By Paul Gains

Once again the chance of winning a national championship has lured top Canadians to the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon which is both a World Athletics Elite Label race and the Athletics Canada National Marathon Championship.

The latest addition is Tristan Woodfine, 33, for whom a podium finish would highlight a stellar running career.

Two years ago Woodfine ran a personal best 2:10:39 to finish 6th in the Houston Marathon which puts him 11th on the list of all-time Canadian performers. But he feels he has a personal best in his near future. Whether that comes in Toronto on October 18 or not remains to be seen but after some setbacks the past couple of years he believes he is finally on track for a strong performance.

“[Training] has been going well. It was little hit and miss in early August,” he reveals. “We just welcomed our daughter, Wren, into the world August 3rd, so those first couple of weeks after she was born were a little crazy. But once we got used to a routine things picked up. The last couple of weeks I have had some strong workouts and I am feeling comfortable going into Toronto.

“I am confident I can go out and compete with the other Canadian guys who will be on the start line and kind of make that my goal. I am not too concerned with time. Mostly, I want to get out there and race some people!”

Woodfine and his wife Madeline also bought their first house a year ago in a rural area roughly twenty minutes outside Eganville, Ontario. But life has a way of keeping one honest. Along with a series of injuries, which prevented him from getting fully fit, in the summer of 2025 he suddenly developed fever and aches and pains.

“I had that a couple of days then my wife was like ‘you have this weird rash on the back of your knee.’ It had that circular bullseye shape to it,” he remembers of what turned out to be Lyme disease caused by a tick bite. “So I went to the doctor and got antibiotics. It took a while to get over it.”

That illness was followed by a diagnosis of an inguinal hernia which a doctor said would require surgery. He was told to limit exercise. Obviously concerned, he decided to book a consultation with the renowned Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto. Their diagnosis was that it was not a hernia after all. Woodfine laughs as he recounts his bad luck before adding “I have had a stretch now where nothing has gone wrong and I am really looking forward to Toronto!”

Although he completed his paramedic studies at the Ontario Health and Technology College he has put the brakes on a career in that field to focus on his running. Perhaps, he will choose to do that in the future but for now he wants to explore every part of his running potential.

“I haven’t thought about it too much yet but training with night shifts are pretty hard to make work if you want to run fast,” he concedes with a laugh. “So it’s on hold for now. I guess when I am done with my competitive running career that is something I will potentially look at.”

Besides sharing parenting duties with Madeline and training for the marathon he earns an income as a personal trainer.

“That has been growing steadily over the years that has been the main thing and then some odd jobs stuff here and there I have maybe 15 or so (clients) now,” says Woodfine.

“I don’t know if I would use the term lucrative. But I love it and enjoy it. Helping other people achieve their goals, it’s kind of nice to pass along some of the wisdom and help people to not make the mistakes I have made.”

Living in a rural area of Eastern Ontario means he does all his training on his own. He estimates he is covering roughly 170km a week. Despite his knowledge and experience, since the summer of 2025, he has been coached by John Davis an American coach with a PhD in Human Performance. Woodfine defines him as being ‘very Renato Canova inspired’ in reference to the famous Italian who coached many athletes to Olympic medal podiums.

Woodfine made his marathon ‘debut’ at the 2015 Rotterdam Marathon as three of his Speed River Track Club training partners were competing. Two-time Olympian, Reid Coolsaet, was one of them. It was not a serious attempt and he finished in 2:27:55. He waited three years to do another one.

Since then Woodfine has run London twice – he was 14th in 2020 with a time of 2:10:51 – though he prefers the comforts of racing nearer to home. For that reason Toronto Waterfront Marathon remains a favourite event.

Woodfine faces a strong Canadian field at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon which includes both Thomas Broatch, who is ranked just ahead of him on the all-time Canadian list with a best of 2:10:35, and Olympic steeplechaser turned marathoner John Gay. The battle for the gold promises to be fierce and a potential highlight of this year’s event.

By Paul Gains

All marathoners face adversity in one form or another but Thomas Broatch has had more than his share. Yet, he returns to the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon October 18th aiming for a place on the Canadian Championship podium.

Once again, the race doubles as a World Athletics Elite Label race and the official Athletics Canada Canadian Championships.

