On the State of Canadian Marathoning

The Canadian Marathon Championships took place last weekend. Yes, Our NATION'S CHAMPIONSHIPS took place last weekend. How many of you participated? How many of you know who won? Who was our top marathoner? Did you even know it was happening?

It's okay if you answered no to a lot of those questions. Not many people care. Which is a shame.

Taking place in out nation's capital of Ottawa, the championship race is one of the most beautiful races in Canada. Yet, there were two other large Canadian marathons that weekend and a great half marathon the week after. Both the Calgary Marathon and the Saskatchewan Marathon took place that weekend and the Whistler Half is this coming weekend. Why so many races grouped so close to what should be the be-all and end-all of Marathons in Canada? Our national championships have fallen to the way-side. Our top marathoners often don't put it on their schedule, or they run it just for a meager sum of money that barely covers the cost of the trip for west coasters. The Marathon was won by internet blogging phenom Robin Watson of Le Blog Du Rob fame (you can check out his hilarious blog here) who was the top Canadian finisher in 2:18:33, yest still 10 minutes behind the top two finishers from Ethiopia and Kenya. With a 2:13:37 personal best marathon to his name, he could have been up with the top finishers. But having run the Boston Marathon just six weeks prior, one wouldn't expect him to even race, much less compete. In fact, he was scheduled to run the 10k, but the night before, after looking at who was in the race and the prize money up for grabs, he opted into the Marathon. Now, 2:18 is very respectable, but for our national championship there really wasn't anyone to challenge Rob for it. Our national championship, which boasts more than 40,000 runners through the weekend's events, went out with a whimper rather than a boom.

Rob after earning Canadian Champion title

This past week much noise has been made around this fall's Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (STWM) as Scotiabank has put up $38,000 to any Canadian who breaks Jerome Drayton 38-year-old Canadian Record. At the time he set his mark (1975), Drayton was the number one ranked Marathoner in the world, which many, top Canadian Marathoner Reid Coolsaet included, say is why the record has stood for so long.

Drayton during his record-setting run at Fukuoka in 1975

Reid Coolsaet, one of Canada's premiere Marathoners has already tossed his hat in for a chance to tackle the longest standing Canadian track record. Although compared to a lot of track races and even simple appearance fees that many track athletes make, $38,000 for a professional marathoner is a lot of money. A LOT. Almost 7 times more than was offered at our National championships. And this has been considered the premier event in Canadian marathoning as of late. It was used as qualifying for our top three marathoners for last summer's Olympics, and now with the mystique of the past couple of year's results and the big incentive to break the Canadian record, the Scotiabank marathon has become the race that draws out the best Canadian distance athletes. Perhaps this is the event to label the Canadian Marathon Championships? The prestige is already there, why not give it that extra push into something great? True, most marathoners create their yearly-plan or strive to enter a certain race(s) each year, but why can't our national championship be one of them?

Coolsaet after obtaining Olympic qualifying standard in the 2011 edition of the STWM

Why not create an event that all runners want to go to? Our National Championships should be a display of our nation's best runners. Some serious thought needs to be given to time of the year, the course, and the competition when creating the national Marathon championship. Make it big. Make it exciting. Make it so that not just the best want to run it, but everyone wants to run it. Why would you not want to say that you raced the fastest men and women in our country? Or even raced the fastest people on the planet? Our National Marathon can be so much more. We could make it great if we wanted to. Televise it, or at least have significant media coverage. We may not be the most populace nation in the world, but we love our sports almost more than anyone else. Running creates more revenue than soccer world wide; the most popular sport in the world is second to running. It's time to re-think the way we have set up our championship event and create a world-class championship that brings out the best in Canada?

On Endurafuel and Performance Drinks

Not long ago we were given samples of a new energy/ recovery drink mix called Endurafuel. Claiming to be both an energy drink as well as formulated to act as a recovery drink that worked within minutes with improved performance, enhanced mental focus, prevents muscle breakdown, provided electrolytes, and the big kicker: not being associated with any stomach discomfort; it was only natural that we were a little skeptical, if not trepidatious, about such a product.

At closer inspection it doesn't seem to be all that different from similar products on the market, however it does combine both the energy/performance aspects of say a Gatorade or Powerade or high caffeine drinks like Monster and Red Bull, with the recovery components in many post-workout protein drinks into one formula.

It has the typical electrolyte complex consisting of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and chloride, all crucial elements to get your nerves firing and your muscles moving (little do people know that calcium is the most important electrolyte in muscle contraction). It has the classic caffeine & l-glutamine mixture to stimulate and provide energy to- and increase function of- the brain. It contains cirtulline malate, a component of watermelon seed rinds, and while the data is still preliminary it has been shown to reduce muscle fatigue. One thing that caught our eye was that it had 100% of the daily value of vitamins C and E. These two vitamins are considered to be the anti-oxidant vitamins, and while it is true antioxidants do help to prevent some muscle fatigue, it should be noted that going above the DV is not recommended for performance athletes. This is because to trigger mitochondrial oxidation thus creating energy, there physiologically NEEDS to be an oxidative stress response. Without this stress response the muscle will not create enough energy to meet the demands of the exercise.

