Run Canada Podcast

It's always a fantastic day when I get to catch up with the incredible Natasha Wodak. It's been a hot minute since we last spoke, so we had a lot to talk about: her Olympic experience running with Malindi Elmore, the Boston Marathon, and oh just a couple more Canadian national championships under her belt. No big deal. Natasha also now trains with Trent Stellingwerff, and she talks about what it's...

Kate Ayers originally had a different sport in mind when she started at the University of Guelph, but the running community brought her in, and she has never looked back. Kate has dabbled in many distances on the track, but her heart belongs to cross country. After a tough string of injuries, she's now training on the west coast with the awesome Hillary Stellingwerff and has had a fiery start to 2...

Emelyn Jade is a runner living in British Columbia who I instantly knew I wanted to get to know better. After her fiancé encouraged her to jump on the running train in 2019, she ran her first half marathon and hasn't looked back. Emelyn agreed to be my test subject to see if I could stay on track to get through 76 rapid-fire questions... But is it 76 questions if I accidentally asked a few twice d...

Natalia Allen may have just officially announced her retirement from professional sport, but this brilliant lady has been planning her steps forward for much longer. After going all in and quitting her full-time job to put everything she had into running, Natalia made her dreams come true by lining up in the 1500 at the Tokyo Olympics. After that, she took a trip to Eugene for Worlds and a trip do...

There is a reason that they call Rach McBride the most interesting person in triathlon. Because they just are. Rach is a five-time 70.3 Ironman champion and a highly accomplished runner, cyclist and gravel racer. Rach is one of a very small number of nonbinary elite professional athletes, and we talk a bit about the weight that comes with that. I loved learning about Rach's early starts in sport,...

Interim Executive Director for Run Calgary, Jon Bird and I are digging into making running more inclusive for families. Jon comes from the world of elite sports: as a former professional triathlete, he moved into coaching and community sports events and joined the Run Calgary family in 2017. Jon talks about his fantastic team and the new programs they are bringing to the 2023 Servus Calgary Marath...

Come hang out with me and everyone's favourite third-grade teacher Lyndsay Tessier.  I haven't had the chance to chat with this Team Canada athlete since the pandemic, so we get caught up on what life was like remote teaching and her choice to focus on her students over running. We talk about how she worked through plantar fasciitis and the lesson learned with a nagging injury that only patience w...

Join me for the latest Krista DuChene Fan Club meeting! Canada's one and only Marathon Mom recently ran the Tokyo Marathon checking the last box for her Abbott World Majors and officially hanging up her "elite" bib. Krista dives deep into all things Tokyo: from travel experience to race start and finish and the miles in between. She also reflects on her previous five star races and how her more th...

It's a mini deep dive with sports psychologist and high performance and leadership specialist Dr. Beth McCharles. When you visit the home page of Beth's website, you will see the words "be kind, be bold, be great": which tells you a lot of what you need to know about her work. Beth works with high-level athletes, coaches, artists and a variety of professionals helping them master their mental game...

The unbreakable Sage Watson is back! I have always known that Sage is a tough-as-nails performer who always gets the job done on the track. But in the last few years, she has experienced a work and personal life overshadowed by an unexplained injury. Sage has worked hard to find her way through this challenge and even turned it into an opportunity for personal transformation and growth. Sage is ex...

Anne Chang may appear like everyone else, but don't let her modesty fool you. This mother of four is a determined, goal-oriented runner and run coach. Anne uses running to reclaim a bit of who she is outside of being a mom and a full-time employee and to see what might be possible. She wants to see how far she can stretch and where she can go if she moves out of her comfort zone and lets things ge...

Shannon Coates is a dedicated member of the Winnipeg running community. Her smile lights up any race event or run group she is at, and her relentlessly cheerful attitude will carry you through all the miles. But since the fall, Shannon has been on a different journey. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she has been undergoing chemotherapy and is a few days away from a double mastectomy. Sha...

