After reaching the Tokyo Olympic 5,000m remaining in 2021, the subsequent two years have been a whirlwind for Canadian 10,000m report holder Andrea Seccafien. The 33-year-old suffered a root meniscus tear in early 2022, then a stress fracture in 2023, and at occasions, contemplated calling it a profession to return to high school. She felt like she was lacking one thing and had one remaining field to verify as a runner: the marathon.
“The plan has at all times been to maneuver as much as the marathon,” says Seccafien. “I will likely be operating the Tokyo Marathon on March 3.”
Seccafien advised Canadian Working that she needs to be on the Canadian Olympic workforce for the marathon in Paris: “The Olympic customary [2:26:50] is the purpose in Tokyo. I might not be operating the marathon if my coach and I didn’t suppose it was potential.”
There have been quite a lot of modifications for Seccafien final yr, who moved from Melbourne, Australia, to Portland, Ore., and again to Melbourne. She left Nike Bowerman Monitor Membership in November 2023 after two years of coaching beneath coach Jerry Schumacher. She joined the group with fellow Canadian Lucia Stafford in November 2021 (who additionally subsequently left the membership).
Seccafien says she left Bowerman on good phrases. “It wasn’t something with Jerry; I simply didn’t have a neighborhood in Portland or Eugene,” she says. “My life was in Australia, and never within the U.S.” Seccafien is the ninth lady to depart Bowerman Monitor Membership previously two years, leaving the workforce with solely two girls on their roster, in line with their web site.
When requested concerning the downfall of the Bowerman workforce and the timeline round Shelby Houlihan’s doping suspension, Seccafien mentioned that Gabriela DeBues-Stafford was the one athlete who left for that purpose particularly: “Nobody else thought that means about Shelby,” she says. “Everybody within the membership has been open with one another’s resolution, and I feel everybody left for a lot of completely different causes.”
“After I joined, I believed operating the marathon there would work with Bowerman. Jerry doesn’t have time to teach a marathoner; you’d basically be coaching by yourself,” says Seccafien. Schumacher took a task with the Oregon Geese group in Eugene, Ore. (two hours from Portland) whereas nonetheless teaching the Bowerman group. “It’s now a completely completely different setting than once I joined.”
Since returning to Melbourne, Seccafien has begun working remotely with Canadian physiologist and coach Trent Stellingwerff, who additionally coaches Olympians Natasha Wodak and DeBues-Stafford. “I wished to seek out somebody prepared to teach me remotely and to offer me some stability in my life once more,” she says. “Trent calls the photographs on mileage, and I simply comply with his plan. Our coaching relies extra on depth somewhat than miles.”
Seccafien says she now does most of her coaching on her personal, together with her accomplice, Jamie, sometimes becoming a member of her on the bike. “Like everybody, I’ve began doing double threshold exercises, and Jamie, who’s an train physiologist, will check my blood lactate.”
Seccafien advised Canadian Working that coaching has not been straightforward. “There have been quite a lot of lows. I felt like I had retired at occasions,” says Seccafien. “I couldn’t put any load on my knee for 4 months to get well from my meniscus surgical procedure… I may solely swim, however couldn’t kick my legs.”
She says it was nice when she was lastly in a position to run once more, however shortly after, she received a stress fracture –one other enormous low. “Now, I’m simply making an attempt to remain constant and take issues as they arrive,” she says. Seccafien is seven weeks out from the 2024 Tokyo Marathon, the place she will likely be within the elite area alongside Chicago and London marathon champ Sifan Hassan, whom Seccafien final ran towards within the 5,000m remaining on the Tokyo Olympics (the place Hassan received gold).
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The Guelph, Ont., native, who has made Melbourne residence for the previous few years, felt the 2024 Tokyo Marathon was the proper place to make her debut. “In Tokyo, you understand you’re going to be taken care of, which takes out quite a lot of stress and uncertainty for me,” says Seccafien. With two spots on the Canadian Olympic workforce for the marathon nonetheless open, Seccafien and her coach suppose she could be carrying a Canadian singlet in Paris.
