Part 2 - Dayna Pidhoresky

#2 on the list is Canada's unofficial female half-marathon record holder Dayna Pidhoresky. 

The 24 year old Tecumseh, Ontario native ran a blistering 1:11:45 (5:28/mile or 3:24/km) for 21.1km at the 2011 Niagara International Half Marathon.

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Lets take a quite segue (or segway) here as this unofficial vs. official record issue comes up twice this week: 
Running records can only be set on courses that:

1. are 'out and back'. The finish line must be within 50% of the total distance from the start line.
2. have less than 1m per km in net elevation drop.  
*- Thus, point to point & and downhill courses, such as the famous Boston Marathon, do not count for records. You'll see this when you read up about the Kenyan Olympic marathon squad!
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Now back to the gazelle known as Dayna. Here's a quick little list of what she has been up in the last 12 months (courtesy of www.runnersfeed.com):

(this should read Oct 17, 2010)

That is A LOT of 1st place finishes. In fact she has been the first overall female in 10 out of 14 races. Not to mention that those times keep getting faster and faster.

The University of Windsor alumni started running, like most pros, back in grade 5 with the elementary XC races the schools put off. She continued on through high schoool and university where she found great success.

She's planning running her first marathon this year, potentially this spring with the hope of breaking 2:30:00 (5:43/mile or 3:33/mile). However she made a great comment in an interview, which I feel most people should heed:
"It seems that anything over 2:29:55 is not worth much in Canada so I would rather wait until I actually have a fighting chance. For now we are focusing on the shorter distances until I have fully adapted to that type of training load. Then we will move forward."

It's been my view that far too many jump into the longer distances without having the proper foundation of speed, stamina, and endurance beneath them.

In any case, Dayna Pidhoresky is a running superstar and I fully expect to see her with a few more gold medals around her neck - along side some, official, national records.

Most recently, in November 2011, Dayna represented Canada at the famous Ekiden Relay in Japan [a marathon relay with 3 males and 3 female runners covering 5k to 10k segments]. Canada placed 10th overall with Dayna running her 5k leg in 16:12 (5:15/mile or 3:14/mile)! Impressive running!

Going her on the trip to Japan was our next female we'll look at today Newfoundland's own Kate Vaughan.