With Olympic weight lifted, Wodak set for return at Toronto Waterfront Marathon 10K
CBC
Five weeks ago, Natasha Wodak thought she should resume training with the Toronto Waterfront Marathon 10K fast approaching. But mentally she wasn't ready, coming off a long Olympic marathon build and exhausting 13th-place finish in the extreme heat of Sapporo, Japan.
The 39-year-old took two weeks off after the Summer Games and spent much of the next 14 days only jogging. Feeling tired, Wodak ended her first post-Olympic workout soon after it began. She wasn't motivated.
"In retrospect, it probably would have been a better idea for me not to put this [Toronto] race on my calendar because I didn't feel ready to start training when I did," Wodak said over the phone recently from her Vancouver home. "To wrap my head around racing another Canadian national championship was a lot.
"I thought, 'Let's give it a few weeks,' and [two weeks ago] my legs finally felt like they were back under me."
In August, Athletics Canada, Run Ottawa and Canada Running Series announced the Canadian 10K Championships, usually held in the nation's capital, would move to Toronto this year as part of the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. It is the first in-person race for CRS since the pandemic began.
Wodak acknowledged she wouldn't be in her best racing shape for Sunday's event along Toronto's lakeshore but the competitor in her isn't allowing the national 8K record holder to be counted out. She's excited for the chance to defend her title after winning the national 10K in 32 minutes 31 seconds in 2019 and last year's virtual women's race in 32:41.
The elite women start at 8 a.m. ET and the men 13 minutes later, with 5,000 other participants following in waves of 100. The competition will be live streamed free of charge at www.stwm.ca, Facebook and YouTube starting at 7:30 a.m.