“I will have to see who shows up but I definitely want to get on the podium,” says the 27-year-old Vancouver naive. “It’s a pretty small Canadian road racing community and I race against the same people a lot of times; a bit of extra motivation to beat them on race day. That’s why I like coming back to Toronto – you get a lot of familiar faces.

“I think if I could run around 2:12 that would be a pretty good result. I don’t know exactly who is in the field – I have a rough idea – if I can get in 2:12 or 2:13 shape I will be competitive; enough to go out with the top Canadians and be competitive. That’s the most important thing.”

In his marathon debut he claimed the 2023 Canadian Championship title finishing a solid 6th place overall at Toronto Waterfront. But it was his personal best recorded at the 2025 Houston Marathon which truly signaled his potential on the world stage.

Finishing 8th overall he ran 2:10:35 which makes him the tenth fastest Canadian of all time over the classic distance.

A year ago he was confirmed to race Toronto Waterfront again but just two weeks before the race he found himself in a Vancouver hospital with suspected appendicitis.

“I was in hospital for four days in total,” he explains. “Basically, there was something revealed in the CT scan near my appendix.  They didn’t know what it was. They didn’t want to do surgery. The upshot was that I was just in hospital for four days with antibiotics. I still had to have a few more hospital visits, one colonoscopy and then a few follow-up visits.”

In December 2025, once he was feeling comfortable again, and had regained a semblance of fitness, he ran 2:13:43 at The Marathon Project in Chandler, Arizona. Things were looking up but then came a disappointing result in Ottawa earlier this year where he struggled home in 18th place 2:19:00 – his worst marathon performance.

“I went out at 2:12 pace,” he remembers, “And I knew going into it I was not in great shape but I thought I could still run in the 2:12 – 2:14 range which I would have been pretty happy with  considering it was a challenging course.

“It was kind of the classic story, you don’t have the fitness then at 30k you crumble and limp your way home.”

These days he is back training as much as 190 kilometres in a week in preparation for TCS Toronto Waterfront. A graduate of the University of British Columbia he is still coached by Vancouver Thunderbirds’ coach, Chris Johnson, and, after training most of the summer alone, he is enjoying the company of club mates who have returned to Vancouver.

“I think in the last few weeks I have been on the right trajectory,” he says. “I still have (four) weeks to go. I am doing the Eastside 10k (September 27) which I have done the last four years. It’s kind of my ‘go to’ race before Toronto Waterfront to see where I am at.

“I think if I can run a solid result on that course then that would give me a lot of confidence with three weeks to continue fitness. The last two or three weeks I have got some good momentum going.”

Broatch has worked these past four years as a software developer for a Vancouver-based clean energy company called CLIR. He goes into the office a couple of times a week but mostly works from home.

On weekends he sometimes plays golf but much of his spare time is spent reading mystery novels or magazines at his local library. His ‘go-to’ magazine list includes a wide array of interests ranging from ‘National Geographic’ to ‘The Economist’. Earlier in the summer he moved apartments within the Kitsilano area and there is a library right next door.

A strong Canadian field is expected, as always, with $8,000 CDN awarded the national champions as well as World Athletics points which are useful in qualifying for World Championships and Olympics. Broatch is due for some good fortune.

By Paul Gains

Kristian Jamieson is on a mission to beat the time his great, great-grandfather ran at the Boston Marathon. This might bear little relevance were it not for the fact that he is chasing the standard set by the legendary runner Tom Longboat.

Longboat, a member of the Onondaga First Nation, won the 1907 Boston Marathon in 2:24:24 and was widely considered the world’s best long-distance runner of that era. Jamieson hopes to realize his dream of beating his time at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 18th.

Attending elementary school on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario – where Longboat also lived and died – Jamieson first learned about the heroics of Longboat. As a child he was unimpressed but, as he matured, he realized the enormity of his ancestor’s achievements.

“Running a 2:24, in Boston, that is the pinnacle of racing for a long-distance runner,” Jamieson says. “Boston is one of the most famous courses in the world, a very difficult course – Heartbreak Hill the Newton Hills. I was fascinated.

“I think it came down to a kid wanting a role model to look up to. I was like ‘wow, someone in my family lineage who was a phenomenal athlete, loved by Canada and the world. Maybe some of those genetics are in me.’ Once I got a little piece of that, like, treasure I wanted to dig it out.”

