The Shakeout Podcast

The Lane 6 program was a partnership between Canadian Running and Nike. Along with Toronto Community Housing, they created a one-on-one mentorship program, pairing experienced runners from the community with at-risk Toronto youth, aged 7-18. The mentors, coaches, and students gathered at the Central Tech track for six weeks. The program was designed to give these students an opportunity to run and to develop a passion for running by providing structured training and by emphasizing the importance of setting goals.

On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we take you to this track in Toronto to learn more about the Lane 6 program and to meet with one pair from the mentorship program who learned much more than just how to run.

Imagine running in a city where there is nearly 24 hours of daylight. Then, imagine running in a city that is colder than -40 degrees celsius and there are only 5 hours of daylight. There’s one city where, if you stay long enough, you can experience both ends of these extreme conditions: Whitehorse, Yukon.

Because of these wildly changing states, running in Whitehorse includes unique challenges, but it also offers great adventures for those who can deal with the variable conditions. On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we take you to Whitehorse, Yukon, to another great Canadian running city, with ultrarunner and Jessie Thomson-Gladish, who has run in the most extreme conditions in Whitehorse and calls the city her home.

After a long Canadian winter of frozen fingers and toes and slippery sidewalks, warm summer days can be a welcome change. But when the temperature heats up, it presents its own set of challenges for runners. From deciding what to wear, when to run, and when to stop running, runners need to be smart and adapt to the summer conditions in order to avoid illness and injury. 

On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we chat with experts who dish out simple, common-sense ways to deal with the heat and make summer running both enjoyable and safe.

With its ocean and mountain views, endless trails, and mild climate, Vancouver and its suburbs are a runner's paradise for both recreational and elite runners alike. Olympian Natasha Wodak grew up on the west coast and has run everywhere near Vancouver as well as in its downtown core.

On this week's episode of The Shakeout, we speak with Wodak who shares what she loves about running in Vancouver, from the trails to the races to the culture of running, as well as chatting about her own personal running story and her struggle to find balance. 

Calum Neff, father of three, is a runner of all distances and all terrains. Neff has represented Canada on the world stage as part of mountain running and ultra teams and has run a personal best of 2:22:59 in the marathon.

Outside of his solo accomplishments, Neff is also a two-time Guinness record holder, having the fastest times in the half marathon at 1:11 and in the marathon at 2:31 --while pushing a stroller. 

On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we bring you a special Father’s Day episode with Calum Neff, the fastest running dads on two legs and three wheels. He is fresh off his race at the Comrades Marathon and joins us to chat about finding balance between fatherhood and running by bringing the two together.

The Bruce Trail is the oldest and longest marked trail in Canada. At 885K it follows the Niagara Escarpment from Tobermory to the Niagara River. Many people have attempted to run the entire trail, which with its challenging terrain provides a test for even the most seasoned runners.

But in August of 2014, one runner started out on the Bruce Trail’s northern end in Tobermory, Ontario to do something that no one had ever attempted before: to become the first athlete with a disability to complete the end-to-end journey across the trail. On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we bring you the story of Rhonda-Marie Parke, an athlete with only 8% vision, who set out to run the Bruce Trail in 20 days. It is an incredible story of adversity, perseverance, and advocacy.

Bruny Surin will remember 1999 as the year when everything lined up perfectly.

Surin was born in Haiti in 1967 and immigrated to Canada when he was seven years old. Growing up in Quebec, he took an interest in track and field, initially in the long jump and triple jump but it would be in the 100m that Surin would define his athletic career.

In the 100m final at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics in Seville, Spain, Surin was fit enough to break a record –and he did.

On this week’s episode of The Shakeout, we take you back to the story of one of the most overlooked national records in Canadian running history.

Runners are a quirky bunch.

And if you can find a group of like-minded individuals to join you on the run, either in companionship or competition –or both, there is an unmistakable bond that brings you and holds you together.

This week on The Shakeout we take you back to the story of the Hart House Runners –a multi-generational group of runners who have been meeting every week at lunchtime for the last 4 decades with one simple goal: to run.

It has been a tradition since 1974. Every Friday, a group of runners have been meeting at the Hart House indoor track at the University of Toronto. What began as a tradition of a weekly five mile race has continued for over four decades and now includes runners from the ages of 20 to 80. We visit the track to take a closer look at the intergenerational camaraderie and competition and we chat with the runners before and after the race.

In anticipation of the Ottawa Race Weekend, we bring you the third installment of The Shakeout Podcast's series on the great Canadian running cities and take you to the nation's capital where we chat with Adam Scotti, the official photographer of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Scotti, who was born and raised in Ottawa, started running at a young age as a way to explore the beauty of his city. He now runs alongside Trudeau as part of his job, documenting the Prime Minister's love of running through photographs. On this week's episode of The Shakeout, Scotti reveals why he loves running in Ottawa on both a personal and professional level. 

Krista Duchene, Olympian and mother of three, ran her first Boston Marathon in 2005. She was 28 years old and it was only her third marathon at the time. She ran it in 3:00:46. 

Thirteen years later and at the age of 41, Duchene lined up among the 2018 Boston Marathon women's elite field. With heavy winds, rain, and hail, this year would mark one of the worst conditions for the race, and while twenty-three elite runners would not finish, Duchene surprised both herself and the running community as she crossed the finish line and secured her spot on the podium. 

On this week's episode of The Shakeout, we bring you a special Mother's Day episode featuring the story of Duchene at the 2018 Boston Marathon, and what we uncover behind her race report as an elite runner is the underlying story of a mother finding balance in her life.