Gabriela DeBues-Stafford’s victory and Canadian record at the Jarrow 10K did not follow the usual formula of a long, consistent block of training. Quite the opposite.
On Sunday, she established her eighth active national record, some of which she has improved more than once, breaking Lynn Kanuka’s 37-year-old mark of 31:44, set at the Red Lobster 10K Classic in Orlando, Florida.
It was not the first time DeBues-Stafford had improved a record held by Kanuka. DeBues-Stafford is also the first Canadian woman to run the 1500 metres in under four minutes, with a personal best of 3:56.12 from the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.
Despite several career ups and downs, DeBues-Stafford has patiently rebuilt her fitness. However, her training this past summer was far from ideal.
Asked how her summer went, she replied, “My summer was quite frustrating. It just felt like a series of little interruptions that stacked up one after another, and the season just never really got going for me. Nothing major, but they just kept coming, and I don’t think I really progressed my fitness at all from April through August.
“One being a small foot injury in April, a bad flu-type thing in May,” held her back for bouts.
“My old thyroid problems going a bit wobbly and having to do some unplanned travel in June-July. You get one in a year, and you work through it no problem, but one after another had me like “dude, give me a break I want to train for more than two seconds please!!”
After a disappointing Commonwealth Games campaign, DeBues-Stafford knew she needed to call the season and reset. Still, she wanted to finish on a better note.
“I wanted to end the season on a better note though, so I went down to London to do the BMC at St Mary’s University. It was actually a blast — Rowan (husband), Lucia (sister) and her boyfriend Craig, and my new teammate Sarah Calvert all went down and got an Airbnb in Twickenham, and we all took the train down from Edinburgh together and made a weekend out of it. It wasn’t my best race ever, but it felt good to end the season racing a field of friends, and there was a bar at the track, so maybe five minutes after crossing the finish line Rowan met me with a beer, and we celebrated the start of off-season watching some more races before heading off from London on vacation.”
The holiday in August gave her an opportunity to reset before returning to training. Asked whether she had finally enjoyed a consistent stretch, she said, “Yeah, so we took the holiday in August, then got stuck into base training. Nothing crazy or fancy, but it felt great to just stack a few weeks uninterrupted before going to Copenhagen, which was another fun experience. You can never take competing at a World Championship event for granted, and it was nice to feel a bit more myself while doing something completely different — I’d never done a road mile before.”
Her immediate plan is to continue building as large an aerobic base as possible.
“We decided as a team that I’m not going to do indoors this season to give me more time to build that fitness more gradually after such a messy summer, but I also don’t want to go six months without competing. So the compromise there is doing a good amount of road racing to complement that base work. There’s a great road series here in the UK called RunThrough Top Flight, which puts on the race in Jarrow on the weekend that has races each month with elite fields, so I am going to do two more road 10 kms in November and December with RunThrough, and then maybe another few throughout Feb-March. I think two weeks ago was my highest volume week since my pelvic stress injury way back in 2022, and I feel like I am responding nicely to the training, so I’m quite happy with where things are at.”
DeBues-Stafford holds national records in indoors and outdoors in the 1500 metres, mile, 3000 metres and 5000 metres. Her 5000-metre best is also a North American record.
A two-time Olympian, DeBues-Stafford finished fifth in the 1500 metres at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She also placed sixth in the event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha. She has won at least eight national championships.
Kanuka, formerly known as Lynn Williams, won the bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the 1984 Olympic Games. She also earned bronze at the 1989 World Athletics Cross Country Championships. Kanuka finished fifth at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games in the 1500m, clocking the former national record at 4:00.86.
“Lynn’s records were legendary for me growing up, and between how long I’ve gone without breaking a record (four years now), and having up-and-comers like Jadyn (Keeler) looking so good on the roads, it feels great to be able to snag this one!
DeBues-Stafford’s sister, Lucia, is also an accomplished Canadian athlete. She has competed at World Athletics indoor, outdoor and road championships, as well as the Pan American and NACAC Games. A four-time national champion, Lucia holds three national best-known times: 5:31.18 for 2000 metres, a national record; 2:33.75 for the indoor 1000 metres, a North American record; and an unofficial best-known time for the indoor 2000 metres.