Jamieson is a member of the Upper Cayuga First Nation one of the Six Nations which make up the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Several of its members will be running TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon alongside a contingent of the famous Raramuri from Chihuahua, Mexico in what Canada Running Series is calling ‘The Friendship Project’.

The Six Nations are also comprised of clans and he proudly acknowledges he is also member of the Wolf clan. Although he says he is not obsessed with the wolf he does admire the species.

“I kind of like the wolf,” he adds. “It’s a predator, they hunt, they move around, they are fast runners, they are tenacious. I have a husky and a lot of people said our husky looks part wolf. When I think of my Wolf clan I kind of think of my dog.”

During his childhood Jamieson’s family moved about southern Ontario finally settling in Niagara Falls. Like many Canadians his focus as a child was hockey. He played for his high school team and, after graduating from Brock University with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree, he continued playing intramural hockey at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, Ontario. He is currently in his final year of studies.

The team takes on the University of Toronto Dentistry team for an annual charity event and he excitedly points out that, during his first year, they finally ended a lengthy losing streak to their rivals. Then came the impact of Covid.

Running for fitness and to relieve boredom was initially his motivation as ‘stay at home’ restrictions took place. Hockey was cast aside. “I was running more seriously,” he explains. “I was not going to risk getting injured playing these games. Third year, I stopped playing to focus totally on running!”

Although he made his marathon debut in 2023 with a modest 3 hours 13 minutes performance his pursuit of Longboat’s time became a full on commitment after he finished 3rd at the 2025 Niagara Falls International Marathon with a time of 2:39:23. That easily qualified him for this year’s Boston Marathon. There he improved his time to 2:34:02. Five weeks later he lowered his personal best to 2:31:25 in Ottawa.

“When I was in Ottawa people were asking me ‘are you going to try and run 2:24 here?” he recalls smiling. “I said ‘oh no.’ I had to tell them, ‘How do you think I am going to go from 2:34 to 2:24, I am barely recovered from Boston?’

“I ran a 2:31:25 and Ottawa was a hard race. The highs and lows of marathon running I had never experienced before. When I was in Boston it was all a high. There were maybe one or two moments that were scary but other than that it was smooth sailing.”

Jamieson was encouraged to learn that Kenya’s Beatrice Cheserek knocked almost nine minutes off her personal best after debuting in Toronto Waterfront Marathon a year ago. Cheserek with a personal best of 2:21:56, will also run this year’s Toronto Waterfront. He would welcome a similar improvement.

Meeting elite runners in Ottawa including Canadian Olympians Rory Linkletter and John Gay, (the latter confirmed to run in Toronto Waterfront), as well as several Kenyan stars he says was inspirational. And, their willingness to offer advice further increased his commitment to his dream. But he also gives credit to renowned marathon coach Rick Mannen, who has written training programs for him since the spring. Mannen guided Krista DuChene to a 3rd place finish at the 2018 Boston Marathon and also to a berth at the Rio Olympics.

“It is nice to see a young person like him so connected to his great, great-grandfather’s legacy and using it as a catalyst to chase his dreams while honouring Tom Longboat,” Mannen says. “I feel very honoured to be coaching him.”

The summer break from school allowed Jamieson to raise his training volume sometimes up to 200 kilometres a week and to get to a gym regularly for strength training. Between sessions he watched YouTube videos of distance runners to learn about their lifestyle. Most importantly he had the time to sleep. It is not that way now that his final year of studies has begun.

“It’s difficult. That is what I am going to miss the most,” he laments. “In the summer I could sleep in and recover. Some of my workouts are two hours long. With school I don’t have as much time.

“(During school) I was waking up at 4:00 a.m. or 4:25 a.m. then starting my run anywhere from 4:30 am. to 5:00 am. I would wake up and then start running.”

With his dream to beat Tom Longboat’s Boston time now well recorded in the media – and amongst the patients he sees at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry – the attention he has received could be stifling.

“Do I feel any pressure? Honestly, I don’t feel any pressure,” he responds. “Running is something I love to do. It’s a passion it makes me feel alive knowing that I have a goal and every day matters. I am trying to get one step closer to achieving this time. It’s given me so much purpose.

“2:24 is just the beginning. Once I hit 2:24 I am looking to go sub 2:20 and seeing how far I can push myself. I am in it for the long term.”