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The Tamarak Ottawa 10K National Championships will prove to be a very competitive race tomorrow as Vancouver’s Natasha Wodak, Canada’s all-time fastest 10,000m runner and all-time fastest over 8K on the road is in the field. Meanwhile, so is London’s Lanni Marchant. She is Canada’s all-time fastest in both the marathon and half-marathon. The men’s field will be led by Eric Gillis and Matt Loiselle. Gillis is Canada’s third-fastest active marathon runner, while Loiselle is a very strong competitor with his best of 29:18 from the 2012 Vancouver Sun Run and 29:23 from the 2011 edition of this race.
Gillis, who hails from Antigonish, NS and currently lives and trains in Guelph, Ontario with the Speed River Track and Field Club has run as fast as 28:07.19 on the track, while he is also a winner of the Vancouver Sun Run with his 2011 performance of 29:05. He is a two-time Olympian (2004/2008) and has run the marathon as quick as 2:11:28 from the 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Loiselle, who lives in Toronto has competed internationally for Canada at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships as well as the IAAF World Cross Country 
Championships.
Marchant took the national marathon record with her official time of 2:28:00 at the 2013 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. She improved on the national half-marathon record in 2014 in Nashville, TN with her 1:10:47 performance. She recently ran a brand new 10,000m personal best, narrowly missing the Canadian record with her 31:46.94. Wodak took the record during the same race at the May 3rd, Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, California, with her 31:41.59. The record was previously held by Courtney Babcock with her 31:44.74 performance at the same meet back in 2003.
Also in the women’s 10K field is the defending 2014 national 10K champion Rachel Hannah. She was also racing in the 2015 Payton Jordan Invitational and ran a new personal best of 32:36.17. So this race will be quite competitive. Hannah’s time from 2014 is 33:09.
Race Schedule:
Saturday, May 23th
Time Event Location
3:00 p.m. Ottawa 2K
4:00 p.m. HTG Sports Ottawa 5K
6:30 p.m. Ottawa 10K
Sunday May 24th
Time Event Location
6:55 a.m. Scotiabank Ottawa Wheelchair Marathon
7:00 a.m. Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon
8:00 a.m. Scotiabank Ottawa Kids Marathon
9:00 a.m. Scotiabank Ottawa Half Marathon
News release:
Records expected to fall in the marathon.
Fastest 10K every assembled.
Ottawa seeking Canadian soil record.
