More than 2000 entries not only established a new high-water mark for the Sudbury Rocks Marathon, but also created an environment that featured a couple of thousand potential stories, each runner unique - but far more than one can squeeze into a column of a thousand words or so.
Still, it is always fascinating to search out the various motivators and back stories that prompts these folks to push themselves to various degrees. Some run in search of excellence.
A former varsity runner at both Cambrian College and Laurentian University, Aurel Fox-Recollet successfully defended his Perdue Family Lise’s 10km title, trimming his time down by more than two full minutes to 36:53.
“I find the 10km to be easy yet challenging at the same time,” said Fox-Recollet, now 30 years of age and looking forward to another appearance at the Masters Indigenous Games in Ottawa later this summer. “It’s a nice blend of speed and endurance, which is something I excel at.”
As for the secret to his success on this particular day, the young man who attended by CCAA nationals (Cambrian) and the OUA Championships (Laurentian) acknowledged that he has absolutely no interest in re-inventing this particular wheel.
“I knew I had a shot at winning because I had done all of the fast workouts,” Fox-Recollet said. “It’s an easy equation – you just have to put in the work. That really helped me today.”
By contrast, former Laurentian and Sudbury Canadians soccer star Erica (Duczeminski) Tyne is far more impulsive in her approach to the sport, having decided the day before the event to tackle the 10km distance – and still finishing among the leaders.
“I’m a bit of an unorthodox runner,” suggested the graduate of Lockerby Composite. “I played soccer but didn’t really like running. After having kids, I got into it with short distances. On a whim, I did a half marathon a couple of years ago and did a good job and figured maybe there is something to this.”
Although this was only her third run of the month, Tyne is coming off an appearance at the New York City Half-Marathon in March, posting a very solid time of 1:37.49. That said, there is nothing resembling a summer running schedule in place for the local physiotherapist.
“I did a bunch of the local races a couple of years ago and then I did New York, which was kind of a bucket list. Okay, I’m done, I thought – and then I came out here.”
A native of Peru who trained with the Voyageurs cross-country time during his first year attending the university, studying business, Renato Zegarra leaned more heavily on the influence of friends to take his interest in running to a whole new level in recent years.
“When I came to Canada, I discovered a whole new world,” noted the 19 year old former 800m athlete who covered the half-marathon in just over 1:27.00, a little shy of bettering the best clocking of friend and fellow runner Nick Lambert. “Long distance (running) is bigger here.”
“I was excited to find a really nice group of people. As an immigrant, it’s not always easy to find a nice group of people but I am happy that I did. They push me hard and I push them.”
The push for 24 year old Espanola native Mya White came much closer to home, as she and family and friends tackled the 5km event that included more than 800 runners. “When I moved to Ottawa (she attended Algonquin College after graduating from Espanola High-School), my mom was diagnosed with cancer.”
“I was her caregiver during that time. I was really down in the dumps for that whole year and didn’t really work out a lot. After she passed, I decided that I needed to take care of myself.”
And on those days when the workouts are much than a little daunting, she is quick to call on her constant companion. “My mom was my biggest supporter when I was running,” said White. “She was always at my track meets, always at my cross-country meets. She is 100% the reason I run.”
For now marathoner Pat Pilon, it is the next generation rather than the past that served as the genesis to his launch in lacing up the shoes and taking to the streets two years ago. “It was really just a healthy lifestyle change, changes in my habits,” said the 33 year old who played football both with the St Benedict Bears and the Sudbury Gladiators.
“With having kids, setting a good example for my kids was important – being healthy and active.”
It seems to be contagious.
His wife, Kayla and their six year old (Brody) completed the 5km on Sunday morning, with Hayes (age 3) and Westyn (age 1) cheering on the sidelines with the grandparents. In addition to serving as a role model, Pat can also now share key learnings from the mistakes that he and so many new runners will make.
“I started running but I had no real source of education for running,” Pilon admitted. “I just ran as far as I could as hard as I could as long as I could – and started hurting myself. There’s a lot of good info on You Tube, people who were in the same boat as me. I found out about all of these different training methods.”
After tackling his first half-marathon in Sudbury last May, Pilon lowered his time by about 12 minutes in racing the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon last October. On Sunday, he was one of 73 individuals who completed the 42km challenge, posting a time of 3:29.03.
Marathon winners included Lucas Jones (male – 2:44.39) and Alannah MacLean (female – 2:58.01) while first place finishers in the half-marathon were Eric Leishman (male – 1:13.48) and Saree Sasson (female – 1:24.22).
