volume 134, No. 3
Editor
Ben Kaplan
Design Director
Genevive Biloski
Director of Sales
Sabrina Young
Editorial Director
Anna Lee Boschetto
Fashion Editor
Karen Kwan
Chief Photographers
Tyler Anderson, Galit Rodan
Head of Training Programming
Lauren Roberts
Contributors
Dr. Sasha Gollish, Micha Powell, Michael Doyle, Chelsea Clarke, Krista DuChene, Benjamin Errett, Beth Rush, Ian Stalker, Ravi Singh, Rick Shaver, Mark Sutcliffe
Head of Digital Operations
Brad Frenette
iRun is proudly produced and printed in Canada
iRun Magazine
Toronto, Ontario
info@iRun.ca
IG @iRunNation Twitter @iRunNation Facebook @iRun Magazine
All In Together
Understanding running’s relationship to our senses shows its potential to transform the lives of autistic people
“Man, why are pencils always getting away from you?”
It was 2002, eighth grade, and probably the fourth time that week that my mechanical Bic pencil went flying out of my hands, over my right shoulder, and straight at the face of my classmate Matthew.
I had a habit, one I still maintain, of holding my pencil at the tip and flicking it like a drummer tapping at a cymbal. In my mind, I was perfectly mimicking Buddy Rich in a video I once saw where Rich faced off in a drum battle against Ed Shaughnessy, who helmed the kit on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
What was an inconvenient habit for my classmate, and a sign to teachers that I was daydreaming and had zero interest in what they had to say (they weren’t wrong), was for me a coping mechanism.
I didn’t just hate being a student. The physical environment of school wreaked havoc on my senses. The fluorescent lights. The unbearable heat and odour of a century old building without air conditioning. The din of hormonal teenagers unable to regulate the volume or tone of their voices. Somehow, the feel of the pencil’s weight in my hand, shifting back and forth, and the visual of it becoming blurry the harder I flicked, was my refuge.
I still flick my Bic when I need to ground myself in the face of sensory chaos. The reasons behind it might be exactly why I grew to love running so much.
Beyond the five senses
In school, we’re taught that we have five senses. It’s not wrong, but it’s not the whole picture.
Dr. Christie Welch has been a practicing occupational therapist for two decades and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s School of Occupational Science and Therapy. Welch’s research focuses on movement
control of people who identify as autistic.
Welch explains that when we move, we’re engaging two additional sensory systems. “First, the vestibular system, located in your inner ear, detects the movement of your head through space and responds accordingly. The vestibular system is stimulated when you’re on a swing or skateboard,” she says.
It’s this system that allows you to achieve balance and keep your sights focused as you move.
In addition, Welch says, “Your proprioceptive system allows your body to interpret information being fed through your skin and joints.” Dr. Welch offers the example of someone manipulating one of your hands while blindfolded, after which you could, thanks to proprioception, create that same formation with your other hand.
Engaging our senses feels good. Whether you’re lost in the brushstrokes of a Van Gogh, savouring the blend of textures and flavours of a slice of margherita pizza just out of the oven, or having your eardrums assaulted by the irresistible hooks of a Brendan Benson record, these are the experiences that bring richness to our lives.
For people with autism, engaging these two systems has the additional benefit of regulating our bodies through motion, a process known as stimming. According to Welch, “We’re starting to understand that stimming is a way to self-regulate. It’s a way to stay calm and alert when you need to disperse extra energy when there’s a bubble up of excitement. It can be a way to help recover from something that has been very stressful.”
In a world that isn’t built for them, autistic people can often find themselves experiencing extreme emotions and anxiety from their surroundings, whether it’s noise, light, or social fatigue. It often takes the form of a repetitive motion like flapping hands or spinning around, but can also extend to acts like humming to feel the stimulation of vocal cords. Welch adds, “I want to point out that stimming can be a response to and a source of joy, so we shouldn’t iRun.ca
A GOOD RUN: Faces of running from the autistic community, including BlackToe Running co-owner Mike Anderson and Braden, his son. Together, they promote Good Foot Delivery, aiding the neurodivergent community.
automatically interpret it as a sign that person is uncomfortable or displeased.”
Running is an obvious stim, a repetitive motion that engages your balance and enacts force upon your muscles and joints. “When I researched non-verbal autistic people, they said they struggle to monitor their body and to start and stop movement. When you’re running or lifting or swimming, your brain/body connection feels good and things feel in sync because of how rhythmic and steady it is,” Welch says.
For someone who is easily triggered by sensory overload (hypersensitive) and might experience sudden fluctuations in heart rate or breathing patterns, running can provide a safe environment to drown out those distractions and bring about a kind of sensory equilibrium in their body (a steady heart rate, consistent breathing, and predictable movement).
On the other end of the spectrum, someone can be hyposensitive and have a higher threshold for noticing sensory input. In this case, Welch says, “Running could be something that you do to alert yourself and get that strong input through your legs, which engages your proprioceptive sense and provides regulation, the same way it does for someone who is hypersensitive.” It’s important to note, however, that most people are a combination of hyper and hyposensitivity.
Welch acknowledges that research and knowledge is still developing when it comes to why autistic people experience sensory input differently and why engaging the vestibular and proprioceptive systems is so fruitful. However, she’s eager to pursue more studies.
“What’s important is that we hear the need and support it,” she says.
With the right support, autistic runners exceed their own expectations
If running can support sensory regulation and joy in movement, it can pave the way to long-term personal growth.
Achilles International, a nonprofit that leads adaptive running programs for people with disabilities, has seen that growth among runners for decades. Carolyn Wynne, also a registered occupational therapist and Team Achilles Kids Program Manager (Brooklyn Chapter), says, “The best benefit that you see is the friendships and social interactions that develop. Physically, runners have shown improved motor planning, gait patterns, endurance and pacing.”
Good Foot Delivery is a Toronto-wide courier service that strives to provide meaningful employment opportunities to members of the neurodivergent community. Good Foot couriers travel by foot or transit and the Good Foot Run Crew—run out of Black Toe Running in Toronto’s King West neighbourhood—has helped Good Foot couriers stay fit and fundraise for various causes through their annual participation in the TCS Toronto Waterfront 5K.
Braden Anderson, a Good Foot employee and long-time run crew member, says running has become an important avenue for better health and connection. “I’ve been doing it for a few years and got used to doing it, meeting new people, and running across the city,” Braden says.
Now a veteran of more than a dozen races, including a mix of trail and road races, Braden has also experienced personal growth through running. “I’ve definitely become more talkative than I’ve been before. I coached myself and I really love seeing people on the team be so enthusiastic. It makes it worthwhile,” he says.
Lisa Derencinovic, President of Achilles International’s Canada Chapter, has seen countless athletes with disabilities break new ground through running. “I’ve witnessed athletes with disabilities run marathons with their guides when they didn’t think they could do it. One athlete with a mental health disability said running reduced his symptoms and coming to Achilles was part of his health goals,” Derencinovic proclaims.
If you build it, they will run!
Running’s potential as a coping mechanism for stress and as a pathway for navigating environmental challenges should encourage leaders across Canada’s running community to adopt a neuro-inclusive approach. Achilles and Black Toe Running shared their lessons for empowering neurodivergent runners.
If you want to go far, go together
Within the autism community, body-doubling refers to completing a difficult task together. For some autistic runners, working with a guide can be helpful in remaining consistent, understanding the training process, and getting the most out of a run. For a guide supporting an autistic runner, that support becomes more effective the more they communicate with an athlete and get to know their needs over time.
Mike Anderson, co-owner of Black Toe Running and co-founder of the Good Foot Run
Running can provide a safe environment to drown out distractions and bring about sensory equilibrium—a steady heart rate, consistent breathing, and predictable movement.
Crew alongside Maya Anderson, thinks consistency is the key to making it work. “Having core people who commit to being there and being familiar faces is really critical,” he says. “That way you get to know someone’s needs and can provide support over the long-term.”
Lynda Mao, a current coach of the Good Foot Run Crew, encourages guides and crews to carry that accountability through to race day. “Even a 5K can feel long if it’s your first race, so we try to pair people off so they can finish together,” Mao says, adding that check-ins and support throughout the race, especially through noisier and difficult sections of the course, are invaluable.