Endurafuel, in terms of recovery, adds typical branched-chained amino acids (BCAAs) to its formula, setting it apart from most other energy drinks and bringing it into the realm of recovery drinks. While there is growing clinical evidence that BCAAs do not offer additional energy benefits and improve muslce glycogen concentrations, BCAAs are crucial for muscle synthesis post exercise and recovery. All pretty standard affair when compared to other drinks.

But then we see the claim that their formula will not cause stomach discomfort, their second major selling point next to being a 2-in-1 performance and recovery drink. Most of these energy or recovery drinks are high in sugars like fructose  which can cause stomach problems during their digestion, especially during exercise when there is less blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract. Endurafuel's formulation uses dextrose (a type of glucose) and maltodextrin, an oligosaccharide (a short-chain sugar molecule) which is rapidly absorbed by the body.

So the only logical next step was to put the product to test with our very own Wendy O'Neill as the guinea pig. She is a rower at the Don Rowing Club and was put to the task of rowing 1000m as fast as she could on an indoor rowing machine. She took Endurafuel, just on a whim, and sat down for the exhaustive task.

She had been worrying about the test all week, had been having trouble eating, and was stressed, but when it came to test day and she took the Endurafuel and sat to row, she surprised everyone around her with her performance. She wants others to give it a try and tell us their experiences with it.

While Endurafuel is filled with ingredients that are clinically proven to be beneficial to performance in some way, this is our first experience with it. We would love for you to leave us feedback on Endurafuel be it your own experience or just your own thoughts on the product.

In Defence of Gluten

"Gluten-Free" is a phrase tossed around a lot today. It's on every diet-crazed celebrity's hit-list, on all aspiring super model's radar, and on a lot of regular people's minds. Everywhere you go the term is displayed on every other food product in the grocery store or boldly advertised on menus across North America. Yet, to simply ask someone why they are going gluten-free, the answer is usually the same; either they heard they could lose weight or because it is good for you. Those are all well and good, but the answer still remains, why?

For starters, let's understand what gluten is and how the gluten-free diet arose.

Gluten is  a composite protein consisting of a gliadin and a glutenin peptide found in many grass-related grain products. It is commonly processed from wheat, barley, and rye as well as several other related grains and is largely used to give elasticity to dough, helping it to rise, keep its shape, and make breads soft and chewy.

However, around 1% of the North American population has an autoimmune reaction to the gliadin peptides when broken down in digestion. This "intolerance" to gluten is known as Celiac Disease. Celiac Disease can be very serious, causing a host of gastrointestinal complications as well as providing difficulties and deficiencies in several other organ systems.

When Gluten is broken down in Celiac sufferers, it will bind to protein-binding enzymes that will change the shape of the gliadin peptides and present this changed peptide to the immune system. Because the peptide has undergone a conformational change, the immune system cannot recognize it and initiates an autoimmune response. Inflammatory signals are released and immune cells flood the area, damaging the lining of the small intestine and, in turn, decreasing the absorptive ability of the small intestine. This causes a host of malabsorptive-related issues such as "greasy" stools, anemia, a severe skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis, bone density issues, and in young children, stunted growth. Yet many people with Celiac Disease do not show such severe symptoms; simple skin-rashes or outbreaks can manifest in response to gluten, or even just a feeling of being bloated or especially gasy are known to be signs of a gluten intolerance. Only around 5-10% of people actually get a medical diagnosis via blood test.

The problem arises when people who are not Celiac sufferers cut gluten out of their diet. Gluten containing products are a huge source of important carbohydrates, proteins, iron, and a host of other vitamins and minerals. This is especially a problem for vegetarians or vegans and athletes. Vegetarians and vegans need the gluten-containing foods because they are such good sources of vital vitamins and minerals, especially irons and the B vitamins which form the heme component of red blood cells. Anemia is a huge risk for gluten-free vegans and vegetarians because a lot of the foods with perceived high levels of iron (spinach, parsley, apricots) are not actually bioavailable; it is locked away in plant particles that our body has no way of digesting. 

"But wait," you cry. "How is it that all these people still claim to lose weight or feel great after going gluten free?" This is actually quite simple. In our western society, it just so happens that a lot of the highly processed, starchy foods that everyone loves to eat with their fast food meals usually have gluten in them. By cutting out gluten, most people are cutting out foods that are also high in manufactured trans- and saturated fats which also are a huge component and cause of the inflammatory response. It has less to do with gluten than it does with simply eating a better diet.

The same goes for athletes. Athletes can greatly hurt themselves by trying to cut out gluten from their diet because athletes are usually eating healthy to begin with. Cutting out a healthy part of their diet by not having some gluten-containing food can not only cause their athletic performance to suffer, but can pose a health risk in the long run because of the lack of important nutrients in these gluten containing foods.

In short, unless you are suffering from Celiac Disease, you probably don't need to cut gluten out of your diet. You just have to watch what you eat. There are plenty of healthy foods that contain gluten such as couscous, whole grain breads and cereals, whole grain pasta, as well as a host of other unprocessed products, just as there are unhealthy foods that contain gluten. You just have to be smart about it.