Natasha Wodak looks for national title #13 against a loaded half marathon field

When Andrew Davies toed the starting line at the 2026 TCS Toronto Waterfront marathon last Sunday, he did so with the hope that his first crack at 42.2km would be a positive enough experience to justify running another marathon in the year ahead. Over the course of the next 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 48 seconds, his quest for a respectable rookie performance became a run for the record books, laying down a time faster than any Canadian debut in history and vaulting himself into 4th place on the Canadian all-time list. Perhaps just as impressive as the time itself was the fashion in which Davies accomplished the feat, belying his novice-status at the marathon distance with a masterclass in pacing that saw him lay down a massive negative split to run away from the rest of the Canadian championship field. What's more, the performance comes at the end of a year that saw Davies lose several months to injury, graduate from law school, and begin full-time work articling. This week on The Shakeout Podcast Andrew joins the show to recap his record-setting debut and the training block that got him there, including details on how he and coach Steve Weiler incorporated a progression of workout long runs that built towards a signature effort on the streets of Toronto. Subscribe to The Shakeout Podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you find your podcasts. [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Altitude Sports] Shop now at Altitude Sports and enjoy up to 20% off your first order with the promo code "shakeout2026" Click here to order 👉 https://bit.ly/altitude-shakeout2026 Shop The North Face Summit Series https://www.thenorthface.com/en-ca/collections/summit-series

Sign up today for The Shakeout Podcast Shakeout Run: Thursday, Oct. 15 at 6:00 p.m. ET, at the Canadian Running offices, 75 Harbord St., Toronto, Ont. M5S 1G4.

The Shakeout Podcast Shakeout Run: Thursday, October 15 @ 6:00pm EST, 75 Harbord St. Toronto

To hear the marketing team at one of any number of different sport supplement companies tell it, your next personal best is just one sip, slurp, or shot away. Whether it’s the latest super-food concentrate, the greatest powdered potion, or maybe even a new topical gel, the market for performance supplementation is a crowded one, with each new product promising some combination of performance buzzwords like optimal recovery, reduced blood lactate, greater muscular endurance or delayed onset fatigue. But with so many options out there, is there really one “silver bullet” when it comes to maximizing performance, and where does good old fashioned hard work fit into the mix in the age of “performance stacking” supplements?

Between the two of them, there isn't much in the world of global running championships that sisters Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and Lucia Stafford haven't tackled. Both two-time Olympians and multi-time national champs, the Stafford sisters have come to define middle- and long-distance track for a generation of Canadian athletics fans. Between them, they hold Canadian records at 1,000m, 1,500m, 2,000m, 3,000m and 5,000m.