Brian McLean, Volunteer President at Achilles Canada and himself a visually impaired runner, says, “It all comes down to communication. Every athlete is different, so a good guide asks what the best way is to help the athlete.” McLean says that support can range from adapting the time of day you run to account for noise and traffic to running ahead of an athlete to grab water and bring it back to them so they’re not caught in the typical bottleneck of a water station.
Always be flexible
Runners have a reputation for stubbornness and attachment to goals. Flexibility is necessary, however, for a person-first approach.
When it comes to autistic runners, forcing them to push through sensory overload or bodily fatigue isn’t just likely to result in injury—as it might for any runner—but could also result in harmful meltdowns in which an autistic person has difficulty regulating their emotions or behaviour. In such cases, there’s a risk of building a long-term negative association with running and fitness.
Mike Anderson says that the biggest mistake anyone trying to be neuro-inclusive can make is being too rigid. “Thinking that you’ll stick to one program, distance, or workout on any given day is a bad approach. Some days, someone might want to run, walk, or run and walk,” he says. Each individual needs to be respected for their particular needs on a given day. “You also can’t just give a runner direction and expect that they’ll follow,” he says. “The educational piece of making sure someone understands why they’re doing what they’re doing is really important.”
Welch says, “Your level of stress response and your sensory processing have a transactional relationship. When you’re stressed, your tolerance for sensory input goes down. When we consider the needs of autistic people, we can change our environments to decrease that stress.”
Mao urges coaches and crew leaders to bring that adaptability to running. “You have to keep language people focused and deal with individuals on an individual basis when they’re experiencing stimulation challenges. You need adaptive spaces and adaptive staff to give people the right environment to thrive,” she says.
No one knows someone better than they know themselves
Derencinovic encourages a tailored approach to running built on open communication. She says, “Do not assume a one size fits all approach for autistic runners. Like any runner, each has a strength and something they’re working on. Lean into the strengths and interests to work towards their running goals. Know their preferred method of communication and don’t be afraid to ask questions!”
Even while running on their own, autistic runners, who know their needs best, can adapt their routine around a few simple but important factors, including:
What time of day is best to run? For someone who is sensitive to certain temperatures or noise, running at the right–or wrong–time can completely change the experience.
Wearing fabrics that are comfortable and don’t cause discomfort.
Planning your route ahead of time to ensure predictability and minimise potential triggers and distractions.
When it comes to races and running with groups, consider the crowd sizes and noise levels that you’d be comfortable with.
It’s Braden Anderson, though, who offers the most important piece of wisdom when he says of his running journey, “I’d say it’s been a very great and fun experience!” Running is meant to be fun! It’s greatest gift isn’t the medals or the personal bests, but how it makes us feel and how it can enrich our relationship with ourselves and the world around us. As running enters a new “boom” era, we can build a community that extends those joys and changes lives.
WINNING SMILES: Members of Achilles International in all their glory at the TCS New York City Marathon.
Sports is what gets us to reunite.”
Runners and Organizations Make Space for Muslim Athletes in Canada and Beyond
afira Halani is light on her feet, expertly squatting in time to the Bollywood song, “Aankh Maare,” that blasts over loudspeakers in downtown Toronto. In the video, pinned at the top of Halani’s vibrant Instagram page, she leads a large group of runners at a weekly run club with Toronto’s Midnight Runners. She enthusiastically encourages them to dance in what she calls the “Bollywood Squat Challenge,” a stop on the evening group run. Even over the online video, Halani’s energy is infectious.
Halani, a captain for Midnight Runners and overall fitness motivator and athlete, is one of many Muslim athletes across Canada who inspires others in her community to get active. Communities across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec are all seeing their memberships flourish as running’s inclusivity continues to expand. Halani, a second generation
East-African of Indian descent who is an IsmailiMuslim, says, “It was almost like I didn’t fit in anywhere. I felt like I wasn’t Indian enough for other Indians, and I wasn’t East-African enough for the East-Africans, because I was very Westernized. But at the same time, I didn’t feel like I was Westernized enough, either.”
When she moved to Canada from the U.S later as a child, Halani says her school “didn’t have a lot of Brown people.” Halani adds, “I didn’t know where I truly belonged.”
In 2020, after Halani discovered a passion for running, she joined Midnight Runners. At her first run club event with the group, Halani realized, “This was the community that I’ve been craving my whole entire life.”
The community members, many of whom are new immigrants or students on visas, acknowledge and celebrate each runner’s unique
experiences. Halani says, “It wasn’t that there were people like me. It was that nobody was like me and nobody was like one another. And it was embraced and celebrated.”
Currently, Halani is training to represent Team Canada for track and field at the 2025 Ismaili Games in Dubai. The Ismaili Games can be likened to an Olympics for Ismaili Muslims, a sect of Islam. The Games, held every four to eight years, include a vast range of sports, with niche events like cricket and E-sports.
Halani says that more than the competition, the Games are about uniting Ismaili Muslims as a community. She mentions the social aspect of the event: “[There are] Ismaili Muslims from across the world, and there’s music festivals and concerts where you celebrate together through food, song, and dance.”
It was at the Ismaili Games qualifiers in 2023 that Halani met Rooiana Alizada, a Vancouverbased Ismaili track and field athlete. Alizada says that running has connected her to a wider community of Ismaili Muslims. “It’s funny going from rivals with Safira to teammates,” Alizada says. “Now we’re on the same team to be part of Team Canada, to compete with other Ismailis across the world.”
Alizada, who has been involved in the Ismaili Games for over eight years, became a runner through the event. She says, “Growing up, I really didn’t know what running was. Once I got involved in [the Ismaili Games], I always came back to running as my core sport.”
She emphasizes the community-mentality inherent to running. Although track and field is a solo sport, Alizada highlights the training that’s done as a team. “We all go through the pain together, we all sweat and cry together,” she says. This year, Alizada is excited to connect with her Ismaili friends across the world in Dubai. For her, “Sports is what gets us to reunite.”
Like Alizada, Halani also sees running through a team-mentality. She says, about the Ismaili Games qualifiers, “Yes, we’re individual runners, but we’re also a team. After we would run, it didn’t matter how well or how bad we did, we would celebrate each other’s wins and support each other’s efforts with high fives and hugs.”
With her active social media platform and leadership within a wide range of running and fitness communities, Halani is breaking cultural norms and stereotypes.
“In the South Asian community, when it comes to women, there is a strong emphasis on femininity, implying that you’re not supposed to be strong, you’re not supposed to be dominant,” she says, adding she’s often been told to be more “lady-like” and “girly.” When Halani began to get stronger, others told her she was “too muscular.” Through her athleticism, Halani defies these stereotypes and acts as a role model for other young athletes of colour. “I am Brown, I am Indian at heart, and I’m just one of many trying to do my part in breaking cultural norms and stereotypes,” she says.
Saif Khan, who competed on Team Ontario for the Ismaili Qualifiers alongside Halani, projected to compete in the 100 meter race at the 2025 Ismaili Games, shares similar values. “Traditionally, Muslim culture prioritizes academics over athletics,” he says, adding that when he became more involved in athletics, his parents revolted. “They weren’t fully happy with me
giving significant time for athletics.”
However, through events like the Ismaili Games, Khan says he is currently “seeing more and more Muslim families promoting athletics for their children.”
In the Greater Toronto Area, Hijabi Ballers similarly aims to increase Muslim participation in athletics by promoting sports opportunities among Muslim girls and women. Shireen Ahmed, Vice-Chair of Hijabi Ballers’ Advisory Board, says that Muslim women face systemic barriers in sports. “There is a disconnect between interest and commitment [among Muslim athletes] versus opportunities for advancement,” Ahmed says. She seeks to highlight systemic barriers, such as how hijab bans at an elite level exclude hijab-wearing athletes from competing.
