SUDBURY - A sub-elite amateur might not sound all that impressive, but trust us, it most definitely is.
That is the term that Alannah MacLean, a Lo-Ellen Park Secondary graduate and former national cross-country ski team member, has used to describe her current athletic status, one that involves the nimble balancing of a very demanding career with a boatload of sporting talent.
As a doctor completing her residency, the 31-year-old multi-sport sensation cannot devote anywhere near the hours to training that she did in her youth as she climbed the charts of the Canadian nordic ski ranks.
Still, her recent clocking of 2:48:32 at the Berlin Marathon on Sept. 29 seeded her as the eighth fastest woman in the country, taking full advantage of a course that is widely recognized as the place to establish personal best times for the 26-mile / 42.195-km marathon distance.
To be clear, the time management tug-of-war MacLean navigates was evident even as she left for Germany a few weeks ago.
“I went into Berlin knowing I had the capability of running sub 2:50, but knowing that the level of training I had put into Berlin was not all that close to past buildups for previous marathons,” she said. “I just had an incredibly busy summer and had to adjust my mileage. I was probably doing a third of what I thought was the time I needed to dedicate to truly go for the time I wanted to go for.
“I made my race plan to achieve 2:50:00 on the dot, to achieve 1:25 at the half and gauge what I had left in the tank.”
For as regimented as MacLean can be in monitoring every aspect of her training (most often performed with her canine companion, Leon) and race-day, the reality of her life allows her to embrace the flexibility needed to adjust on the fly. A strategy she has worked to perfection is comfortably bettering her race goal.
“I ran my race plan almost to a ‘T’ and found that I had to pull myself back, just a little bit, in the first half of the marathon,” said the member of the local Track North Camel group. “I kept thinking I was going out too fast.”
A mid-race time of 1:25:20 combined with a general feeling that she had not pushed her pace gave rise to a slightly different approach for the final 21 km.
“I switched my mindset and said screw my race plan,” MacLean said with a laugh. “I got through the first half and realized that I would be really disappointed if I didn’t run sub 2:50.
“I knew that I had something left in the tank, but didn’t know if it was going to last all the way through to the finish. I went right back to my competitive roots of chasing ponytails for the last 21 kilometres.”
For as much as MacLean competed successfully on the national cross-country scene for some time, there is not necessarily a cookie-cutter approach that can be simply carried from one sport to the next.
“[Running] is a very different mindset from skiing,” she said. “This really is just about efficiency. A marathon is about energy conservation. You have to find time in every single step and every single kilometre.”
The simple truth is that running each and every one of the final 21 km two or three seconds faster than she had paced through her first half would — and did — allow her to better her target time.
And for as much as some (myself included) might ask exactly where the upper end of her running potential might lie, Alannah MacLean has come to terms with her sport/life trade-off.
“I approach it knowing that my ability to pursue it at a high level is somewhat more restrictive than when I was with the national cross-country ski team,” she said. “I want to test the limits of my capabilities based on what I can devote to training, to see what kind of time I can achieve based on that, and really just have fun with it.
“I am classifying myself as a sub-elite amateur.”
A sub-elite amateur who will strive to reach certain achievements, including completing all six of the world’s major marathons. With Boston and Berlin now off her list and sights set on Chicago next October, MacLean has New York, Tokyo and London down the road.
“You see the progress that you are making and think: Can I perhaps devote more time to this? Do I have what it takes to pursue this at a higher level?
“But at the end of the day, I do it for fun. I do it to set my own personal goals and challenge what I think I am personally capable of. I don’t think I can compete several times a year (in marathons and such), just because of my scheduling as a resident doctor. It’s impossible.”
And if that leaves her as “just” a sub-elite amateur, Alannah MacLean will be more than happy with that.
Randy Pascal is a sportswriter in Greater Sudbury. Pursuit is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.