The Shakeout Podcast

Throughout the month of December, we are bringing you episodes dedicated to realistic self-improvement. This as a chance to get a jump on the things that you want to be a little bit better at in the new year. This month-long series is designed to get you in a festive spirit and help you hit the ground running in 2019. Our first episode is all about food. As we enter the holiday season, it can be t...

New Brunswick native Geneviève Lalonde threw her arms up in triumph as she crossed the finish line at the Canadian Cross-Country Championships last weekend. Better known for her exploits on the track--she is an Olympic finalist and has lowered her own Canadian 3000m steeplechase record 3 times--Gen entered the race as somewhat of an underdog. After a 5 year hiatus from cross-country racing and an...

This week we travel across the Atlantic, to a bustling bridge in England, to relive an epic race against time. This is the story of a young woman who made history by taking on a parliamentary bet over 8 decades ago. Earlier this month, a British author by the name of Scott Pack took to twitter to share a story with the world. He released a series of 12 tweets, the first of which read, “I want to t...

Two weeks ago, Cameron Ormond of Aurora, Ontario became the first girl to win four consecutive OFSAA cross-country championships.  OFSAA, the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations, boasts the most competitive provincial championship in the country. Its rare for athletes to win more than one OFSAA cross-country title during their high school career. Those who win two are considered sta...

Beer and running have enjoyed a close friendship over the last several years. Once the beer mile exploded in popularity, it was only a matter of time before beer would infiltrate many other athletic events. Beer runs have popped up across the country, and you can find a way to imbibe on the run in pretty much every major city in Canada. Over the last several years, the Canada Beer Run has been pai...

KidSport is a not-for-profit organization that offers financial assistance to help get and keep kids in sport. Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C. is an Olympic race-walker and KidSport ambassador. Throughout October, he's on a mission to raise $25,000 for the organization by walking 25km per day for 25 consecutive days. He's also doing 25 school talks to share his journey through sport and to inspire t...

Jerome Drayton ran 2:10:09 to set the Canadian Marathon Record in 1975. At the time, it was considered to be one of the best performances in the history of the event. More than four decades later, that record still stands. Ahead of the 2018 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (STWM), we sat down with two the country's most prominent runners to talk about the future of Canadian marathoning. Reid...

Lyndsay Tessier and Catherine Watkins have established themselves as two of Canada's best marathon runners. Both of these women set Canadian Masters records at the Berlin Marathon in September. At ages 40 and 47 respectively, they are defying age norms by running nationally competitive personal bests times later in life. In this episode, new host and producer Kate Van Buskirk talks with Lyndsay an...

This week we remember Ed Whitlock. One year has passed since he broke four hours at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon at the age of 85, an astounding feat and a world record, one among many in his long list of achievements. We look back at this race, which would ultimately be his final marathon. We speak with his son, Neil Whitlock, elite runners, Rachel Hannah and Reid Coolsaet, Alan Bro...

On this week’s episode, Canadian Running staff revisit the lingering question of gender equity in cross-country races in Canada. One year ago, this issue came to the foreground, particularly in the Canadian university scene, and currently there are still differences in distances between boys and girls, men and women, varying across provinces and federations. Several athletes and experts weigh in o...

Michelle Kempton began running in her mid-30s after the birth of her twins to improve her health, and within only a few years became involved in her running community of rural Nova Scotia. She has been the race director of the Maritime Race Weekend since 2011 and each year has provided a two-day event that showcases the culture and community of the East Coast. On this week’s episode of The Shakeou...

Becoming a better runner involves a lot more than just running. There are a limited number of hours you can spend training before the risks of injury, mental exhaustion, and becoming dangerously anti-social outweigh the benefits of lacing up your shoes. Getting the most out of every kilometer has a lot to do with how you spend the hours you’re not running. Getting enough sleep, having good eating...

Dave Proctor had one goal: to run across Canada. He had two motivations. The first was to break the 27-year old record held by Al Howie, who ran across Canada in 72 days. Proctor's goal was to complete the run in 66 days.  The second motivation had less to do with running. Proctor, who is based in Otokos, Alberta, lives with his wife and three children. His 9 year old son, Sam, suffers from a rare...