Hijabi Ballers works to combat exclusion. “Hijabi Ballers has made huge leaps for Muslim women,” she tells iRun. By asking for sports communities to consider uniform accommodations and create women-only spaces, Ahmed has seen a surge in young Muslim women involved in athletics. Indeed, what Hijabi Ballers has achieved for sports since its establishment in 2017 is “unparalleled.” Ahmed is an inspiration for young Muslim women athletes. “I started this career over 15 years ago when there was no one,” she says. Now, many Muslim women contact her for insight or feedback. “Seeing Muslim women from all over the world be involved in sports is something I treasure,” she says. “Running is a place where we all belong.”
TRAIN AT MACH SPEED
MACH X 2 An evolution inpropulsive speed training
GIVING BACK, DRESSING UP, HAVING FUN AND SELF-EXPRESSION: ALEXI PAPPAS TAKES RUNNING TO ITS NEXT FRONTIER
Kirsten Fleming tours California from Calgary to get a taste of where running is heading—and how Alexi Pappas uses flair and honesty to open our sport to the world.
Photographs by Adam Rindy, @adamrindy / Caitlin Ackerman, Stylist @las_bestgoth / Doug Mengert, Hair @_douglasjack / Jessie Maranda, Makeup @jessiemaranda / Tess Miller, Makeup Assistant @tessmillermakeup / Accessories by @ojo__lindo @cecilia.alejandro / Glitter by @Litcosmetics
ALEXI PAPPAS ALEXI PAPPAS ALEXI PAPPAS
ALEXI PAPPAS
unning is having a moment. And so is Alexi Pappas.
The powerhouse Olympian is dancing (and running) to the beat of her own drum—and bass. It’s just the latest passion project I learn about when I visit her home in L.A. Alexi shows off turntables and explains she spends Sundays— when she’s not travelling, racing or working on any number of artistic projects— writing music and learning to DJ with her music group Joxxx. She later breaks out in a song over the goat milk lattes she prepared for us, while we sit around her kitchen table: “Popeye arms in my Armani/bring me a 12-inch salami/put me on your next charcuterie board/do anything but make me yawwwwwwn-ey.”
It’s silly, fun and Alexi is adorable, even if she did give me a royal thrashing on the trails around her home in the Santa Monica mountains. (Author’s admission: she asks if I understand that the lyrics are “post-ironic.” I say yes and then Google it when I leave her house). Pappas—just home from the Paris Olympics on this early September morning and still recovering from the broken collarbone she suffered there—made a quick stopover from Europe to San Francisco to run with her buddy Diplo and 13,000 of his closest pals.
It’s 6am and I’m on the doorstep of her 100-year-old converted house, which used to be a one-room cabin. Alexi greets me like a dear old friend despite the fact she’s jetlagged and hasn’t had time to unpack. “I’m choosing a different life,” she explains, and begins unpacking a racer’s life at full speed (not surprising, considering she owns the Greek record for the fastest woman to run 10,000 metres from the 2016 Rio Olympics). In 2016, Alexi also released her first feature film; she wrote, directed and starred as Plumb in Tracktown. “I’d like to be at the Olympics and make art and I had to choose. Do I want to run 120 miles a week or do I want to pursue multiple things and connect with the world?” she asks, with a smile. “I may do an event, but can I do it, like, in a different way?”
Alexi Pappas is doing it all—her way.
Since Tracktown, she’s released a second film, Olympic Dreams; published her New York Times bestseller memoir, Bravey (and adapted Bravey for young readers), and her podcast Mentor Buffet, just came out last month. Alexi discloses she’s also working on a second book, which she feels nervous about: “It’s more instructional and ‘big think’ than memoir,” she says.
All of this is impressive, and good for the sport. Yet it’s how she’s connecting to her fans (known as Braveys) that’s most powerful—she has written and spoken publicly about incredibly private things: her mother’s suicide, her own mental health and depression, freezing her eggs and her recent divorce. “I don’t have a choice, whoever it is that I am, I cannot be something else,” she says, between breaths while we’re out on our run. “So my natural and true self has feelings and impulses that there’s not really a place to express them yet, but I’m trying. I’m creating new spaces to express my ideas.”
Alexi is more herself than most people—let alone runners—ever are. And she’s inspiring others to find their voice. There’s an authenticity to her that is disarming. “I love words, I’d be bored if I said the same ones all the time,” she explains when I ask her about opening up. While most Olympians talk diet, workouts and pacing, Alexi showcases the full range of her life. “I’m feral,” she adds as an afterthought, while climbing Dirt Mulholland, and there’s something decidedly wild about Alexi Pappas. She’s far more un-domesticated than her two comedic-looking Scottish fold cats, Gretchen and Roxanne, who welcome us back after our run to her home.
A neon sign, red velvet walls, vintage furniture and a massive 3D wood art installation she just hung created by family friend, director Richard Linklater give her house total loungey LA vibes so it’s no surprise she likes to host. “After the Sundance Film festival, I hosted a party here and we called it Moonrest,” she laughs.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition: this overt California hippy-ness is contradicted by the pragmatism of a dedicated athlete. “I ate a lot of protein, drank
AT RACES, PEOPLE ARE USED TO SEEING PAIN, BUT HERE I WAS DANCING AND HAVING FUN— PERFORMANCE AND JOY ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.”
bone broth, slept a lot and NO CAFFEINE for three weeks,” she explains about the speedy recovery she made following a somewhat mysterious Olympic accident. “As athletes, we know what to do, we know how to get better and we put the pieces together, so I recovered from my collarbone injury in three weeks. I got back to filming and back to running,” she explains. (I love that she lumps me in her category: ‘we as athletes.’ My husband had a similar break and it took him nine weeks to recover. I remind myself silently: ‘We are not athletes like you are an athlete, Alexi.’)
What makes this multifaceted runner notable beyond her track performance is how she has handled adversity, evolved, and continues to find new ways to enjoy our sport. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, or embarrass my community, it was just like, This is what I am today,” she says, referring to the time she made headlines at the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon. She was coming back from an injury and not fit enough to compete in an elite field, yet wanted to be on the start line. “I hired a makeup artist in New York, and asked, Can you put something on my face, like stars, to show that I’m OK? I did it to protect myself. That was my first glitter at a race.” And that’s how her signature makeup look (see our cover) was born. The experience prompted Alexi to see races as a stage. “There’s these moments, it just fell to the ground,” she says. “At races, people are used to seeing pain, but here I was dancing and having fun—and they loved it.”
NYRR must have loved it too as Alexi is reprising her role as the ultimate hype girl at TCS New York City Marathon again next month where she will be adorned at the Mastercard Priceless start in her about-to-launch glitter makeup line Glop. “Dancing around for 26 miles, you have to be in shape,” she tells me. The Braveys will be thrilled to hear she hired an L.A. chemist to create Glop and I suggest she might want to sell it at race expos, starting with the Servus Calgary Marathon next May. She doesn’t say ‘no,’ but the shrewd businesswoman, also doesn’t commit. Meanwhile, her fall season will be rounded out by guiding her visually impaired friend and para athlete, Lisa Thompson, in Berlin and Tokyo. “I’m still competitive in my heart, but now I’m competitive on someone else’s behalf,” she says, before going on to explain her race strategy as a guide is to be fast at aid stations, using tension to help Lisa turn and manage the competition, which adds a new dimension to the sport she’s been competing in for 20 years.
“Lisa wants to win and I am there to help her win,” Alexi says emphatically.
She hasn’t completely ruled out winning something for herself either. “I love running ultras, even though I haven’t yet trained for one properly. If I do, I think I could be competitive and dangerous,” she declares. “I’m not sure if I will do that, but I could if I want to.” In 2023, Alexi did the Leadville 100, but admits she walked some of it. It seems certain we will see her tackle a big trail distance (and podium) within the next few years. But competitive racing is only the beginning. This summer she lent her name and likeness to the Alexi Pappas 10KM race in her hometown of San Francisco. She helped design the swag and added “colour and energy to let the 10KM have its moment.”
“I love strong local, regional races, they’re a great way to see a city because they cater to making the most of a place and what makes it great,” she says. We talk about how community events are typically how people find the sport and Alexi says she wants new runners to understand the rich tapestry of running is there to experience and to treat it like a buffet, like she does, and try it all. “I want to help new runners discover and fall in love with our sport in a gentle and meaningful way, which is often in your own backyard.”
