By Paul Gains
Two years ago, Thomas Broatch was crowned Canadian marathon champion at the 2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. It was a remarkable achievement considering it was the Vancouver native’s debut at the distance.
Now, he returns to this year’s edition a different athlete, a more seasoned competitor, with the dream of joining an exclusive group of five Canadian men who have broken the 2 hours 10 minutes barrier.
It’s an achievable goal, certainly. The University of British Columbia graduate raced to a personal best of 2:10:35 at the Houston Marathon in January of this year. That marked an almost six-minute improvement over his first Toronto performance (2:16:25).
“It is a pretty iconic barrier, and I definitely feel I am able to shave off a second per kilometre,” Broatch, 26, says with conviction. “It seems doable. I am planning to do a 10K one month out. If I run a time like what I ran in Ottawa, then it would give me a good indication I am ready to take a crack at sub-62:10.”
In May he finished 5th at the Canadian 10km championships in Ottawa, running a new personal best of 28:56.
“I am doing some shorter 5k pace intervals once a week,” he reveals. “Haven’t found the (high) mileage taking too much away from my 10k speed. I think it will be a good indicator of what I can do in the marathon.”
The lure of a Canadian championship medal also tipped the scales when it came to choosing a fall marathon. Once again, the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is the official Canadian marathon championships in addition to being a World Athletics Elite Label race.
Broatch realizes the competition for the podium is stronger than two years ago and includes two Canadian Olympians: Ben Flanagan and his former training partner at the University of British Columbia, John Gay.
Besides running 5,000m in 13:04.62 to qualify for the Paris Olympics, Flanagan is a three-time winner of the Falmouth Road Race and has a best half-marathon time of 61:00. Meanwhile, John Gay ran the 2021 Olympics, earning a place in the 3,000m steeplechase final.
“What they have done over the shorter distances is really impressive; much faster than I have run,” Broatch admits. “So, in some ways, it’s a bit intimidating.
“It is kind of interesting two years later. Not that I am old and experienced, having a few marathons under my belt, it will kind of balance out a bit – me being slower over the shorter distances.”
Broatch passed another milestone recently, the third anniversary of his work with Clir Renewables, a Vancouver-based renewable energy software company. Although he is racing men who are pretty much full-time athletes, he isn’t complaining. And he works mostly from his Vancouver apartment.
“Not having the commute defining helps,” he says. “I almost never run in the middle of the day I still always run before and after work. I don’t find it that hard. It’s definitely a big commitment but I think I have a pretty efficient schedule. I don’t do weights or any of that other stuff. I just run.”
Now he reckons his training is going well as his training volume rises to 200 kilometres a week. In July, he flew to Australia to run the Gold Coast Marathon and after running quickly over the first half of the race, he had ‘a pretty big blowup’. The positive outcome is that he took some time to recover and build back gradually for Toronto.
An avid reader, he says he has recently enjoyed another book, ‘The Wandering Earth’ by the Chinese author Liu Cixin drawing, who also wrote ‘The Three-Body Problem’. And he’s found another pastime – going to his local library.
“They have a good collection of magazines that they refresh every month, and that has been a nice change from reading a lot of books,” he explains. “Depending on the mood I am in National Geographic is good. I am still reading a bit and playing golf regularly.”
“I had a good round a few weeks ago with some people from my club and my coach.”
In a two-on-two, he and his friend Evan Elder suffered defeat at the hands of coach Chris Johnson.
“I guess technically we lost, but we felt we won because we were considerable underdogs and we both had our best round ever,” he says to rationalize the loss. “We lost, but in the same way as running, you can lose and still run a good time and feel good.”
With two clear objectives for this year’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon – a podium finish and a sub-two-hour ten-minute clocking – Broatch is highly motivated. And the fact that he will face a strong international and domestic field bodes well.