I am thrilled to share the recording of our first-ever live virtual community event, Running and Reading with Alison Mariella Désir. We discuss her first book Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport that Wasn't Built for Us . If you haven't read this book yet, you can find it anywhere books are sold, and if the cost of books is a barrier, check your local library for a copy. This book is a...

Two-time Olympian Andrea Seccafien and I last chatted at the beginning of 2020, so it's needless to say, we had a lot to catch up on. We talk about the road to the Olympics, which was challenging for everyone, but slightly more challenging for her, and her experience doubling in Tokyo in the 5,000 and the 10,000. She also talks candidly about the significant injury that has had her sidelined from...

This week's guest is a little off the beaten path of running, but I hope it starts our amazing community off on the right foot for January. Jenn Messina has been a registered dietician living in British Columbia for 15 years. She started her own journey from a place of trying to "crack the diet code" so that she could live a life of thinness, and discovered that what she was really looking for was...

Sarah Carroll is a wearer of many hats: she works as a personal trainer, a run coach, a group fitness instructor, and now as the newest member of the Manitoba Marathon team. She is a passionate member of the running community who loves to see people come together, regardless of their pace, to reach for the same goal of crossing the finish line. Sarah and I dive deep into the month that is January:...

Melissa Doldron makes me smile. She is a Registered Massage therapist, who works both with regular clients like you and me but also with a team, you may have heard of... the Toronto Blue Jays. When Melissa isn't healing the world's athletes, you will find her either running or cheering. Melissa has spent the last decade hanging with the Parkdale Road Runners and becoming an expert hype girl at rac...

Jake Fedorowski is a true example of being the change you want to see. A runner and board of directors member with the Seattle Frontrunners, Jake committed to stop running in any races that didn't have a non-binary race division. They went further by creating a guide to non-binary inclusion in running and then made it available for free to any race director looking to make their race more inclusiv...

Jen Cerullo has been a passionate member of the events community for a long time, including almost six years as an Event Manager with Canada Running Series. She has always brought her strong leadership skills and ability to make things work, but now she's bringing another one of her skills to the forefront: her passion for sustainability. Her education and practice in making events of all sizes mo...

Astrid Nyame and Adrea Propp have lived parallel life experiences as Saskatchewan track and field athletes for many years. They excelled in high school and had successful university experiences. They transitioned to high-performance athlete training centres away from their home province. Though they both had great experiences, ultimately, they decided to return to Saskatchewan. They have created S...

I told some of Canada's favourite race directors that I was having the Executive Director of the Emera Blue Nose Marathon, Sherri Robbins, on the show. I asked them to give me some words to describe her. They said she was a doer, always willing to work on any job, no matter the size of the project, and that she always get it done. This is all very accurate, but my favourite was this: Sherri is a d...

Arden Young is an ultra trail running dentist who has been kicking around the trail scene for quite some time but is now taking it into high gear. After a lot of success in the Canadian women's field, she has spent the last few years dipping into US and European races, including the Bandera 100K, the Javelina Jundred, and a couple of turns on the coveted Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc CCC in Chamonix,...

Meet Victoria Coates: lover of cross country and, recently, first-time marathoner. This McMaster and Queens running alum has had the opportunity to represent Team Canada at a number of races, including the World Half Marathon championships, the Pan Am Cross Country Cup, and the World Cross Country Championships. She now trains under the great Reid Coolsaet and has had one jam-packed race year. Not...

Auntie Dione is here! Toronto's Warm-Up Lady, and founder and Race Director of the Toronto Carnival Run, Dione Mason is a fantastic human. She brings the perfect balance of drive and big dreams, with a practical realism that keeps her grounded and getting things done. This award-winning fitness and lifestyle coach also started the Simunye Foundation: an organization that has both short and long-te...

Vanessa Yu and I got to do one of the things us runners love most: sharing memories of a race we both participated in! We talk all things Chicago Marathon, but more importantly, she shares her perspective of being one half of a talented and dedicated running partnership, and how she and her husband John balance each other's goals and priorities. She also has an adorable daughter to fit into the eq...