Alexi Pappas is definitely sharing our sport through her art, her music, her podcast and by being unapologetically Alexi—demonstrating running can be more than one thing. “Running is not just one sport, it’s different events and places to explore and goals to achieve and it’s this playground there for us all.”
I’M STILL COMPETITIVE IN MY HEART, BUT NOW I’M COMPETITIVE ON SOMEONE ELSE’S BEHALF.
A Runner’s Guide to the Perfect Shoe Rotation
Different sneakers are designed for different workouts, all aimed to optimize different running thresholds. During your training, each workout requires something different—easy runs, long runs and speed work—and different shoes will help you achieve each individual goal in order to come together on race day. With help from two-time Olympian Natasha Wodak, an ASICS athlete and Canada’s all-time fastest women’s marathon racer, we look at the new line of ASICS running shoes, determining how you can best gear up for your next race goal.
SUPERBLAST™i
A super trainer designed for the long run, able to withstand the pounding and perfect for easy or recovery runs, this shoe offers a springy feel and energized mindset. “This is the biggest” every day trainer—the most responsive and cushioned of all my shoes,” says Wodak. “I save this one for my longer runs.”
NOVABLAST™i
A daily trainer, easy/recovery shoe, this model has a springy feel for an energized mindset. “I absolutely love these and I wear these the most,” says Wodak. “They offer cloud-like comfort and responsive bounce-back. Perfect for an energized ride.”
GEL-NIMBUS®i
Another great shoe for clocking the kilometres, neutral, soft and comfortable and perfect for the day after a big workout or long run. “I like these for shorter, easy runs on the pavement because they’re super cushioned,” says Wodak. “I also do a lot of walking in these excellent shoes.”
GEL-KAYANO®i
A daily trainer which offers a protective feel—cushioned and light—the shoes offer a confident, reliable mindset and a smooth, effective ride. “They begin as a hardworking training shoe, then race shoe, then street shoe, a lawn-cutting shoe, then a shoe donated to Africa,” says Rick Shaver, who owns fifty pairs. “They live a good life, my GEL-KAYANO shoes.”
MAGIC SPEED™i
“I feel fast in this one,” says Natasha Wodak, of these race day and/or workout shoes, also perfect for tempo runs and interval workouts. “They’re light, bouncy and have a carbon plate.” When you’re looking to feel confident and get down to work, there’s nothing like MAGIC SPEED™.
METASPEED™ Series
A fast feel powerhouse designed for race day and PBs, this is the shoe at the enf of the rainbow, what you want to be wearing when it’s time to compete. “The supershoe!’ declares Wodak. “They’re super lightweight, cushioned, responsive and that good ol’ carbon plate propels you forward. The best race shoe I’ve ever worn.”
Emily May Rose has Racoons on the Run
mily May Rose, from Grimsby, Ontario and 31-years-old, isn’t a runner. But the Ontario College of Art & Design graduate is familiar with the running world. As a distinctive, beloved graffiti artist in and around Toronto, her vivid, joyful murals have brightened many a long run and provided myriad backdrops on running Instagram.
“Runners have always been an audience of mine and I feel like the people most familiar with my work are people out and about in the alleyways and streets,” says Rose, owner of the Northern Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood, a mecca of both her work and carefully curated projects she loves. “My athleticism is painting murals and climbing ladders, but it’s certainly been cool having running groups tag me on their runs. It makes me feel like part of their process.”
Rose began her career as a traditional painter and came upon her graffiti art after being influenced by her peers. The distinctive raccoons? She says that while growing up in Grimsby, she saw lots of bunnies, and thus that furry creature populated her world. When she moved to Toronto at the age of 18, our unofficial mascot, she says, blew her mind.
“Soon after I moved here, I was going to a convenient store in the middle of the night and saw one crossing the street and I was like, wow, it’s huge—they’re like bears,” says Rose, of the trashcan panda that she’s also emblazoned on the official ASICS Toronto Waterfront
Influential muralist lends her whimsical brilliance to ASICS at the TCS
Toronto Waterfront Marathon
Marathon shirt, one of the most coveted pieces of swag in our sport. “After that, I started painting a bunch of raccoons to the point I was told, Emily, you can’t only do raccoons, but I’d sneak them through my OCAD thesis.” Looking back on her journey, Rose feels sanguine.
“They told me I couldn’t only do raccoons—I proved them wrong.”
Still, the artist continues to thrive. Rose calls making her murals “addictive,” and she also says that she’s “very competitive,” two big attributes which also connect her to our running world. As an in-demand artist who has fun while she works and aims to inject whimsy and light in the lives of her audience, Rose has shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario and in South Africa, San Francisco and Kosovo while also doing work for Lululemon and the National Hockey League. Even if she’s not a runner, we all believe that she’s going to find many more distinct finish lines.
“My art is very genuine to me, and we all have shared experiences so I think that’s why my work resonates with people,” says Emily May Rose. “I want to make work that’s fun to look at and that makes people laugh. I want to bring them joy, even if they are on a run.”
Northern Contemporary Gallery is located at 420 Roncesvalles Avenue. Follow Emily May Rose on Instagram, @emilymayrose.
Do What You Can on the Day
Tips on winning your racing and training and also how to live from the Canadian Olympic heroes
Ethan Katzberg and Mohammed Ahmed
y two favourite athletes from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games were Ethan Katzberg and Mohammed Ahmed. They competed in different events—Katzberg, the hammer throw, while Ahmed ran the 5,000m—and had different results. Katzberg took gold and Ahmed, who was tripped in his heap, didn’t medal. Taken together, both have important messages on how to train, compete, and comport yourself with grace, no matter the outcome.
“If you let yourself feed into nerves, imposter syndrome can follow and you wonder if you’re ready,” says Katzberg, the 22-year-old from Nanaimo, BC, who threw his first 16-pound hammer in Paris 84.12 metres, securing gold at the start of his event. “When the stadium’s full, it doesn’t matter if it’s one person in the audience or 70,000—you have to ignore it and focus on doing the same thing you’ve done: forget where you are and focus on what you know how to do.”
It’s amazing how applicable Katzberg’s feelings from Paris are to runners embarking on their own race. Nerves are natural. You wonder if you’re ready. Suddenly, you start feeling weird leg pains and you’re sleepless, agitated and scared. For Katzberg, who’s built like Thor and eats bison, he learned early on that you have to take a big day seriously. But not so seriously that you can no longer breathe.
“The massiveness can capture you, be ready,” he says, and shares his approach to training. Odds are if you’re reading this you’re either lining up this weekend or have already completed your big event of the fall. Either way, a new race is dawning. Katzberg takes big training blocks and breaks them down. “A year or even six months is too long to train for, so I’ll look at it as a series of two-month intervals, then break that down into a series of weeks,” he says.
For us, that could mean first focusing on core strength, then endurance, then speed. If you ran in fall and will (eventually) pivot to spring race goals, cut your training down into chunks.
“You don’t learn a lot from winning, you learn a lot from losing,” he says, which means the Olympics might not have taught him that much (he won). But for us, to hedge, if your race doesn’t go well, it’s not a complete stinker. Focus on what you can change for the spring.
Mohammed Ahmed has had plenty of time to learn. In his race, Ahmed was caught in a swirl of runners and tripped—at the height of his power on his biggest day, he had his race taken away from him. “Such is life,” he wrote on Instagram. “Much to my dismay, I’m forced to watch from the sidelines. We fall, stumble and get knocked down. But damn, we don’t gotta stay there for too long, do we?”
Ahmed, reached in the midst of his training for the World Championships next year in Tokyo, was inspiring with each word he said. “I find humbleness sexy,” he told iRun, and unpacked that statement: always an underdog since moving from Somalia to Canada, where he didn’t speak the language and had never attended school, Ahmed expects life to be hard. His work ethic, effort and consistency is his unfair advantage against his competition. Ahmed, silver medalist at the 2021 Olympics and Canada’s record holder at indoor and outdoor 5,000m, and outdoor 10,000 metres, has learned to stay in the present. At each workout, he’s concentrating on where he is, that moment. “Love the process and enjoy the pursuit of the goal, then keep repeating what works,” says Ahmed, top ten in the world since 2016 and still showing up every day. “Being consistent day in and day out and paying attention to details is hard, but it’s a recipe for winning. People like to pretend that running is an easy sport. But what I love most about it is that it’s hard.”
