Wodak seeks Olympic marathon standard in Houston despite hamstring injury, loss of pacer

It feels like Houston or bust for Canadian record holder Natasha Wodak if she wishes to race her third Olympic marathon on Aug. 11 in Paris.

Sure, an April marathon (Boston?) could serve as a last-chance qualifier should she not run the two-hour 26-minute 50-second automatic entry standard or faster at 8 a.m. ET Sunday in Texas, but it isn’t a road she wants to travel.

“My body will not recover in time for the Olympic marathon [if I race in April]. I’m not saying it’s out of the question, but it would be challenging,” Wodak said this week from her Vancouver residence.

With only a few of the 80 spots for the women’s Olympic marathon unclaimed, she said it’s time to go “all-in” in Houston and is willing to run through pain.

“It’s not what I would recommend for people I coach, but I’m 42 and trying to make my third Olympic team,” said Wodak. “Sometimes, you’ve gotta take some risks.”

Two weeks ago, near the end of a 19-day training camp in Phoenix, Ariz., she suffered a strained right hamstring that hasn’t healed completely this week, despite laser and physiotherapy.

“It’s not [extremely] painful but not going away,” Wodak told CBC Sports. “It’s caused me a lot of stress the last two weeks, but I only had to take one unplanned rest day [from training]. By [Sunday, coach Trent Stellingwerff and I are] hoping adrenaline and extra strength Advil kick in.”

WATCH | ‘I seem to be getting faster as I get older,” Wodak says

Wodak dealt with a more severe strain to the right hamstring a week before winning the women’s title on the track last July 23 at the Canadian 10,000-metre championships in Langley, B.C.

Adding to Wodak’s recent run of tough luck, and stress, was learning Tuesday that a friend couldn’t pace her in Sunday’s 42.2-kilometre race due to a death in his family.

As fit as Berlin race

Instead, she will join a group that will be paced for a projected 2:25 finish.

On Sept. 25, 2022, Wodak lowered Malindi Elmore’s national mark to 2:23:12 in the Berlin Marathon. She added she is in the same fitness as that race, if not a little fitter.

Conversely, Wodak’s body felt awful after a 15th-place finish (2:30:09) in the marathon last August at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where she aggravated the arthritis in her toes.

“I was turning 42 [on Dec. 17]. My body is going to start slowing, eventually,” she said. “Is that time now?  It felt I was having such a hard time recovering.”

Taking her training outside Vancouver to warm-weather cities, specifically Palm Springs, Calif. — where Wodak was with friends and ran “amazing trails and roads” in late November — was the cure to feeling better physically and mentally getting into a marathon build groove.

“Eventually, things felt better, the fitness came around, I gained momentum, went to Palm Springs and things started to roll again,” Wodak said. “It was also great being in Phoenix and things started to click there with my last two workouts among my better ones.”

I like her work ethic and it’s nice to see her fit again after battling so much over the past seven years— surgeries, health, personal things in her life.— Wodak on Lanni Marchant, former Canadian record holder in the marathon

For four training runs she was joined by Lanni Marchant, the former Canadian record holder in the women’s marathon and half marathon. It was their first workout together since 2016.

A native of London, Ont., Marchant has lived in Denver in recent years but moved to warmer Phoenix in the fall. Marchant, who turns 40 on April 11, is one of two other elite women’s runners from Canada in Sunday’s marathon, her first since Dec. 11, 2022 in Honolulu.

Last year, she only raced twice while dealing with mononucleosis, anemia and kidney stones.

Plenty left in tank

“She’s so positive, tough, professional in her workouts,” Wodak said of Marchant. “I like her work ethic and it’s nice to see her fit again after battling so much over the past seven years — surgeries, health, personal things in her life.”

Marchant, who conceded in an email to CBC Sports she mostly chased Wodak in their sessions, said it was a reminder she has more left to give as a competitive runner.

“I know the importance of it being an Olympic year, and that’s there’s chatter about going after the standard,” she said. “I really have no clue what to expect in terms of a performance. This has been the most consistent training I have been able to do since 2016, so I’m just going to see what it [allows] me to do.”

Vancouver resident Leslie Sexton, 36, will try to secure one of two available spots for Canada in the women’s Olympic marathon, with Elmore having run standard. The Markham, Ont., native was top Canadian in the 2022 world marathon (13th, 2:28:52) and was second to Wodak on the road last May at the Canadian 10K Championships in Ottawa.

Two elite Canadian men’s athletes are running in Houston. Tristan Woodfine of Cobden, Ont. (northwest of Ottawa) returns for the first time since 2020 to run the marathon.

Sunday marks the third Houston half for Calgary-born Rory Linkletter (the races will run simultaneously) while longtime track star Moh Ahmed was prepared to make his event debut but withdrew after “tweaking his hamstring/hip flexor a bit” in his final workout on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old Woodfine, who has been coached by two-time Olympian Reid Coolsaet since late 2022, last ran a marathon in May that year in Ottawa (2:21:55).

Linkletter, 27, held the Canadian record in the half marathon for nine months in 2022, posting a personal best 1:01:08 in Houston. On Dec. 2, he ran the indoor mile in under four minutes (3:59.05) in Boston.

Ahmed, who turned 33 on Jan. 5, is coming off a second consecutive year without a world medal after capturing silver to become Canada’s first Olympic medallist in the outdoor 5,000m three years ago in Tokyo.

Last May, he ran his first road race since high school, winning in Ottawa for his first Canadian 10K Championships title. Ahmed crossed the finish less than a minute shy of the course record in 28 minutes 21.1 seconds to beat Cam Levins, the current national record holder in the marathon and half marathon (one hour 18 seconds).