“Why Not Us, Too?”

This is a blog post about me, a woman, a motherrunner, getting caught up in the magic that is going on in women’s running in North America right now.  What’s going on you ask?  

North American women are running faster than ever. And are as badass as ever.

I was inspired onto this train of thought by NY Times Senior Opinion Writer and her Jan 31 article about chasing her own Olympic Qualifying Time.

This outstanding article by Lindsay Crouse shares with us that in the timeframe of 2016 to 2020, the number of men who achieved the Olympics Qualifying Time increased from 210 to 260.  The number of women who achieved an Olympic Qualifying Time (2:45) went from 198 to a shiny, powerful, exploding 511. That is badass.

Canadian women are running faster than ever too. On our side of the border, the national women’s half marathon record has been broken THREE times in SEVEN weeks.  In December, Rachel Cliff improved her own record by 2 seconds. Then 38 year old Natasha Wodak smashed through an important barrier, becoming the first Canadian woman to run under 1:10:00 with a 1:09:40.  At the same race event, 39 year old Canadian Malindi Elmore set a new Canadian marathon record with a 2:24:50. Wodak’s record only lasted 3 weeks.

Andrea Seccafien broke the half-marathon record again on SuperBowl Sunday with a 1:09:38. 

Andrea Seccafien breaks Canadian half-marathon record

I couldn’t get enough of this Lindsay Crouse article. I read it multiple times, like it was a workout interval, to be repeated. 

This author, by the way, is who brought us the magnificent piece called the “How the Shalane Flanagan Effect Works.”

From American Shalane Flanagan and on, we have seen these amazing examples of women getting faster and pulling everyone around them along with them. Everyone gets better and everyone gets faster.  Why? Maybe women are inspired which leads them to work harder. They are elevated by proximity to other women succeeding: If she can do it, I can too. Alongside her. Proximity might not even be physical proximity. Community takes many forms.  

I am living this right here in my idyllic pocket of Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada road racing.  Women are getting faster. We are taking each other along with us here.  Let me tell you more about this.

I have Denise Robson here.  She’s technically not pounding the road right up ahead of me at Halifax Road Hammer practices at this precise moment because her Chester treadmill perch is more in line with her Boston goals.  But she’s been showing us for years that age ain’t nothing but a number and girl, get ready to bleed for it because we all know she’s going to. She’s got the hardware to prove it and the badass runner stride to prove it. And she’s always got time to share it in warm up, cooldown and easy miles.  

I have watched Paula James right here, love training and racing. I have watcher her love herself right into new PBs across the board, including a new Canadian Masters Indoor Record, in her age F45-49 bracket.  

I have Rayleen Hill here with me, methodically and determinedly marching her way to back to kicking ass.  This summer, she was trying to re-achieve (post pregnancy and childraising) her sub39 performances in the 10km.  This past weekend, she did that over 10km and then went on to stay at that pace over another 5km to place 4th at a very established 15km road race in Florida.  

Sacha is nailing it in rural NB, running big miles, fast miles and raising happy kids.  Heather and Jenn are lighting up the roads in the Valley with sunshiney selfies and then Heather went on to light up the roads in Houston with a huge 2:51 performance.

Colleen is way up ahead at Road Hammer practices, floating along by herself with the boys.  I laughed when one of the Hammer guys calls her a “smiling assassin” because she will “bury you with a smile.”  She’s got a great friendly smile for you too, and will tell you all about the food she’s eating at the Seaport Market later today and the adventure trips she is taking. I love seeing young gals Katie and Hillary showing up after fast collegiate running, ready to tear up the local roads and tear up the ranks of the Hammer boys.

I have Maura and Linda and Liz mostly next to me and have for a long time.

Linda and I have shared countless miles together.  Sometimes she pulls me. Sometimes I pull her along.  Sometimes we are simply stride for stride. I always delight in the moment in the training cycle, en route to some start line, when Linda tells me: “Now we have to get really serious!!!”  And she means it!! And I laugh: “what were we doing all along!?”  

Maura floats around closely with me too, a fellow early morning and full time working mother warrior.  Just this Saturday, I found myself in a familiar spot on the last of 9 x 4 minute continuous intervals, fading ever so slightly away from Maura.  I was saying to myself, “Just stay with Maura. Just stay with Maura. Don’t give up on yourself”   As much as our workouts are designed to elicit physiological training adaptations to improve our running, they are also immersions in training our “don’t give up on yourself” button. Avoiding that give-up becomes easier when you are trying to stay tight on Maura.  

Britney has been making huge jumps in speed and PBs. Stephanie is flying these days, her fitness is reaching new heights.  Younger Katie is about to catch up to her. Krista is right in there too. Jennie is getting healthy on PEI, never count that girl out.  Nor should you ever count out the girls I don’t see as often, Chloe and Emily. They will show up and turn everyone up a notch.

In the next group, the girls in their mid to late twenties, Lindsay and my sister Kristen and crew are preparing to take Boston Marathon by storm.  

We have the leaders here in NS too.  The visible ones and the quiet ones. The ones you crave to spend some time with like Christy Pound who I swear never met a training session that she didn’t love.  Like Natasha, of the audacious hopefulness. Like Queen Doreen. Like Allana. Like Tawnya. Like my entire Love Training More tribe. And all of the women who are both out there on the roads with me and with me via Strava.

Tawnya in Truro en route to Boston is out there with no one most of the time but she’s not alone. In January, she was listening to a podcast called Run Farther, Faster featuring two women talking lots about Boston Marathon, training for it, the weekend itself, etc.  One day, Tawnya is listening to them and they start talking about meeting “Jenn from PEI” at the start line, with the F50 on her back and the great chat they had. This was clearly Jenn Nicholson elite runner and hero to many from PEI.  Just like that, Tawnya runs faster. 

I have my own Jenn Nicholson experience, perfectly illustrating lifting each other up, even unknowingly. Or maybe organically is the word. It’s the glory leg 17 of Cabot Trail Relay in 2016.  I pull up to Jenn and eventually overtook her. It’s a defining moment in of my running career. So buoyed by running in close proximity of the legend of Jenn N, I was able to hang on and claim that moment of being the first woman to enter the famous finish line scream tunnel.  At the finish line, Jenn was gracious, kind and humble. I had been pacing with my slightly injured Halifax Road Hammer teammate Mike Vargo who asked our Coach, “why isn’t this girl (me) running sub3 hour marathons?” Maybe I would be if running close to Jenn! I did go on to run 3:02:59 (on my watch!) that December with Denise, Natasha and my sister Kristen with me. 

I have my own “Shalane Effect” right here in Atlantic Canada.  I loved reading Lindsay Crouse’s content because I have my own version of it right here. 

When all of the women who I named perform and when they live out happiness in the grind, I see and I believe that I can do it too.  

They show me, demand from me, that I do it too.  

Last week, at an hour of the day before 7am, I was cooling down on the track at Dalplex with Christy.  I was telling her that all of my fellow Masters Women are unable to compete at the upcoming SMU Indoor Open track meet in the 3000m. I want to race.  I tell Christy this and pose the question I’ve been throwing around: “Am I really going to show up as the only old gal to compete with the university and high school girls?” 

“Damn right you are!” Says Christy. “ you’re going to do it because you CAN!”

She is damn right.  I will do it because I can.  I stop wrestling with yes or no in that pre-7am moment.  

One woman elevates another.  We have a great thing here in Atlantic Canada going with women getting better and better.  

Lindsay Crouse’s piece was all about “Why not me, too?”

So I say this to myself.  It’s 2020. I turn 40 this year.  “Why not me, too?” My fellow women here are doing it.  Why not me too?

I chat further about this with Stephanie Seaward, who has already aged up to the F40 age group.   

We agree: our fastest years are ahead of us. 

My training guys are important too.  Their absence from this piece doesn’t mean they aren’t important.  This poignant line stood out so clearly to me from Lindsay Crouse’s Jan 31 piece:

“Female athletes are often presented as inspirational or embattled, instead of just excellent.

This post has been my focus on female excellence. And why not me, too?