For whatever reason, hearing Ahmed admit that running is hard came as a relief to me. You can train, avoid French fries and buy super shoes, and still bonk at a race you’ve done ten times. Running is hard. And throwing hammers like Ethan Katzberg is beyond what most average people attempt. But the Canadian Olympians are no different than you: they get nervous, they train, they try to avoid junk food and they compete. Then they do it again and again.
“My gramma used to share a Somali saying with our family, ‘abandon that which has departed and ponder on that which is yet to come,’” Ahmed says. “If you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it hits something, you swim. You have to keep moving forward so you work hard. Nothing is guaranteed.”
BOYS OF SUMMER: Katzberg, top, and Ahmed, pictured below, both made their country proud at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
When Malindi Elmore raced Paris, iRun Showed Up for Kid Sport
An in-person event at 2 a.m. brought runners together to cheer for a Canadian legend
The Women’s Marathon at the Summer Olympics was August 11 in Paris and featured iRun summer cover star Malindi Elmore competing for Canada against the world’s best. Along with MILO and Totum Life Science, fifty runners participated in a Midnight Run and ate, drank and made merry while watching Elmore race against women half her age. There was food from Mandy’s Gourmet Salads, Athletic Brewing and Geez Louise drinks, plenty of MEC headlamps, a Saucony raffle and KT Tape for each spirited attendee. Almost a thousand dollars was raised for KidSport Ontario, Elmore’s charity of choice. We cheered so loud, Elmore said later, that she heard us in France.
waiting on proper logo files to finalize
Get to Know Totum Life Science, a health club catering to runners and
so much more!
The club that hosted our in-person Olympic Watch Party in Toronto wants to be your go-to cross-training destination
Totum Life Science, founded in 1993, is the culmination of visionaries Tim and Stacy Irvine—both former high-performance competitive athletes and certified kinesiologists and physiotherapists. After recognizing a void in the market for a full-body high performance facility, they launched Totum Life Science King St location in downtown Toronto in 2002, as one of the first centers in Ontario to offer a multi-sport training facility, an evolutionary approach to allow athletes and patrons alike to have a comprehensive team throughout one’s athletic journey.
Offering everything from registered massage therapy to physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture and osteopath, to personal trainers, group fitness and more, Totum is one of the only “whole” body facilities driven by science.
With an individualistic approach, Totum has proudly worked with professional athletes in the NBA, NHL, CFL, and Professional Golfers, Athletics, and National Women’s Soccer league players, while also catering to local residents of Toronto on a daily basis with a 360 degree approach—circle of care—to wellness and training.
Now with five locations, all offering slightly different services, Totum continues to be one of the leading health/wellness/fitness facilities in Canada.
In late 2023, Totum launched a media platform with the intent to help inform, educate and inspire individuals around the world by powering each with expert insights, information and uncanny off the cuff advice in the health and wellness space. First to launch is the Totum podcast—available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple podcasts.
We All Have the Power to Change
Jessica Lancaster shed 70 pounds on her remarkable health journey, but the best part is what it did for her mental health. She tells iRun editor Ben Kaplan that all our lives are malleable, with heart, dedication and a good support team
To meet Jess Lancaster, a Senior Account Executive at Shopify, is to bathe in the aura of someone with confidence. So when we met recently at a run group she organised for over 50 colleagues from her company, hosted at Black Toe Running in Toronto, it was startling to discover she wasn’t always as confident as she appeared. Jess struggled with weight and depression throughout her teens and early twenties, leading a sedentary lifestyle.
“It finally hit me that I had to make a change. Deep down, I wasn’t a happy person and felt stuck, like I was trying to figure out what I would do with my life,” Lancaster, now 35, tells iRun about her year after university, when she weighed 198 pounds and lacked self-esteem & direction She first joined a gym back and found weight loss results with strength training, but never really got involved with cardio, or running. “I didn’t know anything about the gym and made unhealthy choices, but I wanted to feel better and, ultimately, a fitness routine really helped me.”
Although she has been focused on health and wellness for a decade, it wasn’t until the closure of gyms during the pandemic when her passion for running began. “My partner Reece suggested we go for a 5K and I’d never even run a 1K before. I said, Are you crazy?” Lancaster recounts. However, she went back on another run and experienced what all of us will have felt at some point in our journey—she ran again, and again, and again. Eventually, something clicked. “I saw the results and was motivated and so I kept working harder, saw my body adapt, the results were linear: If I can run 5K, can I run 5K faster? Can I run six? It just kept building from there. It was a really great change of pace from strength training and a welcome challenge.”
Lancaster didn’t always enjoy her runs, but she did enjoy her new morning COVID routine and felt a sense of accomplishment when she finished her first 10K. “I never thought I could run that far!” she says. Jess ran a 10K race, then two half marathons, and is currently training for her first two marathons coming up in a few months. “Nothing’s more motivating than race day energy,” she says, adding that racing made running more fun. “I love how everyone thinks running is super accessible, like you just need yourself, but when I started shopping for race day shoes, fueling tools and gear, it became a bigger obsession. I really became involved, and maybe I have too many shoes now, but I have lots of mileage to log and I can’t imagine not running!”
Today, Lancaster is preparing for two marathons: the California International Marathon in December and the TCS London Marathon this spring. Her story is notable because she was a non-runner who got bit by the bug and had it change her life, her body and her own self-perception. It was a gradual journey of sacrifice, discipline and habit-forming, and the results are clear—not only in how she races, but how she feels about herself deep down inside.
“I look at old photos of myself and can’t recognize that person,” she says. “I’m just so incredibly happy and grateful that fitness helped me feel better and become a more emotionally strong person. Every choice you make shapes your future and fitness is such an integral component of a happy, successful life. It has truly made me a happier person and I can’t imagine starting my day any other way.” She continues to embody a hybrid approach to fitness with body strength and running as a core part of her weekly morning routine. If she can change, she believes, so can you.
30K
at Around the Bay is Back, also with races at
5K, 10K and 15K
Celebrating 131 years with ingenuity, while respecting the time-honoured running past . By Ben Kaplan
Anna Lewis, race director of Around the Bay, has a job best described as a balancing act. Her race, taking place this year in Hamilton on Sunday, March 30, 2025, needs to adapt to the times. Technology improves, streets change, courses get disrupted, and Lewis needs to respond: change is part of any long-term process. However, the oldest road race in North America—three years older than Boston, an event that’s featured luminaries like Tom Longboat, Jack Caffery and Tersilla Komac, Canada’s version of Boston’s Kathrine Switzer—holds sacred ground in the running community. There’s something special about Around the Bay that needs to be preserved.
“We’re always changing and adapting, but certain event elements are foundational, and that’s our special sauce,” says Lewis, who’s been in her role since 2016 and shepherded the event both through innovation and honouring tradition. “Everyone involved with Around the Bay, from the volunteers to service providers, participants to sponsors, knows that at our event they’re part of history—and that definitely adds to our allure.”
The 2025 allure of Around the Bay—which caps at 4,500 runners in the 30K, 1,250 runners each for the 10K and 15K, and 1,500 runners in the 5K—brings the race back closer to tradition after veering from its
annual 30K distance, to something closer last year to 34 kilometres. In 2024, a sinkhole two days before startline forced course disruption, but the race gallantly went on. This year, however, despite an awesome new finish line at Liuna Station (with more nearby parking downtown), Lewis is happy to confirm that ATB will be back at 30K.
“I’ve never heard so many runners on social media say, I’m glad I only have to run 30 kilometres!” Lewis says, with a laugh, but then adds quickly that she’s feeling extraordinary momentum for the 2025 iteration of Around the Bay. “We’re super excited to be back to 30K and already this year feels like it’s going to be extra special. Every year, the community comes out in droves for Around the Bay and I get the sense this year will be electric.”
