Coolsaet comes within seconds of Canadian marathon record – again

FUKUOKA, Japan — Reid Coolsaet came within seconds of breaking Canada’s oldest national track and field record again on Sunday.

The 37-year-old from Hamilton ran two hours 10 minutes 55 seconds to finish sixth in the Fukuoka Marathon, narrowly missing Jerome Drayton’s record of 2:10.09 set in 1975.

“Reflecting on the race I feel it was my best performance ever, given that I had no help setting a pace,” Coolsaet said.

Coolsaet “felt great” right from the start, he said, but not good enough to run with the 2:09 pace group. So by two kilometres into the race, he was already running alone.

Coolsaet started catching and passing people around the 25-kilometre mark.

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He ran into trouble 33 kilometres in, though, when his calves tightened up, and “every time I tried to push to get back on pace it hurt my calves more.

“After 35km I knew the record was slipping and kept trying to run faster. But my calves were in bad shape and affecting my running and I couldn’t get back down to record pace.”

A handful of Canadian marathoners, including Coolsaet’s training partner Eric Gillis, plus Dylan Wykes, have been chasing Drayton’s elusive record for years. Fukuoka is also were Drayton posted his record time.

Coolsaet has come the closest, running 2:10:28 at the Berlin Marathon in September 2015.

He said he stayed motivated Sunday by catching other runners, and trying to match his second-fastest time, which he was able to do.

Coolsaet finished 23rd at the Rio Olympics, and became a dad to son Louis in September.

The Canadian Press