SASKATOONEXPRESS - May 9-15, 2016 - Page 1
Volume 14, Issue 16, Week of May 9, 2016
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Amanda Stalwick, record-breaker Track athlete and fitness trainer sets sights on World Masters Games Joanne Paulson Saskatoon Express t the Kinsmen Indoor Games in March, Amanda Stalwick ran 50 metres in 7.23 seconds, breaking the provincial record in her age group. The day before, she ran the 200-metre race in 28.29 seconds. She set that record, too. Two weeks before, competing in the Alberta Indoor Championships held in Edmonton, she broke her own Saskatchewan 60-metre record of 8.53 seconds with an 8.44-second effort. The earlier record was set at the Sled Dog in Saskatoon in January. Just to provide some perspective, the great Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey ran 50 metres in six seconds flat in 1994. The top female Olympic medal earner, and a full-time world-class athlete, was 34 at the time. Stalwick, who may look 25, is 44 years old. When she competed in the 50-metre race, she not only broke the age-group record: she ran with the senior girls (age 18) and won the race. “The best random comment from the crowd,” she remembered in a recent interview at City Perks, “was, ‘way to show them how it’s done!’” Her coach, Dale Upton, approached her right after that race and asked, “Do you know what you ran? It’s a record. 7.23.” “I was trying to break seven (seconds),” Stalwick replied. She may not have met that personal (and lofty) goal, but those three races have placed Stalwick at No. 1 in the 40 to 44 age category in the Athletics Canada Masters rankings. It’s probably not surprising that her age grade calculator (which grades masters athletes against their “prime years”) ranks between 86 and 89 per cent. Worldclass is 90. Stalwick, unsurprisingly, has been running all her life. She ran through elementary school, and as soon as she could in Grade 7, began entering the Kinsmen races. “My favourite time of year was spring, because that’s when the track started,” she said. “I’d be so excited I couldn’t sleep.” Her Grade 6 teacher, Mr. Galambos, recommended that she receive more formal coaching, and she did, racing
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Saskatoon sprinter Amanda Stalwick has broken three records this year (Photo by Joanne Paulson)
at provincial and Canadian levels until Grade 12. At that point, she began running longer distances and she thought about the Canada Games, but she felt tired and burned out. She gave up on competitive racing, but continued running to stay fit and avoid the “Freshman 15” (those pounds that creep on) when she got to the University of Saskatchewan. But the Huskies were howling for her. A coach saw her potential and kept encouraging her to join the track team, and eventually, she returned to competing in 10Ks and marathons. Stalwick is not just an athlete; there are also the degrees. Stalwick took a B.A. in English and history, followed by a Bachelor of Education in English language arts and social studies, and then a Masters in curriculum development and assessment. She was working on a PhD in a related field at the University of Alberta, when her training time began to intervene: she was working out 22 hours a week.
By that time, she was training for and competing in triathlons. “Marathon is hard,” said Stalwick, perhaps with understatement, “and I had a friend who wanted to try the Just Try It program – an intro program for women who want to try triathlon. It’s a really supportive women’s group to try to get women involved. “I know how to run; I thought, how hard can biking be? But I didn’t know how to swim. So I started to learn to swim at age 28.” Anxiety attacks followed her into the deep end, but she hung in there and competed in the Spin On Spadina triathlon. “I was the second last person out of the water,” she said. But a day later, someone called to congratulate her. “I placed second in my age group.” Then came the challenge of Ironman. “I’d heard of an Ironman, but I thought, that’s crazy,” said Stalwick. The grueling triathlon asks athletes to swim 3.8K, bike 180K and then run a full marathon, 42K. (Continued on page 6)