Vancouver Island, a paradigm of rolling waves of coniferous, temperate rain forest, envelopes hundreds of miles of trails, sheltering runners beneath a canopy of thick moss and evergreen, perfect for running year round.

Catching up with Vancouver Island's own Steve Osaduik, locally known as 'Oz' and more importantly as Canada's second fastest marathon runner, regarding this Sunday's (January 13th) race, the Pioneer 8km in rural Victoria BC.

The Pioneer 8k is the first race in the Vancouver Island Race Series, directed by the local Prairie Inn Harriers Running Club www.pih.bc.ca. Oz has run as fast as 23:39 on the course, two years ago.

He says he is aware of local expectations and looks forward to hitting a marathon qualification standard this spring.

Oz is engaging, quiet, but engaging nevertheless. Here is a gentleman who will win a marathon, then the next day drive for 90 minutes to rabbit a kid's cross country race. He is giving, perhaps too giving? Less than 15 months ago he won the Royal Victoria Marathon, finishing in 2:16:49, which set a new course record, breaking the 25 year old standard by two minutes. In fact it was the fastest time in Canada for 2006, which also happens to be inside the IAAF and the IOC 'B' standard for qualifying for the Olympics. His time is within Athletics Canada (AC) B standard, set by the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) but not top twelve of the world.

According to Martin Goulet with Athletics Canada:

"The A+ standards were established following an analysis of recent World Championships and Olympic Games results as well as a statistical analysis from the past five years in order to reflect what represents - performance wise - a top 12 ranked athlete in the world".

Marathons contested at the Worlds, Commonwealth Games and Olympics typically do not provide the stellar performance times found in marathon races such as London, Berlin, Chicago, Fukuoka, Rotterdam and others and anything can and often does happen.

For the 2007 Worlds in Osaka a heat-wave baked the streets of Japan's second largest city. Marathoners raced in temperatures well over 30 degrees with a relative humidity of 70%. As a result 28 of 87 competitors did not finish the marathon and 2 did not start. 30 could not crack 2:30, 47 could not break 2:20, and the top 9 ran between 2:15 and 2:19. Kenyan, Luke Kibet only managed to run 1 second under 2:16. So these results beg the question, if Steve Osaduik's international B standard time of 2:16:49 on a rolling RVM course, with its many turns, was accepted for 2007 Worlds in Osaka and if Steve prepared himself well, would he have finished top 12?

Let's look at bronze medalist, Viktor Rothlin for example. Viktor trained in the heat, knowing in advance of the possibility of having to compete in it. Rothlin said he got used to the conditions by running a hot weather half-marathon in New York three weeks before, then training in Kobe (close to Osaka) leading up to the World's.

Heat acclimatization starts with the very first exposure and continues for 7 to 14 days. Tim Noakes, cardiologist, ultra marathoner and author of The Lore of Running indicates (Armstrong and Maresh 1991) the optimum way to heat acclimatization is to run at intensities of greater than 50% of VO2 max for increasing periods of time from 30 to 100 minutes. Continued improvement may happen for up to 30 days.

Zurich, where Rothlin is from, experiences temperature ranges similar to Vancouver Island's. Silver medalist Mubarak Hassan Shami with a personal best of 2:07:19 beat Viktor by just 7 seconds. Tsuyoshi Ogata of Japan 2:08 pb, Osaki of Japan 2:08 pb, Kiplagat of Kenya 2:06 pb, Ramaala South Africa 2:06 pb were all beaten by Rothlin. Were these athletes prepared?

Consider the average finish time in Athens Marathon in 2004 was 2:22, 7 minutes slower than Osaduik's personal best. Paul Tergat who, at that time held the world standard for the marathon, with a time of 2:04:55 finished 10th in 2:14, behind Victoria's Jon Brown who finished 4th in 2:12, incidentally, Jon's time would not necessarily qualify him for international competition according to Athletics Canada, yet the world record holder (Tergat) ran a time that was not only outside of AC's A+ standard, but would also not qualify him for the competition in the first place. The 12th competitor, America's Alan Culpepper ran a time of 2:15:26.

2006 Manchester Commonwealth Games silver medalist Joshua Chelanga ran 2:12.45, outside of the A+ standard. Stuart Hall of England came in that magical 12th spot with a time of 2:19:53.

I am not saying that if Steve ran in the World's in Osaka, he would have medaled, although given the circumstances; a 'top 12' is possible. Perhaps like Switzerland's Viktor Rothlin, he should be afforded every opportunity to compete internationally. With some warm weather training, anything could have happened for Steve and Canada at the 2007 World Track and Field Championships in Osaka.

Steve was just close enough in the Royal Victoria Marathon with his 2:16 to make him want it that much more. Watch for Steve as he prepares himself for the ING Ottawa Marathon in Ottawa, Ontario in late May.

 Scroll down for comments section

Contact Chris: chriskelsall@flocasts.org