The following interview comes courtesy of Christopher Kelsall and was originally published on the Flotrack website. Chris has graciously allowed us to re-post here…

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© Copyright – Christopher Kelsall – 2010

Jim Finlayson is a former Canadian Marathon champion, three-time competitor in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and winner of the Royal Victoria Marathon. He competed for NCAA Division 1 University of Michigan before running for the University of Victoria and eventually owning the streets of Victoria, BC. He also owns theKingston Beer Mile World Record, with his official performance – an astounding 5:09.

Finlayson (aka, ‘The Flying Finn’ or ‘Finn’) is a highly consistent runner despite a life hurdle – he suffers from Multiple Sclerosis – and is mostly a self-coached athlete; that is until recently.

Jim took the time to chat about his gradual transition to coach, while he continues to compete, balance family, work, beer-miling and although it’s a few years away, plans his potential assault on the local masters age-group.

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Ultra runner Ellie Greenwood recently posted an interview on her blog with up and coming BC trail runner Emily Solsberg. Emily trains with the Vancouver Falcons Running Club in Vancouver and has represented Canada twice at the World Mountain Running Championships.

The first part of the interview is included below. To read it in full please visit Ellie’s blog here.

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Have you always been a runner and when did you get the bug? When did you get into trail running if you road ran before?

I started running in my 4th year of university at with the varsity team at McMaster in Hamilton, Ontario in 2001. After university I ran for one season with the Norwesters club in Vancouver. But I really got the trail running bug when I lived in New Zealand from January 2003 –December 2005. The hill running races in Dunedin and Wellington converted me for life. Seeing the World Mountain Running Trophy as a spectator in Wellington, New Zealand in 2005 made me realise that participating in that race for Team Canada was my lifelong running goal.

Continue reading…

Following in an interview with local ‘up-and-comer’ Cameron Levins, who is from the Courtney/Campbell River area on Vancouver Island and who is currently running for Southern Utah University. This interview was posted originally on Flotrack and has been reproduced here with permission by the author.

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© Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall

On June 16th, Black Creek’s Cam Levins finished 2nd over-all in the British Columbia Provincial 5k Road Race Championships on a challenging and hilly, double-looped course. He finished in the time of 14:53. Friday, August 14th he won a local 5000m event in 14:09 – The Black Press 5000. Interestingly, he ran faster during his summer build-up than he did at the end of his NCAA Division 1 track season. Following that August 14th performance in Victoria, B.C. he flew to the other end of the country to Prince Edward Island where he took in the Canada Summer Games 5000m and won in 14:23.

He is on a roll. He even has his own official Cam Levins thread at the Comox Valley Road Runners site.

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© Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall

As the saying goes, nice guys finish last. Twenty-nine year old Scott Simpson is an athlete and physiotherapist, plying both trades in Victoria, British Columbia. Originally from Sackville, New Brunswick, Simpson is one of the nice guys in our sport, but sometimes he finishes first.

He is, at least on the outside, the epitome of sedate when flicking his ankles striding-out during his warm-up, in and out of the race corral. Thrice this year, I found myself warming-up, passing Scott back and forth.

Moments before the gun sounds, I like to go up to the fellow runners and ask questions to see if there is a hint of self-deprecation emoting as a control mechanism against scrambling emotions swirling inside. For some, those moments cause staccato and incomprehensible bursts of weak humour, for others they want to talk about last night’s beer flavours, sampled at the local Irish pub.

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Here’s the latest interview from Christopher Kelsall. In it he speaks with UVic athlete of the year, Geoff Martinson. He talks of running from bears, Olympic goals and slagging baseball players. Originally published on the Flotrack website and re-produced here with permission.

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I WAS DOWN ON THE TRACK watching the Victoria Track Classic, wondering (as writers of athletics often will) what’s up with a particular athlete these days. I noticed Geoff Martinson holding court shortly after his 1500m win, he was with friends who were leaning over the white railing that separates the spectators from the stadium track; they were laughing, he was entertaining the troops shortly after his 1500m Invitational win.
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(C) Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall

Gary Reed is one of the fastest 800m runners in the world. Currently he possesses a personal best of 1:43.68, which happens to be the Canadian record and a time that is considered fast by anyone’s measure. He also owns a 4th place performance he achieved at the 2008 Olympics from Beijing, China and a silver medal from the 2007 IAAF World Track and Field Championships that took place in Osaka, Japan. The world record by his hero Danish (by way of Kenya) runner, Wilson Kipketer still stands at 1:41.11 from August 24th 1997.