Around the Bay is sure to sell-out so capture your race bibs early for North America’s longest running racing tradition—an event where every participant, every volunteer and every spectator knows they’re involved with some kind of magic. The event is hilly, often windy and a particular kind of challenge. That’s why for 131 years completing Around the Bay feels so good.
For race information and registration, please visit BayRace.com.
Fresh Foam X 1080v14
“At TCS, Good health is a sustainable future.”
TCS is the title sponsor of marathons in Toronto, New York, London, Amsterdam and Sydney among a portfolio of 14 global endurance running races. Michelle Taylor, head of Global Sports Sponsorship at TCS, tells iRun why her global technology company puts a premium on your health.
A marathon runner, Michelle Taylor is effusive when talking about the sport we love. Her company, which provides global technology services and consulting, has changed our sport by elevating the world’s best races. TCS is a leader in the growing fields of AI, digital twins, and synthetic biology. Through their apps and sponsorships, innovation and green initiatives, it’s not exaggerating to say that TCS is the most important brand in the world for the running community that’s non-endemic to our sport. For Taylor, a nine time marathon finisher, the qualities that make a runner successful mirror the ones that have made Tata Consultancy Services thrive across 55 countries with a market cap of more than US$200-billion.
“Running shows how much good you can do in the world,” says Taylor, still emotional after returning home from the TCS Sydney Marathon, the most recent TCS race sponsorship—an event most
believe is on the cusp of becoming an Abbott World Marathon Major. “We sponsor marathons because we believe in health and wellness and events help us showcase how TCS’ technology can help solve problems and build a better future—together.”
The TCS technology on display at the races, including the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon and next month’s TCS New York City Marathon, is the race app, powered by Tata Consultancy Services, that gets downloaded 2 million times-per-year. The app allows live tracking of runners and pinpoints racers across the course, so family and friends can lend loved ones their support. But that’s not all TCS does for runners. In 2023, TCS created a digital twin of Boston Marathon champion and two-time Olympian Des Linden’s heart. This year, with its Future Athletes project, TCS aims to help a diverse group runners train smarter and safer by creating digital twins of their hearts. The data on nutrition,
medicine, sleep and recovery can be shared with us all as TCS uses the information to enhance knowledge and improve global health.
“We believe technology can help everybody live longer, healthier and fitter lives,” Taylor says. “We’re studying the heart through the lens of sport, but the implications are much broader. At TCS, we use sport for innovative new learnings that will impact people—clients, runners, employees, the whole world at large—across a much wider, diverse space.”
TCS is forward-thinking, so it’s no surprise that schools are where the company also parks its vast resources. Taylor says that at TCS, the company recognizes and celebrates our most influential and inspirational agents of change—teachers—and the communities that support them. To that end, TCS is heavily invested in the education system of their communities: enhancing science, technology, engineering and math programs. Leanne Loney, a teacher with 22 years experience in the Ontario and Quebec school systems, says she uses the TCS’ flagship digital innovation and career readiness program, goIT, to provide a structured environment for K-12 students to imagine and design tech-based solutions to global problems and introduce them to careers in the STEM fields. Through compelling design workshops and custom mentorship experiences, goIT engages students around the globe by challenging stereotypes and inspiring our future leaders to pursue careers in STEM and the computer sciences.
To that end, Leanne Loney is a fan.
“I use the TCS goIT challenges to incorporate technology in the classroom and tackle global issues, like sustainability, and the program has opened the world up to my students,” says Loney, who’s intricately connected to the TCS ecosystem. Loney doesn’t only teach her students. She also inspires them through her marathon running, which TCS also supports. As part of Team TCS Teachers, Loney was awarded a bib by the company to run the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon with fifty other teachers from around the world. “Running helps me feel good, clears my mind, and gives me energy so I’m ready to inspire my kids,” says Loney, attempting marathon number fortynine at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon this month. “My students—and even my own children—see my marathon running and realize it’s something that they also can do. Everyone who knows me sees how running makes me feel so fulfilled.”
Michelle Taylor also feels fulfilled, and the lifelong runner says she’s working her dream job. Holding the tape at the TCS Sydney Marathon, Taylor watched as the last runners crossed the finish line before the Sydney Opera House, expressions of hope and pride across their faces.
“At TCS, we have a long future ahead of us in the running space and we know that technology will continue to evolve the sport and make it more inclusive and accessible,” Taylor says. “Sydney was just the most emotional, wonderful experience and it solidifies how the beautiful sport of running is a place of shared values at TCS.”
5
Become par t of the continuing tradition by r unning this challeng ing course around Hamilton’s natural harbour! R ACE DATE: MARCH 30 - 2025
Presented by Ca s: 5K 10K 15K W
Race Categories: 5K, 10K, 15K, 30K & Hammer
ROUTE
Brooks Glycerin Max Wins the Day
How the innovative new GlideRoll Rocker helps the editor of iRun get ready for race day. By Ben Kaplan
Evenly dispersed, the foam beneath the Brooks Glycerin Max provides a smooth ride that’s nitrogen-infused, which is hard to quantify but shows up on the run. The cushioning is plush yet the shoe maintains its dexterity, and it’s malleable enough to allow the foot to move. A neutral shoe with a 6mm midsole drop, this sneaker represents comfort and innovation from a 110-year-old footwear brand.
Glycerin Max is designed for the extreme end of the cushioning spectrum and when preparing for races and working in a variety of shoes, the Glycerin Max is perfect for recovery. Leading into my training for the TCS New York City Marathon, I’d never approached such volume: weeks of 100 kilometres at 50-years-old put my ligaments to the test. It was during this cycle that I began wearing the Glycerin Max and I found it a perfect accoutrement to the mileage. With its GlideRoll Rocker, upturned wedges at the toe and heel, where additional DNA Tuned cushioning is stacked, I could transition deftly on my strides.
In addition, when working on Fartleks or interval training, at 10 ounces, I found the shoe light enough to compete. I’d do 18 kilometre sets with 8K mid-workout at half marathon pace in my Brooks Glycerin Max and find the shoe responsive at both speeds. What’s more, a product of Brooks, the number one performance running shoe in terms of 2022 American sales, with 22% market share, the
shoe would not only survive a tough workout on Wednesday, but also retain its cushioning when I turned around to run 33K in the Brooks Glycerin Max Sunday morning.
Important to mention, I’ve long believed that Brooks is now making the prettiest shoes on the market, and I know I’m not the only runner who cares about style. I tried the Glycerin 21 with the aqua blue wave and the all-white Ghost Max sneaker and it pained me to wear these shoes running. They looked too good to muss up. Style has come to the races and Brooks may be leaving its rivals in the lurch. It’s no longer enough to make a shoe that’s light, springy and responsive. It now needs to look cool and I think Brooks is doing a good job at mixing fashion with function so we show up on race day ready for Instagram.
The Brooks Glycerin Max is a giant leap forward for one of the leading shoe brands in the world. If you need a shoe to help you with mileage or to recommend to someone getting into the sport, the Glycerin Max is cushioned and soft, plush and comfortable. It’s fast, sleek and effective for a variety of workouts. It’s a shoe I have no compulsions about to recommend.
For more information on the Brooks Glycerin Max, please see BrooksRunning.com.
The Wizard of Joy
Charlotte
Brookes and Canada Running Series,
writes John Shep, is indicative of everything that’s right about racing
Anyone who has participated in the Vancouver Half Marathon, 21k de Montréal, lululemon Edmonton 10K, the Scarborough 5K or any of the other Canada Running Series races, understands the magic. Behind that community, is the true connector, one whose magic for putting on world-class events is unparalleled, but also hard to put your finger on. Rachel Munday, Executive Director of the Manitoba Marathon, got closest with: “Charlotte is a bit of a unicorn.” Peeking behind the curtain of Canada Running Series, we investigate the magic of National Event Director Charlotte Brookes.
