Sexton hitting her stride ahead of big races

Leslie Sexton, 34, who pounded the pavement in London for nearly a decade, is in a good place — physically and mentally — heading into the Canadian 10K Championships.

Former London-based runner Leslie Sexton crosses the finishing line after winning the Canadian Marathon Championship in 2017. (Photo by Matt Stetson)

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Once a familiar sight logging kilometres on London roadways, Leslie Sexton has emerged from the pandemic hitting her stride in a new home – with one title under her belt, a chance at a second this weekend, and a seemingly limitless horizon ahead.

It was in 2011 when Sexton arrived in the Forest City to discover an attractive running scene, one with the depth of coaching, colleagues, and infrastructure necessary for elite success.

“The city just makes you want to be active,” she said, “whether you do it competitively or as a hobby, or even if it’s a method of commuting, having all that was pretty cool.”

For nearly a decade, Sexton was a member of London Runner, a club founded in 2006 by her coach and partner, Steve Weiler. Since 2019, the pair lived in London and Kingston before heading to Vancouver in August. In addition to her own running, Sexton now coaches with the Vancouver Thunderbirds Track and Field Club.

In September, Sexton bested Londoner Julie-Anne Staehli in the Medavie Virtual Canadian 5K Championships to win her first Canadian 5K title. Her 15:37 time topped her previous personal best by 28 seconds. Staehli finished second in 15:49.

Sexton ran the virtual race in her new home in British Columbia. New home. New route. New record. (Although, with virtual races, many elite runners do not ‘count’ the race as a PB. Sexton is one of those runners.)

“I was still really, really happy with the performance,” she said. “I was aiming for something under 15:50 and shattered that goal going in. It tells me I’m in good shape, that training went well, and I was able to execute my fitness really well on race day. Those are all positive things.”

Sexton has long eyed breaking 16:00 in the 5K. “It didn’t happen for a long time, mostly because I was focused on other events. But coming into this summer, I was locked in and broke that mark for the first time. It’s a meaningful barrier and a meaningful time to me.”

This weekend, she will compete in Athletics Canada’s Canadian 10K Championships in Toronto. Then, she’ll race in the Philadelphia Marathon on Nov. 21.

“The takeaway for me from the last few months is that I’m in great shape at the start of a marathon training block. That bodes really well for future races in the fall. The 5K is definitely not my best distance, but to be able to run that fast off a shorter buildup than usual is a good sign. I’m close to the best shape of my life and on track to be there for the longer stuff come the fall.”

At 34, she is entering her running prime, following in the footsteps of top Canadian distance runners in their late-30s and early 40s. For instance, the Canadian Olympic women’s marathon team at Tokyo 2020 consisted of Malindi Elmore (the Canadian marathon record holder), Dayna Pidhoresky, and Natasha Wodak, who are 41, 34, and 39, respectively.

“There is something about a lifetime of building up miles and consistency. That makes a big difference,” said Sexton, whose eyes will soon turn towards Paris 2024. “If you’re stringing together a lot of healthy years, you can just get better and better. Plus, you start approaching training from a more mature, experienced, and knowledgeable perspective. You have the patience to do those long workouts and handle a race – physically and mentally – that is close to two and a half hours. That helps, when you have the tools to do things well.

“I feel like I’m on track to have some great performances in my late-30s. With another Olympic cycle coming up in three years, and world championships between now and then, it is exciting, for sure.”

Former London-based runner Leslie Sexton finished the Prague Marathon in 2019 with a personal best of 2:31:51. (Photo courtesy Leslie Sexton)

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Sexton’s rise hasn’t been without its challenges. When trying to qualify for the Tokyo Games at the 2019 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, she withdrew from the race after 16K. That day offered important lessons in the balance between mind, body, and spirit that goes into every step on elite road racing.

“My mind wasn’t cooperating, to the point where it affected me physically. My body wasn’t cooperating. Looking back now, it was a very stressful time and I brought that into my workouts and running,” she explained.

“The mind is such a big part of it. You have the stress of competition, plus the pressure athletes put on themselves to perform, and, of course, you’re dealing with stress from outside of running and taking that out with you. That’s something a lot of runners have had to deal with, especially over the past year and a half, where even just looking at the news cycle is stressful.”

From her most stressful moment, she not only grew, but found a new level.

“I’ve gotten better at leaving some of that aside and not taking it with me when I go out for a run. Part of it is realizing that running is something I enjoy. Yes, I’m training towards a goal, but it’s also a break from other things in my life. It’s my time alone to think, or it’s my social time with other people. I like being out there. Recognizing that I enjoy running, I’m able to stay in the moment, stay present, and focus on what I’m doing right there and not bring these other stresses into the run. I’ve done a better job of that over the last two years. It’s helped me get more out of my training and it’s helped me race (or virtually race) better when the time comes to perform.

“I’ve sort of realized over the last couple years that you have your best performances when you’re mentally healthy. Doing what you need to do to deal with that and make sure you're in a good place mentally is so, so important. Whether it’s stress, or anxiety, or whatever an athlete is dealing with, it definitely affects training and, even more so, performance in competition. It’s something I hope stays in the conversation, and I hope we address it more.”

She brings that knowhow into her coaching, as well, where she works with high school and postsecondary students keeping them passionate about the sport at an age when opportunities to run competitively become fewer and fewer for the majority of young athletes.

“Coaching during the pandemic was pretty eye opening. It made me come to appreciate what younger people get out of the sport. When we were really locked down in Ontario last year, they kept doing it because they loved it. And that’s pretty cool.”

BEYOND MY BYLINE

Canadian Running spotlighted a recent survey of more than 7,000 hours of music on nearly 1,000 running playlists and published a list of the Top 25 running songs of 2021. Spoiler Alert: No Allman Brothers. Topping the list was Blinding Lights by The Weeknd, which appeared in 96 playlists. (Canadian Running adorably spelled The Weeknd as The Weekend, showing either that it needs to turn off autocorrect or that someone my age or older is writing their stories.) I was happiest to see Eye of the Tiger, the 1982 hit from Survivor, still rocking its way onto 74 playlists, good enough for the No. 7 spot on the list. And damn straight, it should be. If it was good enough to help Rocky take down Clubber Lang, then it's more than enough for your Sunday run. … No sport is better for personal writing than running, as it allows for such meaning to be tied to each step taken, and so what a piece from Elisabeth Rosenthal in the Irish Times. … When Japanese author Haruki Murakami was (again) denied the Nobel Prize for Literature, it reminded me of an essay I saw online last year, Haruki Murakami on writing, running, and why they go so well together. In it, Tom Belskie reflects on Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Both the essay and the book are worth the investment of your time. … With the Boston Marathon taking its first steps out of the virtual realm in more than 900 days, we have seen lots of wonderful coverage on what the return of physical events means to a city. (We have seen that play out in London, albeit on a smaller scale this summer.) If you ever want to see how to cover a major event correctly, check out the Boston Globe’s coverage of the Boston Marathon. Amazing stuff.