Before most people were up this morning, Evan Dunfee had won his ninth national race walking championship.
It wasn’t in record a time, but that is okay with the 28-year-old. He used what was for some the biggest race of their life, as a training session.
He completed the 20 kilometre distance - heel to toe, with his feet never leaving the ground - in 1 hour 24 minutes and 22 seconds, a full eight minutes before his nearest competitor.
He is happy with his performance and feels at peace with his current competitive situation.
After winning the Pan Am Games in Toronto in 2015, injury and dissatisfaction with how things were going plagued him in recent years.
He took the time to heal, mentally and physically, training in the off-season in Australia and setting his own pace.
It is a solitary discipline, but there is a team at work behind the scenes at Athletics Canada, utilizing the latest in technology to give him a competitive edge.
Hours before he stepped into the course at 7.30 a.m. in Montreal, he sat in an ice bath and ingested a pill which made its way into his stomach.
The e-Celsius Performance pill, by BodyCap, is an ingestible electronic capsule which allows for core temperature monitoring.
After the race, trainer Dr. Trent Stellingwerff receives the data from the still ingested pill via Bluetooth.
The pill is not cheap, Dunfree estimates each pill is at least a couple hundred dollars. He then chuckles that once it passes through his system, it is not reusable.
It’s just one piece of the puzzle to assist him to get back on the international podium.
The all-important IAAF Track and Field Championships will be held in Doha, Qatar in September.
The temperature in Doha is forecast to be in the mid 30 degree Celsius range. And while the stadium is air conditioned to a comfortable 25 degrees, the 50km race walk will be held outside it’s cool confines.
Unlike today’s race which began at 7.30 a.m. , this will be held at 11.30 p.m. under the street lights.
To prepare, Dunfee will head to St. Moritz for altitude training, then Barcelona to get acclimatized to the heat.
But before that it’s on to 50km race walk at the Pan Am games in Lima, Peru next Sunday.
The weather there, forecast to be 18 degrees Celsius and partly cloudy, will be much more hospitable for a very, very long walk.
