Will Coolsaet break Drayton's Canadian Marathon Record this weekend?

Just ran...if the wind is even close to that tomorrow, the guys will be 2 to 3 minutes slow. That is nuts, although it says 37/kmh at race time with gusts to "only" to 50kmh...believe it of not, that is lower than today and what was predicted yesterday...good luck to the guys --tuck in heading west! If I was fast enough I would have blocked some of it for you. Perhaps some chubby dudes can run the first 12 km in sub-37 min and help out.

leashless beast wrote:

I live along the course. It is always windy. In September, there is a good chance of being hot and humid. In October, it will be cool and maybe damp and maybe cold. October is the much better date.

For tomorrow, wind will be the weather factor, but again, that is almost always the case.

Totally disagree. I've done this race every year since 2007, and I hate to tell you but it has never been hot in any of those four years, with the September date. (On the other hand, the old 'Toronto International Marathon' with its October date had many years of horrible weather - wind, freezing rain - kind of like this weekend, eh?)

Put it back in September. This is Canada. Any date after Oct 1 is a crapshoot. (And I write this on the way to a friend's outdoor wedding here - I'd rather run than sit still for 160 minutes in this weather :)

Yeah, I live along the course and late september weather is almost never a problem. After Canadian thanksgiving - always sucks - driving rain and or wind is common.

Useless date.

Alan has a lot of ambition to make Toronto into a gold label race, but with the Sept. date he was only up against Berlin. Now he's a week after Chicago, on the same date as Amsterdam and Beijing, up against every other October marathon in the world, etc. etc. etc. Montreal has already moved to take STWM's old date, so it looks like a voyage of no return.

Right. So you know the weather on those 4 days of September, rather than the every day of September. It's more **possible** to be quite warm with humidity in September with wind. The wind will be here in October as well but the temperature is bound to be cooler. This weekend so far isn't that bad. But that's the weather here. It's never really ideal ever. Weather is always a crapshoot.

adult onset wrote:

Totally disagree. I've done this race every year since 2007, and I hate to tell you but it has never been hot in any of those four years, with the September date. (On the other hand, the old 'Toronto International Marathon' with its October date had many years of horrible weather - wind, freezing rain - kind of like this weekend, eh?)

Put it back in September. This is Canada. Any date after Oct 1 is a crapshoot. (And I write this on the way to a friend's outdoor wedding here - I'd rather run than sit still for 160 minutes in this weather :)

Shall we take bets on what percentage of the top 5 contenders DNF?

Does Coolseate just need to run a 2:15, then have his spot locked up (assuming they only send 2 others + him?)

Wish the weather would co-operate.. its really to bad.

Yeah!!! I also throw my vote in for kip kangogo of lethbridge, AB. he is a strong guy and might be the surprise winner for sure. Just wait and see!! All the best to all Canadians....the 36 year record might be broken!!!!

Of the Canucks? The only reason one of the top Canadians would DNF is due to injury or other reason that would preclude reloading for another attempt in a couple weeks. As mentioned previously, they've got too much invested in the promotion of this specific race to bail at the drop of a hat.

If Coolsaet runs a 2:15:01, then he won't have met the IAAF/IOC standard (sub 2:15) so would not have any spot locked up.

If he were to run 2:14:59 - 2:11:30 but Gillis, Wykes and then Bairu (at some to be determined marathon) were to run 2:11:22 or better, then he also would not have any spot locked up.

Agreed.

I'm fairly sure AC set the Canadian Olympic standard at sub-2:11:30. That's why there was such a big hullabaloo at last year's STWM when Reid broke it.

One assumes that is why he (RC) was the only person projecting a chase for the National record, while other's concern was for the Canadian OG Standard (2h11.29). Of course are there any guarantees when it comes to AC and Olympic places? Has this race been actually designated as a "trials" race by anyone other than this site's mods? (i.e. I have seen no mention of this fact from AC or there would be no point in Bairu running Fukuoka).

Hey, don't get hostile. All I'm saying is that if you told me in April that I could run a race beside Lake Ontario on September 25 or four weeks later, I'd pick the September date every year. Same with most others here. And we'd be right more often than not. That was among many reasons the "other" Toronto marathon lost out in trying to be "the" fall marathon. And now Waterfront goes to late October? Bad idea, and you're seeing the effects today.

Are you running this year? If so, I hope you're having a great one. I'm watching online - because of the late date I chose another fall marathon and avoided the chance of 50kmh blowing rain.

Watson is done for, slow first 10km

Coolsaet is going for it! He's right behind the front pacers going toward the half! They were on 2:07 pace at 10k.

Reid is on 2:07 pace through 21k. Amazing. I don't know if anyone saw this coming, though he might have gone out too fast.

1 1:03:55 61 MACDONARD ONDARA KEN

2 1:03:57 0:02 60 JOSEPH NGENY KEN

3 1:03:57 0:00 7 ROBERT MWANGI KEN

4 1:03:57 0:00 63 STEPHEN KIPCHU CHELIMO KEN

5 1:03:57 0:00 6 SHAMI ABDULAHI DAWIT ETH

6 1:03:57 0:00 2 NIXON MACHICHIM KEN

7 1:03:57 0:00 1 KENNETH MUNGARA KEN

8 1:03:58 0:01 4 TADESSE ABRAHAM ERI

9 1:03:58 0:00 9 REID COOLSAET CAN

A few others following at around 64:50 through halfway.

Gillis and Wykes are running very well also!

Coolsaet falling off pace.. alone on the road!

Coolsaet's in the lead!!!

That's real Canuck balls!

2:09:05 pace through 35K