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MOMAR (Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race) Race Director Brian Tasaka recently interviewed elite ultra runner Gary Robbins. Gary will be competing in the Western States Endurance Run (100 miles) in less than two weeks on June 27-28.

During the interview Gary talks about his training, other runners who inspire him, and whether or not he thinks he’ll lose control over his bodily functions during the big event.

The first part of the interview is included below. To read it in full head over to the MOMAR blog.

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MOMAR team athlete, Gary Robbins, is gearing up for the Western States Endurance Run on June 27-28.  This is a 100 mile trail race in California all done on FOOT. It’s probably hard for even the most seasoned MOMAR racers to relate to running this far so I figured it would be a good idea to ask Gary a few questions about this masochistic event.

MOMAR: What is the Western States Endurance Run all about?  Why is this race considered the granddaddy of ultrarunning?

Gary Robbins: Western States was the pretty much ‘the birth’ of ultrarunning as we know it today. The first ever WS100 run was way back in 1977 and by 1979 it attracted 143 people! It has sold out every year since then! It is also steeped in American History and was originally a horse race that began in 1955 ‘to prove that horses could still cover 100 miles in a single day’. I learned of WS about five minutes after being told what an actual ultra run was back in 2004, ever since then I’ve known that I would attempt it one day:)  It’s got 18,000 feet of climbing and 22,000 feet of descent, which plays nicely into what I consider to be my strength as a runner

Continue reading on the MOMAR Blog…

Christopher Kelsall is back at it again with another fantasic interview, this time with BC athlete Jason Loutitt.  This article was originally published on Flotrack and has be reproduced here with permission from Christopher.

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© Copyright – Christopher Kelsall – 2009

Jason Loutitt has lived just about everywhere in western Canada. He was born in Trail, British Columbia where his father played Jr. Hockey. He grew up in Uranium City, Saskatchewan until he was 8, Edmonton, Alberta for another 8 and yet another 8 years were spent in Winnipeg, Manitoba serving with the Canadian forces in the Army. Loutitt also attended University in Winnipeg and has called Fort McMurray, Saskatoon, Chemainus, Victoria, Regina, Vancouver, Shawnigan Lake, Canmore, Banff and now Duncan, BC on Vancouver Island ‘home’. He has moved 37 times in 35 years.

Will he ever settle down and call one place home? Who knows, but perhaps his penchant for perpetually uprooting himself is a parallel manifestation of his inability to focus for long before he tended to annually disappear into a two week-long alcoholic bout of self-destruction. By all appearances his transient tendencies work well with his running lifestyle and he believes now the self-destructiveness is behind him and feels he can focus well to take the next step in his running career.

What is his next step? For starters, May 31st he will run the Calgary Marathon, looking for his 3rd win on that course. He owns a 66 minute half marathon personal best and posesses a 2:27:26 marathon to his credit.

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Written by Christopher Kelsall, originally published on Flotrack, and reproduced here with permission.

March 31, 2009

(C) Copyright – Christopher Kelsall – 2009

Steve Osaduik had a rough 2008. After years of dominating the local race scene (British Columbia)and at the same time developing a seemingly ever-improving running resume, he finally experienced his first running injury of note.

Although Steve has raced on occasion through the recovery process and often with decent results, he was ‘off’ and there was no denying it.

After reaching a peak of sorts during the 2006 Royal Victoria Marathon, breaking the 27-year-old course record and running, at that time, the fastest Canadian marathon for the year of 2006 with a 2:16:47 result, just about every other race performance that followed, paled in comparison.

Change will do you good

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So what’s Simon up to these days? slowtwitch.com has recently posted an interview with the Beijing silver metalist, following is an excerpt: 

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Since his silver medal win at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, Simon Whitfield has been a very busy man. Speaking engagements, a coaching change, a training camp in Maui and some longer races on the horizon. But he had time to talk to slowtwitch.

ST: Simon, how are you doing?

Simon: Great, really enjoying training, watching our daughter grow up and run around the house blurting out new words everyday. I just love training with great people, competing everyday and I continue to feel really fortunate to be doing something I love as a job.

ST: Over the winter you spent quite some time in Hawaii. Why Hawaii and what were your goals?

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In Christopher Kelsall’s most recent interview he chats with 79 year old Victoria runner Maurice Tarrant. Maurice has won his age group hundreds of times and is widely considered the best Canadian runner in his age group. 

Note: this article was originally published on Flotrack and has been reproduced here with permission. 

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(C) Copyright – 2009 – Christopher Kelsall

Maurice (‘Morris’) Tarrant of Victoria, BC holds or has held 48 Canadian age-group road and track records spanning distances from 3,000m to the half marathon. He turns 80 in less than a year from now (January 4th 2010) and will continue to tear apart the Canadian record books. 

