Show Notes
For someone who has yet to reach his 27th birthday, Thomas Nobbs has already spent a lifetime in the world of competitive running. Since joining his first track club at age seven, the Vancouver native quickly found his stride, falling in love with the work harder/run faster equation that distance running offered. He also found his stride on the track and went on to assert himself as one of the country's top youth athletes, with a pair of national youth championship golds in the 3,000m and 2,000m steeplechase.
But for someone who loved to work hard, the risks associated with a high-output approach began to grow, and Nobbs spent much of his late high school and early university careers sidelined with injuries, including multiple stress fractures.
Nevertheless, the passion for running never faded, and after wrapping up a university career at UBC in 2022, Nobbs began exploring the world of longer distances on the road, a journey that eventually, and inevitably, took him to the marathon.
Since debuting three years ago, the 26-year-old has steadily improved his time over 42.2 km, most recently with a breakout performance in March in Rockland State Park, NY, where he won the McKirdy Micro Marathon in 2:09:24. It was a three-minute personal best and made him the fourth fastest marathoner in Canadian history.
After years climbing his way back through injury, the former youth champion finds himself once again among the best in the nation, and will make his Abbott World Marathon Major debut in October in Chicago, entering that field as the top-ranked Canadian.
This week on The Shakeout Podcast, Tom joins the show to recap his breakout race, the big-mileage training that got him there, and what he's learned from the highs and lows of 20 years immersed in the world of competitive running.
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