After practically twenty years of tearing up the observe and representing Staff Canada on the worldwide degree, Kate Van Buskirk of Brampton, Ont., made her long-awaited marathon debut on Saturday on the St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Operating Collection Nashville Marathon in Nashville, Tenn. Van Buskirk kicked off her marathon profession in fashion, successful the ladies’s race in 2:37:40, which positioned her second general.
Van Buskirk informed Canadian Operating she’s proud she will be able to now name herself a marathoner. “That is essentially the most enjoyable I’ve ever had at a race,” she says. “It was superior.”
As a substitute of choosing an enormous metropolis marathon debut, she selected this race as a result of she needed a “lowkey enjoyable” first outing. “Since I’ve been operating a bunch down right here, it was a course I used to be accustomed to and ready for,” she stated. Van Buskirk, a former host and producer of Canadian Operating’s The Shakeout Podcast, at the moment splits her time between Nashville and Toronto as she pursues a post-professional operating profession in race broadcasting.
Van Buskirk represented Staff Canada on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics within the ladies’s 5,000m occasion and gained a bronze medal for Canada on the 2014 Commonwealth Video games in Glasgow over 1,500m.
“My aim Saturday was to run within the excessive 2:30s, however the final 15 kilometres have been fully solo,” she says. “My solely remorse was that my dad’s private greatest is 13 seconds quicker than mine, so he’s nonetheless the quickest marathoner within the Van Buskirk family.” (Sarcastically sufficient, her dad, Jim Van Buskirk, additionally raced a marathon final weekend, in Toledo, Ohio, successful the boys’s 65-69 age class.) “My dad is my largest inspiration,” she provides.
The 36-year-old made essentially the most of her marathon debut, sporting gold sun shades and race bottoms. “The bottoms have been impressed by [former Canadian record marathon holder] Lanni Marchant, (who usually wears flashy bottoms to convey a enjoyable method to marathon operating),” Van Buskirk says. “Marathons ought to be enjoyable, and it introduced pleasure and leisure to my race.”
Though it’s been simply two days since she completed her first marathon, Van Buskirk says she and her coach/companion, Dave Milner, are already eager for the subsequent one. “I’m completely eager about one other marathon, and I would like it to be in Canada this time,” she says.
Van Buskirk has aspirations of inching towards the two:30 mark, and of placing on the Canadian nationwide crew singlet as soon as once more, in Tokyo, for the 2025 World Athletics Championships. “I’m so grateful I made the Tokyo Olympics, however I didn’t get to see any of Tokyo or expertise a full [capacity] stadium,” she says. “The one time I’ve raced there, it was fully empty–it could be the proper cap on my profession.” (There have been no spectators allowed within the stands on the Tokyo Olympics, as a result of pandemic.)
Saturday’s St. Jude Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon noticed 23,000 individuals. The race was gained by Mitchell Small of New Zealand in 2:27:33. Like Van Buskirk, Small was additionally accustomed to the course, having competed towards Nashville’s Vanderbilt College in NCAA XC.