At 75 years of age Maurice ran the Bazan Bay 5k in Sidney, (just outside of Victoria) finishing with a time that when calculated on the WAVA age-grade calculator works out to 14:17, which neither past winners Dave Milne, Graham Hood, Scott Simpson, Jim Finlayson or anyone else have managed to achieve on this course. In fact 14:17 would be the open course record by nearly half a minute, which Milne currently holds with his time of 14:44.

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Following is an interview with Kevin Broad, who has won the Calgary Marathon 8 consecutive times and the Royal Victoria Marathon 5 consecutive times. The interview was conducted by Christopher Kelsall and originally posted on the Flotrack website.

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The first of two long runs I had done with Kelvin Broad were over 20 miles and included a group of fellow runners of varying abilities (I was the most variable of all). We ran through the mossy rain forest outside of Victoria, British Columbia over hills and through chest-deep Salal. I think we crawled through a blackberry bush and witnessed the collapse of a bridge, while our run leader (Bob) stood knee-deep in the creek wearing an ear-to-ear smile.

Later in the run, sometime after the 17 mile mark or so and as I began to fade, I tossed the fear of becoming lost, as Kelvin orated (like Martin Scorsese) in his high-timbre, Kiwi accent. No matter how far back I dropped, I could hear the rapid-fire ramblings. Oh sure I am less capable of a runner and certainly wasn’t at the peak of fitness, but he talked the entire three hours! He was an audible beacon – a human GPS!

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From EndurancePlanet.com …

Some people might argue that stubbornness is a character flaw but it’s not if you’re an endurance athlete. Ask Gary Robbins of North Vancouver, British Columbia. The 32-year-old adventure racer took his never-say-die attitude into his first 100-mile ultramarathon this past year and set a new course record. Today on Endurance Planet we hear about the source of Gary’s stubbornness and we hear about his favorite mid-race hallucinations. "Hey, how did that 7-Eleven get in the wilderness?"

To download the audio file and take it with you, simply right-click on the link below and "save target as" to your computer: http://www.enduranceplanet.com/Gary_Robbins_12-16-2008.mp3

To learn more about Gary visit his blog at www.garyrobbins.blogspot.com

Trainharder.com’s very own blogger Marilyn Arsenault (click here to visit her blog) has been featured in today’s edition of The Province newspaper. Enjoy the read!

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(Written by Howard Tsumura and published Friday, November 07, 2008)

Marilyn Arsenault was born on valentine’s day with a soul full of song and a heart like a wheel. If you snuck inside the rehearsal hall, you might have heard her honing the timbre in her voice during rehearsals for Pacific Opera Victoria’s upcoming production of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute.

Or maybe you were standing at the starting line of the showcase women’s race at the B.C. cross-country running championships — which she won two Saturdays ago at Stanley Park — and saw her begin to limber up, eagerly anticipating the blast of the starter’s pistol.

So, a night at the opera or a day at the races?

She can’t pick. Won’t pick. So don’t ask.

In her Renaissance life, she is both dramatic diva and hellacious harrier.

And did we mention? Marilyn Arsenault is 40 years old.

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Flashback to Simon Whitfield’s stunning silver medal victory at the Beijing Olympics – Colin Jenkins played a big part in that victory by helping to pace Simon on the swim and the bike portions of the race. Simon even gave Colin half of his winnings from the race. Now post-Olympics, Christopher Kelsall has interviewed Colin, who lives and trains in Victoria. This interview was originally published on the Flotrack website .

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You may remember Colin Jenkins , the Canadian triathlete who celebrated finishing the Beijing Olympics Triathlon more than any other athlete did. He was joyously demonstrative running down the home stretch, motioning to the crowd to cheer more as he ambled in – and cheer they did! Yet Colin was finishing dead last.

Considering this, you may wonder why he was celebrating so much. For those of you who may not follow triathlon very closely, Colin was celebrating because he had just done his job as instructed, to the letter. Like in hockey, he scored an assist helping fellow Canadian, Simon Whitfield score an Olympic Games silver medal, mere seconds from gold.

“Colin did a brilliant job in Beijing and played a key role in the team’s silver medal performance,”
says Coach, Joel Filliol .

I will spare you from the dramatism of what media rascality took place in response to the team selection process (use your imagination), I will say that I am assuming two faster triathletes were left off the team because they very likely would not have medalled anyway and someone on that team absolutely had to medal, to secure another 4 years of funding.

