2010 California International Marathon Champion Dylan Wykes, from Kingston, Ontario has his eyes set on competing for Canada during the 2012 London, Olympic Games.
Wykes has yet to qualify to run in the Olympic Games marathon with his CIM win and 2:12:39 personal, as he is currently 1 minute and a couple of steps from guaranteeing his position on the Canadian team. He must have one of the top-3 times in Canada during the qualifying period and must prove fitness by acheiving a 10,000m time as set by Athletics Canada. Currently 2:12:39 is 3rd behind Eric Gillis (2:12:08) and Reid Coolsaet (2:11:23). The A+ standard is 2:11:29.
Wykes competed for the NCAA Division 1 Providence College Friars acheiving top-15 nationally in both the 1 mile and 3k indoors during 2004. He qualified for NCAA indoor championships, where he finished 12th in the 3000m. Wykes was coached by Ray Treacy, native of Ireland, long-time coach of the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track Programs at Providence College.
Currently he lives and trains in Vancouver, BC. Until this summer, Wykes was a member of Physi-Kult Running and was coached by Steve Boyd from 2005-2010.
Personal Bests
1500m – 3:46.1
1mile (indoors) – 4:01.15
3000m (outdoors) – 8:00.61
3000m(indoors) – 7:58.7
5000m(outdoors) -13:57.8
10000m – 28:58.45
10k (road) – 29:12
Half-marathon – 1:03:53
Marathon – 2:12:39
The interview
Christopher Kelsall: Nice work with the 2:12 and the win at CIM. Was this win and the personal best as good as an experience as your first breakthrough marathon where you ran 2:15 in Rotterdam?
Dylan Wykes: Thanks Chris! I think the experience at CIM was more rewarding, mostly because this breakthrough was a long time coming and had a lot of bumps in the road, whereas Rotterdam was done more on a whim, and maybe at the time I didn't realize how lucky I was to actually hit a good one there. CIM was also more rewarding because I actually won the race. I really can't recall the last time I won a decent race (maybe 2007 National 10k Road Champs). So, simply winning was very very exciting for me. Not to say that I think I am a failure when I don't win every race I run, but winning is definitely accompanied with a rare sense of accomplishment.
CK: In Rotterdam you split the half in 66 minutes, blaming the fast first half to "hormones or something". At Sacramento you split the half in just over 65 - what was the difference in your ability 2.5 years later to carry on through at that pace?
DW: Yeah, certainly in Rotterdam I felt like the 66 first half was a bit outside of what I had prepared for and was ready for, but I was a bit naive and just went with a group in that one. In my buildup to that race I think I maxed out at about 105 mpw, and maybe averaged 95 mpw for the 8 weeks prior. I think since Rotterdam I've just been able to gradually increase my volume and intensity in training, that led me to be able to split 65:20 in Sacramento and feel like I was running within myself. I've had three marathon buildups and races (Toronto 2009, Berlin (WC) 2009, and CIM 2010) since Rotterdam. Toronto and Berlin were slower than Rotterdam, but the training for those were equal to or better than for Rotterdam. But, my last 10 weeks of training for CIM were well above and beyond anything I was able to do prior to Toronto or Berlin. So, we knew going in to CIM that I was ready.
CK: I was suggesting to Simon Bairu before the New York City Marathon, that with Gillis's 2:12, Coolsaet's 2:11 and you and Rob Watson yet to race, even though he (Bairu) possesses the better resume, could theoretically be the odd man out. Do you think Canada will see 5, 2:10s during the spring of 2011?
DW: Yeah, it's pretty cool there are so many guys running so well. It's a really great thing for running in Canada. I remember talking to Art Boileau a little while ago and we were chatting about how well Reid and Eric ran in Toronto. He was saying how back in his day, when a lot of guys were running fast, he used other Canadians good results to motivate him to train harder and race faster. I think we are seeing that happening now, sort of that. If he can do it, why can't I? mentality. And I definitely think there is a good possibility that we'll see 5 guys running very fast over the next few years and see a significant revision of the top-5 all-time list. But, that said, it's the marathon, it's a tricky event and one never knows what is going to happen.
There was one point, maybe a year or year and a half ago when I thought if I (or anyone else) could meet the AC Olympic standard they would definitely make the Olympics. I knew Simon, Reid, Eric, and others were going to start taking a serious go at the marathon. But, I just didn't think everyone would be able to get it right, not because they weren't capable, but just knowing the nature of the event I didn't think it was going to be possible for a bunch of guys to stay healthy and or hit it right. I definitely don't feel that way anymore. Now, I think, to make the Olympic team your not only going to have to meet the standard (obviously) but also have to run significantly faster. It's going to be an exciting few years, that's for sure.
CK: It is Interesting that you ran an effort based on how you felt, as opposed to particular splits. I read where you gave the competition about 2 minutes to decide if they were interested in going hard. Two minutes into the race is pretty early to make that decision. Were you starting to fear that decision after the 20-mile point?
DW: Yeah, it was certainly a terrifying last 5-6 miles. Probably somewhere between 15 -18 miles I started to have my doubts and wished I'd just stayed with the pack from the get-go. But, at the same time I thought I could still hold on and win. CIM was an interested opportunity, in that there were no pacemakers, and the depth and strength of the field was such that I thought I had a shot at winning (even though there were maybe 10 guys on the start list with faster PBs).
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