A group of runners recently set a new record at the Americas Masters Games in Vancouver this past weekend.
The 4x800m relay team of Larissa MacMillan, Diane Cummins, Courtney Babcock and Sherri Boyle smashed the previous record of 9:18:33 by a whole two and a half seconds, scoring 9:16:91.
“It was great,” said Cochrane resident MacMillan. “When I turned 40 almost a year ago, I heard what the record was and decided to do it.”
MacMillan, who was a six-time medallist at the Canadian Inter-collegiate Championships when she was in university, hadn’t competed competitively in 14 years. When she decided to get back into training, she called upon four of her prestigious running friends to team up.
Babcock, 44, holds the Canadian Women’s 5,000m record (14:56.96) and formerly held the 10,000m record as well.
Calgary-native Boyle, 43, is a former member of the national cross-country team and is the current Canadian record holder in the 2,000m steeplechase.
MacKelvie, 42, was a gold medal winner in the 1,000m and 1,500m at the 2,000 Canadian Inter-collegiate Championships, while South African native Cummins won gold at the 2007 Pan American Games in the 800m.
“None of us had ever stopped running, but it’s different doing speed work compared to long running,” MacMillan said. “When I first thought of doing it, I first approached Diane and thought if I could get her interested, that’s half our team, and she is never unfit because she only retired from competitive racing two years ago.”
The rest of the team came together like clockwork, and from there the hardest part was getting back into racing shape, which was harder than MacMillan thought it would be.
“None of us have ever been couch potatoes,” MacMillan said. “But for me, it was hard. I didn’t realize what that long period of time without speed training and track workouts does to your body.”
Fifteen years ago, MacMillan would have been on the track three times a week and done a lot of mileage in between. Now, in order to take longer to recover between each session, she only did two workouts a week starting in June and covered mileage in between – but not the sort she would have in her university days.
“I needed a lot more time to recover, especially when we go to track sessions,” she said. “It was all about taking care of minor injuries along the way for all of us, but by the time we got to the end of training we all felt really good and the hard work paid off.”
After smashing her competitive track race in 14 years, does she plan on continuing or was this a one-off?
“(The team) talked earlier about if we didn’t beat the record this year, we’d come back next,” MacMillan said. “We’re all keen to keep training and come back next year now and do it a little faster to make it less breakable for other teams. We’ll see.”