As over 20,000 runners and walkers at the 2022 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon anxiously fidget in their corrals, Event Director Charlotte Brookes is waiting on a tractor trailer stuck on Lakeshore Boulevard. Her zone leader, Cory Freedman, an experienced race director heading Toronto Women’s Run Series, is shuffling the vehicle along and waiting to give Charlotte the all clear. What makes Charlotte special is that in this moment, she is with Cory at the same time as she is with those 20,000 athletes, at the same time as she is connected with her announcer who will start the race, at the same time as she is connected with the police forces supporting runners along their journey to 21.1 or 42.2km. Amidst the angst and anxiety, the wizard behind the curtain of the Canada Running Series Race Command Centre and all Canada Running Series events, Charlotte, remains calm, cool and collected, and connected. Cory recounts this story as the clearest example
of Charlotte’s magic, a testament to the fact that she has done it all in the running event industry. Charlotte worked her way up to operating a Race Command Centre (hidden away in a secret location, it is the communication hub for the race), but started by putting race bibs and safety pins together for her father, CRS founder Alan Brookes, at the ripe age of four. In the intervening years, Charlotte has worked help desk, registration, water stations, volunteer check-in, permit and government liaising and when the time calls for it, to this day, still unboxes 20,000 medals for events. Cory Freedman says, “It’s what the job takes to do, and she does it all. And that’s what makes her unique.”
Back at the race, when the roads were clear and Cory gave the go ahead, it was Charlotte connecting to everyone, giving them the green light. This wizard of the Canada Running Series Race Command Centre is not the charlatan of Oz, but instead just Charlotte, who has the brains, courage and most importantly the heart to ensure that each of those 20,000 athletes, 3,000 volunteers, each of her 15 Canada Running Series employees—and each of the nearly 100,000 spectators— has a joyous, memorable event.
What people don’t realize is the amount of work that goes on by Charlotte behind the scenes and that proverbial wizard’s curtain. After the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic waned and rumblings began about races returning in Canada, it was Charlotte and her fellow race directors connecting on Zooms, figuring out the safe return to racing. According to Athletics Ontario’s Sheryl Preston, Charlotte was
invaluable in her insights and leadership. Sheryl is blown away by Charlotte’s passion. “She gets the running community, she gets how important the running community is. She is a hero to me.”
There it is again, that heart. It was also in these moments that Charlotte’s thoughtfulness and ability to connect thrived. Even though some of the challenges brought on by COVID subsided, this culture of sharing and connection between running race directors—led by Charlotte and the Canada Running Series—continues. “The key to Charlotte’s ‘success’ is that she has this very special gift of being able to build teams on many levels and she is open, inclusive and supportive,” continues Cory. “She wants everyone to be the best they can be, to produce the best race they can, to provide the best experience to all runners, regardless of if she owns the events or not. It only strengthens running as a whole.”
Dione Mason, Race Director and Founder of the Toronto Carnival Run, agrees. “Years ago when I approached Charlotte to learn more about the running industry I came away with so much more than logistical management tips, but a keen understanding of the strength of ‘we,’ and the positive impact we can make in people’s lives. This is a reason why CRS continues to be so successful, not just as an running event planning company, but leaving a legacy to improve our humanity.”
This is where the mystery and magic lie: in how Charlotte is able to spread joy amongst the running community. How does the wizard do her good work? Charlotte’s mother tells the story of a 10-year-old Charlotte captaining the help desk at the Spring Run Off and as she was heading to the start line, she stopped to say hi to her daughter. Watching Charlotte navigate this long line of new registrants, she reflected, “They came up, told her what their problem was and she fixed it and she just kept going. She never got startled—and she was just ten years old!”
A key component of the 2022-24 resurgence in running across Canada is the quality of races executed by Charlotte Brookes. In the words of Kirsten Fleming, Executive Director of the Calgary Marathon: “The running industry is stronger because of her.”
And while Canada Running Series operates 11 races across Canada in 2024, many of which sell out by race start, Charlotte continues to be involved in many, many more as a race director, as a resource, as a connection. Some of these include the hardest moments faced by race directors across Canada. Rachel Munday spoke about the difficult 2022 race when they had to
halt the Manitoba Marathon part way through due to extreme heat and humidity. Leading into the race and making preparation plans, during the execution of the race and in the follow-up communications, Rachel received support from Charlotte. Both Cory and Kirsten also detailed the number of hours put in by Charlotte, spending time at other international running events to learn and supporting existing races—theirs included—to ensure the safety and joy of their participants. If you ask Kirsten to sum it up, the magic of Charlotte (“one of the most generous humans I have met”) is her “humble wisdom,” her openness and collaborative culture and that “nothing is left behind the curtain.”
Truly Canadian from coast to coast, Charlotte has spent time in the Maritimes with the Blue Nose Marathon. Perhaps the humility and kindness come from her Maritime connections, as this is where the Brookes clan hails? Regardless, according to Blue Nose Marathon Executive Director Sherri Robbins, the maritimes is another example of where Charlotte’s magic shines: “Jumping right in and helping wherever is needed, problem solving, tearing down a site, working in the rain, Charlotte is not above getting her hands dirty,” she says. “My staff raved about her for days.”
Does this come from her time in the sport, growing up with her father in the running industry? Does it come from experiencing every aspect of race management, learning how to navigate the chaos that is inevitably going to come? Does this come from her post-secondary learning in Human Resources, as evidenced by her retention of clients and the Canada Running Series personnel?
Does this come from her brains, her courage, her heart?
Or does it come from a combination of these and more? That magical quality that cannot be clearly articulated by all those participants, spectators, race directors, sponsors, race organizations, employees, this magazine article writer, and other race directors, but is felt at every event that involves Canada Running Series. Reflecting on the qualities that have made her a pillar in the Canadian running industry, Charlotte says, “The people part is a big thing for me, relationships and just having authentic connections is what drives me in what I do. Just that empathy or being able to work with people positively. That’s something that’s always been who I am as a person and that’s translated and grown through the events.”
That is the magic of Charlotte Brookes, the wizard of joy, evidenced in her words and actions: connecting, and heart.
NEW PRO ICE ™
New Pro Ice™ from KT Tape® is infused with cooling menthol for dual-action pain relief.
Q. What do you love about working at a shoe company and what makes you happiest about your work?
A. It is truly the people. We have such a strong team at ASICS and I love visiting our partners in person. It is so very important for me to see and share the same passion for running, from retail partners and store owners to members of run clubs or our very important ASICS athletes.
Q. You’ve been with ASICS for nearly ten years. What’s changed and what’s remained the same?
A. Over the last ten years, an evolution in product innovation and the digital landscape has transformed this industry and right now we are seeing the resulting boom in interest in running. It is wonderful to see.
The one thing that has remained the same is the people. We have some of the best people representing the ASICS brand and each employee and athlete truly believes in the Sound Mind, Sound Body ethos.
Q.ASICS has been on the front lines of environmental, mental health and women’s health and participation in sports. Why is it important for a shoe brand to also align itself with social issues?
A. ASICS celebrated its 75th Anniversary this year and what can still surprise many people is the origin of our brand and how we have forever stayed true to our mission of Sound Mind, Sound Body. Kihachiro Onitsuka founded the company in Japan after WWII in an effort to inspire movement among the younger generation. Since our founding in 1949, ASICS has
I celebrate everyone who lives a healthy lifestyle through running and sport” “
Koichiro Kodama, President & CEO, ASICS America and Managing Executive Officer of ASICS Corporation, has a few thoughts about running, racers and why “Sound Mind, Sound Body,” has rung true for 75 years
always shown an emphasis to the areas of sport beyond the competition, which includes the important topics of environmental impacts, mental health and creating equal opportunity for participation in sport.
Q. Along with plenty of sales, what are your long-term goals for your company?
A. My long-term goals for the ASICS brand are to ensure that we are always delivering great products and services to our consumers. Beyond our offering, I hope to continue to celebrate everyone who lives a healthy lifestyle through running and sport and honor our “Sound Mind, Sound Body,” corporate mission. Lastly, I hope to introduce the successes we have achieved in North America to regions around the world.
Q. Running is clearly having another moment, with race bibs selling out across the world and something like 450,000 runners trying to get 45,000 bibs for the London Marathon. How do we keep the masses interested in our sport?
