Talented field vying for top honours at national half marathon event

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This article was published 15/06/2024 (473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Twenty-eight elite athletes from across Canada will be lining up Sunday to compete in the Canadian Half Marathon Championships hosted by the annual Manitoba Marathon.

While Manitoba’s tenure as the host of the nationals concludes this year, marking the end of an era that began in 2019, hometown favourite Daniel Heschuk is planning to enjoy the benefits of running on his home course.

Heschuk, 27, who finished fourth in last year’s championship and is very familiar with the Manitoba Marathon.

“It’s very special to run at home,” said Heschuk in a press conference Saturday. “But also just the event itself is always a very, very big event. Even compared to the ones I’ve been to.”

Heschuk has raced in all of the Half Marathon Championships hosted in Winnipeg and has finished top five each time.

“It’s the energy,” said Heschuk. “I have to say there’s not too many races that can be compared to this, the energy that you feel like walking to the starting line with the music blaring.”

Two-time Olympian and 20-time Team Canada member Natasha Wodak will add another Canadian Half Marathon to her resume on Sunday.

“I basically spent two years preparing for marathons,” said Wodak who won the half marathon title in 2022. “That fitness you that you’ve gained is so valuable, the aerobic base that I’ve built, all of that threshold work that I’ve built. That carries into that half marathon.”

Wodak, 42, holds the Canadian women’s record over eight kilometres and the women’s marathon mark with a time of 2:23:12. Wodak did not qualify for the Paris Olympics, but it didn’t stop her from continuing to race and loving the sport.

“There’s so many more races,” said Wodak. “There’s so many more things to do. I’m not done yet.”

Wodak also coaches three of her athletes competing in the Manitoba Marathon on Sunday.

Cameron Levins will be heading to Paris for the 2024 Olympics next month, but first, he will attempt to break the Manitoba Marathon half marathon course record, which he set last year with a time of 1:01:41.

“It could happen,” said Levins, 35. “But you know, I’ll go put on a good performance no matter what happens.”

Levins is the North American record holder in the marathon and the Canadian record holder in the half marathon. He also holds Canadian records in the men’s 10-, 15- and 20-kilometre distances.

“I always have kind of that inward expectation anyways,” said Levins on the pressure and expectations of racing. “…It’s really about managing that feeling myself and recognizing that my best is all I can give, and you know, learning to be happy with that regardless of the outcome.”

Dayna Pidhoresky is a 10-time Canadian championship medalist, including a win in the 2019 Canadian Marathon which qualified her for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

“I think it’s the time of year,” said Pidhorseky when asked about the most challenging part of the Manitoba Marathon. “It’s usually after down time for me. That is the hardest because I’m approaching it from a point of much less fitness.”

Pidhorseky, 37, mentioned the weather as an additional challenge in the Manitoba Marathon. In 2022, the Manitoba Marathon was cancelled due to heat in the middle of the reace.

“Definitely still the plan to get faster,” said Pidhorseky of her training plan for the year. “I think you just have to. The standards are not getting easier every year. They’re getting harder and you know, if I want to, if I feel like I’m in the spot to try to make another Olympic team in the next four years, it’s going to be a harder standard for sure.”

Sunday’s Manitoba Marathon will start at 6:55 a.m.

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca