This time final month, Canadian girls’s marathon document holder Natasha Wodak was on a flight to Spain after withdrawing from April 23 London Marathon the week of the race. She handled two separate minor accidents throughout her London coaching construct. Then in a final effort to place every part collectively for race day, she caught a abdomen bug–the ultimate straw in Wodak’s impractical prep.
“Withdrawing from London was robust, however I’ve discovered there’s all the time a silver lining,” says Wodak. “I immediately considered a plan B.”
The Canadian 10K Championships weren’t on Wodak’s radar in March, and now she is going to get to defend her nationwide 10K title on Saturday night towards a deep girls’s elite area.
With a number of nationwide titles, two Olympic Video games and a Canadian marathon document to her resume, every part now’s simply icing on the cake for the 41-year-old. “I’ve completed every part I’ve wished in my profession, and I really feel very lucky to nonetheless compete at a excessive stage,” says Wodak.
“Though I’ve received this race just a few occasions, the truth that it’s the Canadian 10K Championships nonetheless excites me,” she says. “I nonetheless get the nerves. Nerves imply it’s necessary.”
The 10K distance has been sort to Wodak throughout her profession. She represented Workforce Canada within the 10,000m on the 2016 Olympics Video games and a number of world championships, incomes a gold medal within the self-discipline on the 2019 Pan American Video games in Lima, Peru.
Though London didn’t occur, Wodak all the time has her eyes on the larger image, the marathon on the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest this August. “I’m planning to run just a few shorter races on the roads and observe in preparation for Budapest,” says Wodak.
“Coming off a marathon construct, I don’t know what to anticipate,” Wodak says. “There are such a lot of proficient girls on this yr’s area, and I do know I’ve what it takes to run a quick time.”
A few of the quick girls Wodak alluded to are Brianna Scott, Leslie Sexton, Elissa Legault and Katelyn Ayers, who’ve all run quick 5K occasions this spring. Final yr on the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend, Legault had a efficiency to recollect. She completed second within the marathon and earned a spot on Workforce Canada for the 2022 World Athletics Championships, her first nationwide workforce.
Legault has made a press release within the final month, profitable the 21K de Montreal and Clinique du Coureur 5K in Lac-Beauport, Que., in a brand new 5K private better of 15:41. “Ottawa has been a particular place for me for a very long time,” says Legault. “I did my first half marathon right here in 2014–and final yr’s marathon was very rewarding.”
Wodak’s race plan is to have enjoyable and benefit from the course of. “Wins are by no means a given,” says Wodak. “I wish to give this 10K race every part I’ve.”
The Canadian 10K Championships would be the spectacle of the race weekend, with the ladies’s race kicking off Saturday at 6:15 p.m. E.T. adopted by the boys’s at 6:30 p.m. E.T. You may stream the occasion reside on Athletics Canada TV.
The 2023 Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend will happen on Might 27 and 28, and Canadian Operating is within the nation’s capital to report on the Canadian 10K Championships and Ottawa Worldwide Marathon. Comply with us on Twitter on Instagram for all issues Ottawa Race Weekend and up-to-date unique information and content material.