A. The impact that movement can have on both the mind and body has developed into a major topic of conversation over the past few years. That is directly related to the interest and participation levels of races and events around the world. Our hope is to continue to provide engaging experiences and events that draw runners back for years to come.
Q. What’s been your take on Canada, where do we fit in the global ASICS outlook?
A. The Canadian market is both unique and a
key region for the ASICS brand globally. From the country’s metropolitan cities to the vast nature and wildlife, there are so many ways that people can enjoy sport all year round. Currently, ASICS has strong market share in Canada, and we are proud of the way our products have been received by consumers and look forward to the future.
Q. Can you tell us what’s next for ASICS North America? Is there anything you can share about what we can expect coming down the pipeline from a product perspective?
A. ASICS is very proud of the technology and innovation we have been able to introduce to consumers throughout our footwear offering, including the MetaSpeed Paris Series, SuperBlast and NovaBlast models and the evolution of our entire line of Legends products. Consumers can expect the same boundary pushing approach with some new and exciting releases from ASICS throughout the next year, especially within our speed, race and bounce categories.
Q. Along the lines of the last question, what is it that you ultimately want to achieve at ASICS North America and what legacy is it you want to leave for this company and sport?
A. I want to showcase the commitment of the ASICS brand and our superior products to each and every key partner. One of my goals while serving in my role in North America is to visit as many of our key partners as I possibly can and I am rejuvenated each time I meet someone new who shares the same passion for running and the same belief in our “Sound Mind, Sound Body” philosophy.
“
We own independent running stores
because we want to share our love of the sport with the world.”
Across Canada, a unifying feeling of joy connects the best independent shoe stores and running communities make us all one team
I didn’t want to take the time to walk. Running took me to new locations for races and a chance to meet other runners. As I moved into my professional career, I found I loved to run as a way to deal with stress and keeping a positive mental health.Why I love to run is that chance to feel the rhythm of moving, breathing, and striding along on my favourite running routes. It’s a time to escape our hectic world and challenge myself to be physically active with a run.
Fast Trax, Edmonton, Alberta
We love running, being active and getting outside. We love racing and traveling to races. We hopefully inspire people to run and be active and love it when they stop by to pick up some of our great products and ask for our advice. All of our staff are passionate runners and very knowledgeable on the gear we sell—just starting out on your running journey or hoping to snag that PR, we’re glad to help.
Frontrunners, British Columbia
I love being an independent running and walking store owner. I get to work with some of the kindest, most dedicated staff that come every day
BlackToe Running, Toronto, Ontario
There are many challenging things about running a small business but at BlackToe we get the ultimate reward which makes it all worthwhile! We get to help people achieve things they might have not have thought possible and sharing in those moments is a privilege. We also create an environment where people can make new friends and create memories that will last a lifetime. How can you not love being a part of that!
Boutique Courier, Montreal, Quebec
We love people and bringing people together is what motivates us. There’s altruism involved. We’re inclusive, that’s the main point right now. After COVID, we have to cheer all together and I love working with Montreal’s queer community and getting everyone involved. What motivates us is togetherness. And fun. And health. And running is the gateway. I love what I do because it allows for me to bring value into the community where I live.
Brainsport, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Ever since being a kid I wanted to move. It seemed that I ran everywhere;
Le Coureur, Sherbrooke, Québec
Here at Le Coureur, we love our day to day because of our passion for running and our community. All that passion has been taught to us by Joel St-Louis, the previous owner who has been at Le Coureur for almost 40 years. We want to inspire our community to balance their life by giving all sorts of runners the joy of running through our passion and expertise.
The Runners Shop, Toronto, Ontario
The Runners Shop is something of a “big tent,” a place where the whole community can gather, and I am lucky enough to be graced with the very fun job of being the ringleader! Yes, at TRS we specialize in selling running shoes (and goodness knows we love our shoes around here), but it’s the people wearing them that make everyday special.
to work to help change someone’s life. We get to problem solve each and every fit and know that we are making an impact in our community.
Gord’s Running Store, Calgary, Alberta
We want everybody who wants to run or walk outdoors to be able to do so safely, so Gord’s is committed to ensuring there is always a group to join. Whether you’ve got years of running experience, or just starting out and looking to connect with like-minded folks, all abilities are welcome—walkers, too—because we love our sports!!
Le Coureur Nordqiue, Quebec City, Québec
When you’re happy, you run well, and that’s been the message I try to give our race crews. Have fun with what you do and that’s confidence—I love what I do because I get to share the love I have for our sport with other people who I consider my family and friends.
from building our brand through unique community events and projects, through to pushing the industry by offering runners unique brands. Now as we’ve evolved I take great pleasure in watching our team grow and flex into their strengths around community, technology, design, health and more. I love what I do because I see our team and community thriving.
Culture Athletics, Toronto, Ontario
Culture Athletics was born as a passion project for not just running, but fitness and wellness as a whole. Culture is all about community first. Spending time in an inclusive environment with like-minded people is what brings me the most joy.
Forerunners, Vancouver, British Columbia
We love to see everyone having fun running their workouts, and enjoying their accomplishments on race day whether it’s running their first race, a personal best time, or winning a finisher’s medal.
Boutique Endurance, Montreal, Quebec
Run as You Are, Vancouver, British Columbia
In our early days my passion for the running industry stemmed primarily
It’s all about connection and shared passion. Running brings people together in a unique way. Whether it’s a casual jog with friends or a competitive race, there’s a sense of camaraderie and mutual support that’s truly special. And on a personal level, engaging with the running community allows us to share information, provide motivation, and contribute to people’s journeys, which is incredibly rewarding. It’s a space where everyone’s stories and experiences matter, and being a part of that dynamic is something I genuinely cherish.
Karla Del Grande set the 70 and 100m records this summer at the World Masters Championship in Sweden. She has a few thoughts about longevity, racing and fun
“Fun speaks to longevity in the sport. If you’re not enjoying it, why keep doing it?” The most lauded runner in Canada with the most world records very well may be Karla Del Grande, 71, who laughs easily, trains hard, and is an active, vocal booster of her community. The wisdom she offers is equal to the times that she runs— revelatory, as if the secret of life is right behind an unlocked door, just waiting for us all to walk through.
“You have to enjoy your running, because there’s work involved. Effort. Stuff that’s painful. You have to get up early and put your body through things so, OK, how do you get enjoyment from that?” she rhetorically asked. “There’s the age part of it. To say: I did that! You know, do hard things. And to do something you didn’t think you could do, to exert effort and become part of this wonderful community—it’s joyful. The whole process of doing it, competing. Phenomenal.”
Del Grande ran the 100m in 14.7 seconds, almost 16 miles-perhour, and when discussing it, she laughs. “I like pushing myself, feeling that drive,” says the former 5K, 10K and half marathon runner who recently considered taking up indoor hurdles and pole vaulting as a fun challenge for when she turns 72. “Sprinting, just running to the next tree or trying to go just a little bit faster, there’s something special about that. I feel like a kid.”
Kids get it implicitly. Go to any park and watch them, or check a recess whenever you get bitten by the running blues. Children run and jump; they’re skipping, climbing, chasing: it’s exercise, but it’s called ‘play.’ When you reframe running as a gift—like Karla, a chance to show off your health and salute your good fortune— training becomes joyful, not tedious, and racing is a celebration, not something to keep you up in the middle of the night.
“The fun comes from all the different parts of it, the coolness of doing it with other women around the world the same age as me; the joy of the effort; the camaraderie, there’s so many places to find that joy,” says Del Grande, sharing her mantra—positivity in, negativity out. “I’m competitive when I get to the line, but when someone beats me, they’ve worked hard and put in their best effort. I respect and salute what they’re able to do.”
Rarely around the world does anybody beat Karla, and the Grande Dame of Racing shows zero signs of hanging up her spikes anytime soon. Why would she stop playing with friends?
“I eat popcorn, ice cream and chocolate, go for hikes, bike rides, and all the other stuff is still there,” says Del Grande, “but I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I stopped racing. I can’t imagine there’s anybody who’d want to stop having fun.”
POSITIVITY IN NEGATIVITY OUT
Photograph by Alex Rotas at the 2024 World Masters Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
