While many like to stay inside where it's warm during the bitter winter months, one local athlete decided to brave the cold this January and, along the way, won a Canada-wide running competition.
Lyndsay Wiedemann, 36, finished first in this year’s 60 North Run Challenge, coming out on top of a field of nearly 300 runners from across the country.
The annual competition runs through January, with athletes selecting a 60-, 120-, or 180-kilometre challenge and competing against one another to reach their targets the fastest.
Competing in the 120-kilometre bracket, Wiedeman completed the challenge on Jan. 8, averaging 15 kilometres per day, in just under 10 hours of running time.
“It’s really cool that I placed first. I ran so hard, I really did,” Wiedeman told OrilliaMatters. “It was something that I saw I could do and I wanted to prove it to myself.”
Wiedemann said she decided to push for the win after seeing she was in second place, behind a woman from Alberta, after her first run.
She quickly realized she could have completed the 180-kilometre challenge.
“About four days in, I realized that I easily could have done the (180-kilometre challenge), but at that point I couldn't switch, so I just decided that I would go full tilt in the competition,” she said.
After passing the woman from Alberta, another competitor crept up and challenged Wiedemann for the title, but on Jan. 8 she ran her final 14 kilometres to win.
“I was almost going to finish second after putting in all of this work, and I thought ‘No,’” she said. “That day I went out and I ran 14k in just over an hour … and I won.”
A lifelong athlete, Wiedemann said she began taking long distance running seriously at 28.
The mother of three often ran with her children through COVID, using a running stroller in Tudhope Park.
She said running has brought numerous benefits to her life.
“I float off the endorphins, and I could be having a really good day or a really bad day, but regardless, when I'm done that run I feel good,” she said. “It's just you out there, and it really allows you to siphon through some of your thoughts and how you're feeling, and it's like a free, natural form of therapy, to be honest.”
Wiedemann hopes her success in the 60 North Run Challenge will help motivate others around the city to stick with their 2023 goals.
“I want to inspire my community to get moving and to take risks and get healthier,” she said.
Especially as ‘Blue Monday,’ the most depressing day of the year, approaches, Wiedemann hopes to inspire people to see their goals through.
“I just want the community to also believe in themselves, with it being a new year, and especially after the pandemic, (there are) a lot of resolutions, I'm sure, to make healthy choices,” she said. “I think it's really cool that someone local has put their name on this map nationally, out of all of Canada.”
Although she is currently on maternity leave, Wiedemann will be returning to her job at the Orillia Recreation Centre this spring, where she hopes to continue encouraging people to pursue their health goals.
“I get to encourage people to try new activities, discuss memberships, encourage getting active and this story just around … my hobby of running ties in so perfectly with my job,” she said.