Bear in mind, this is my assumption. No one has said so much as a peep to me about this, but I am prone to betting on occasion.

Regardless, there was Colin Jenkins, an unlikely candidate to be competing in the Olympics. He was unlikely because he had a run in with a car that curtailed his running training leading up to the big show. However, his stealth remained in-tact as a cyclist and as a swimmer.

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Last week most of us watched the Olympic men’s triathlon from the edge of our seats and saw Simon Whitfield come from behind to win a silver medal. We saw him fall back repeatedly from the leaders, then somehow manage to come back, and when we thought he was done, he tossed his hat and made one last, ditch effort. Amazing! Check out this YouTube video if you need a reminder.

Afterwards we all wondered what was going through his head during the race. A recent online interview on www.slowtwitch.com with Whitfield reveals a little of what he was thinking …

Another great interview of a BC athlete by Chris Kelsall

Should you be fortunate enough to walk onto the track and witness, up-close, a 27:18 10, 000m runner, put out 10 near-perfect and even 1km repeats off of 60” rest (not sure how fast 2:40?) you may want to pay attention. Sure he will make it look easy, as he runs just as smooth-like in the first repeat as he manages during the tenth, appearing to coast, that is until he grabs his knees after; yes the talented work hard too.

One day I was on the local track running a few mile repeats. Also on the track were a dozen or so 20 year olds who appeared to have as much business being on a track as Jon Brown does wearing skates on the ice.

Turns out these giants with all of their explosive, anaerobic drills were top NHL prospects. I had asked them to not block lane 1. I let them know that they want out of lane 1 because a serious runner is coming by to do a workout. If they had gloves on, I think they would have dropped them, then me. Thank goodness for gloveless, dry-land training. Actually they couldn’t have been friendlier.

When Jon arrived they all stopped and watched, probably as amazed as their own fans are at their skating, to his seemingly effortless glide; at a pace not one of these pro athletes could handle for more than 200m, once or twice.

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The following interview was originally published on the Flotrack website by interviewer extraordinarie Christopher Kelsall. Thank you again Chris for the wonderful interviews. If you like this please visit his website. You can view his other interviews with BC athletes here.

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There was a stretch of time (for a couple of years) where on occasion, while running around some local lakes, a runner would approach at an alarming speed. I could instantly deduce who she was even as a mere spot in the distance. Her form was so flawless that there was only one person it could be. The process of elimination was instant. This is saying something as the trails of greater Victoria are many and the runners of all levels are everywhere.

As the space between us would dwindle, a quick nod is all that would transpire as she moved so deftly. Breezing by, stirring the congregating midge, which swirl innocuously in a mid-air swarm.

The runner, Lucy Smith, happens to be a fixture on the Canadian race scene. Like those who during childhood participate in sport for the sheer joy of it she, so far, has enjoyed a very long and versatile career in endurance sport.

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Following is the latest interview by Chris Kelsall on BC athlete extraordinaire Lisa Harvey. This interview was originally posted on the Flotrack website .

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Lisa Harvey is a Canadian who loves to run and compete. She ran in high school, and later varsity for the University of Calgary Dinosaurs in Calgary, Alberta.

Lisa represented Canada in the 2000 Olympics in Barcelona and 1991 IAAF World Track and Field Championships, competing in the 10, 000m.

She has also run for Canada in the World Cross Country Championships, World Half Marathon Championships, Pan-American Games winning bronze. And competed in many other events over the past 19 years.

Although her personal best 10, 000m is reported to be 32:22 by the IAAF, she is sure it is 32:40; must be her humbleness coming out.

To say she has enjoyed a long and versatile career is a mild understatement. However, she is now moving on to the marathon. Although she has run a marathon already, she is planning to make a serious go of a fall 2008 event.

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Another great Flotrack article written by Christopher Kelsall

Zach Whitmarsh toils on the Jack Wallace Memorial, Oak Bay High School track. Marley, his dog canters back and forth from the infield to the start area and back, taking splits.

“What breed mix is Marley?”

Zach writes: ”Marley is a pound dog. As far as we can tell he is a Shepherd-Collie cross. There may also be a bit of Burmese in him, he’s a big-pawed dawg and he’d probably weigh another 20 pounds if he didn’t get in the 50 miles per-week he’s gotten used to.”

Meanwhile some local, longer distance ectomorphs gut out a low-key invitational race, looking smooth in their attempt at sub 30 for 10, 000m (others drop at halfway or at 3,000 – they are here just to check fitness), they appear fluent, until Zach starts his sprint workout.

Whitmarsh re-defines the everyday runner’s paradigm of what is fluid motion.

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