Running may be a simple freedom for some, but for others who do not have the same privilege, it is more than just running, it's about human rights.  Free to Run is a non-profit organisation, which uses sport to support women and girls living in areas of conflict. Its founder is Stephanie Case, a Canadian ultramarathoner and human rights lawyer working in Afghanistan.  In 2014, when Case first had...

Heading into the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, Oakville, Ontario's Donovan Bailey was the 100m World Champion, the Commonwealth World Champion, as well as the holder of the World Record in the indoor 50m, a record which he broke just months before the Games in 1996. According to Bailey, the race was his to lose.  The main event of the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta took place on a...

The Canadian Death Race is a 125K ultramarathon held annually in August in Grande Cache, Alberta. It covers over 5000m in elevation, including three mountain summits, and as its name suggests, this race is tough.  Each year, up to a thousand runners sign up, and to no one’s surprise, each year hundreds fail to finish. But in 2015 as the first runner crossed the finish line, everyone was surprised...

This is a story about a teenage running legend from Toronto.  The year was 1962. At the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, in the sweltering heat of an Australian summer, 18 runners lined up on the track at the start of the men’s six-mile race. It was an impressive field that included Olympic medallists and past Commonwealth champions. Among these men was a young Canadian, a University of Toro...

Endurance permeates every aspect of human life. Whether you are training for a fall marathon or trying to get through late nights at work, the ability to endure, to withstand discomfort, is a practical skill.  What we learn from Alex Hutchinson's book Endure is that this skill is something we can practice and improve upon, and that the limits of human endurance are much more elastic than what we o...

The Lane 6 program was a partnership between Canadian Running and Nike. Along with Toronto Community Housing, they created a one-on-one mentorship program, pairing experienced runners from the community with at-risk Toronto youth, aged 7-18. The mentors, coaches, and students gathered at the Central Tech track for six weeks. The program was designed to give these students an opportunity to run and...

Imagine running in a city where there is nearly 24 hours of daylight. Then, imagine running in a city that is colder than -40 degrees celsius and there are only 5 hours of daylight. There’s one city where, if you stay long enough, you can experience both ends of these extreme conditions: Whitehorse, Yukon. Because of these wildly changing states, running in Whitehorse includes unique challenges, b...

After a long Canadian winter of frozen fingers and toes and slippery sidewalks, warm summer days can be a welcome change. But when the temperature heats up, it presents its own set of challenges for runners. From deciding what to wear, when to run, and when to stop running, runners need to be smart and adapt to the summer conditions in order to avoid illness and injury.  On this week’s episode of...

With its ocean and mountain views, endless trails, and mild climate, Vancouver and its suburbs are a runner's paradise for both recreational and elite runners alike. Olympian Natasha Wodak grew up on the west coast and has run everywhere near Vancouver as well as in its downtown core. On this week's episode of The Shakeout, we speak with Wodak who shares what she loves about running in Vancouver,...

Calum Neff, father of three, is a runner of all distances and all terrains. Neff has represented Canada on the world stage as part of mountain running and ultra teams and has run a personal best of 2:22:59 in the marathon. Outside of his solo accomplishments, Neff is also a two-time Guinness record holder, having the fastest times in the half marathon at 1:11 and in the marathon at 2:31 --while pu...

The Bruce Trail is the oldest and longest marked trail in Canada. At 885K it follows the Niagara Escarpment from Tobermory to the Niagara River. Many people have attempted to run the entire trail, which with its challenging terrain provides a test for even the most seasoned runners. But in August of 2014, one runner started out on the Bruce Trail’s northern end in Tobermory, Ontario to do somethin...

Bruny Surin will remember 1999 as the year when everything lined up perfectly. Surin was born in Haiti in 1967 and immigrated to Canada when he was seven years old. Growing up in Quebec, he took an interest in track and field, initially in the long jump and triple jump but it would be in the 100m that Surin would define his athletic career. In the 100m final at the 1999 World Championships in Athl...