WITH NEW-FOUND HAPPINESS, CANADA'S WODAK MAKING MOST OF OPPORTUNITIES
By Chris Lotsbom, @ChrisLotsbom
(c) 2015 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

(09-June) -- It's only June, but Canada's Natasha Wodak has already had a career year. The 33-year-old has set personal bests at 10,000m (a national record), 10K, and the half-marathon over the past six months, and is now gearing up for the summer stretch ahead. Up next is Saturday's Oakley New York Mini 10-K in Central Park. What's been the secret to Wodak's success this year?

Happiness.

"You run best when you're happiest," said the Asics-sponsored Wodak, speaking to Race Results Weekly over the phone from her home in Vancouver where she also trains. It has been a long journey to find that inner happiness, one that spans the better half of a decade.

Wodak has been running most of her life, having started at the age of seven. After achieving success and graduating from Simon Fraser University in the NAIA ranks, Wodak found herself burnt out. Running wasn't fun anymore; the fire that once burned bright simply wasn't there.

"I felt like I was never really tapping into my full potential, I didn't really commit myself to it," said Wodak, who subsequently took three years off from the sport between 2006 and 2009. "That was a huge part of why I am still running and improving into my 30's [now], because I was able to have that time off, that break, and refocus. When I came back to running in 2009 and 2010 I was really happy to be there."

Since 2010, Wodak's career has been a series of ups and downs. With every personal best, there was a subsequent injury or setback. Three years ago, when she decided to fully commit herself to the sport, she found triumphs, like setting a Canadian 8-K national record of 25:28 in 2013. But in the year after, she'd face an emotional divorce, draining her of the energy and focus to run at peak form.

After 2014 started bright, a bout with plantar fasciitis would bring her down. Out for nine months, she'd have to restart the process all over again. When she did begin putting in consistent training and miles with her BC Endurance Project teammates under coach Richard Lee, she found her true self.

"When I started running workouts again in January, I was healthy physically, emotionally, and everything sort of just came together for me finally and I was happy all around. All of a sudden I started running real fast," she said with a laugh. "Like 1:11:20, I ran at the New York Half, I was like 'Where did that come from?!' Everything has to come together at the right time, the right place, and it's really hard for that to work for an athlete, to have everything in their life go perfectly. I think it's just everything is come together for me."

At last, Wodak was happy and comfortable. After setting the aforementioned personal best at the NYC Half, Wodak had an even more renewed boost of confidence and passion. Every day she was more and more excited to run and train. Each race was an opportunity, a blessing to be healthy, fit, and happy.

Toeing the line this year with that rekindled fire, Wodak has thrived. She'd run a 10K personal best of 32:34 in April, then shaved another 35 seconds off that time at the Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend 10K (serving as the Canadian 10K championships), where she finished fourth overall in 31:59, second among Canadians to close friend Lanni Marchant.

It was Marchant who gave Wodak the biggest boost nearly a month before, warming up for the Payton Jordan Stanford Cardinal Invitational 10,000m at Stanford University in California. Wodak's goal was to achieve the IAAF World Championships 10,000m standard of 32:00 as well as the 2016 Olympic Games standard of 32:15. Running under these marks would qualify Wodak for her first global track championships; she had represented Canada at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships twice (finishing 27th this year in Qingzhen, China), but never on the track.

"[Lanni Marchant] was like 'I think you'll run the Canadian record this summer' and I laughed and said 'That would have to be at a World Champs because it is so fast.' She made me believe that I can be better than I am," Wodak said. Wodak would proceed to crank lap after lap at Stanford, setting the Canadian national record right then and there with a time of 31:41.59. "My coach had joked before two weeks out and said I could hit the jackpot on the first go on the 10,000m on the track this year and get all the standards out of the way. I didn't really think it was going to happen, and then it did!"

She continued: "I was really nervous going in... I just tucked in and everything fell into place. When we hit the bell lap I looked at the clock."

It was at that point --for the first time all race-- that she realized the national record was within reach. Running an approximate final circuit of 68 seconds, Wodak crossed the line with a wave of emotions.

Despite the roller coaster ride of the past six years, training hard yet facing setbacks in all sorts of ways, achieving the standards made everything worth it. She now had the chance to represent Canada at the World Championships and Olympic Games, something that two short years ago seemed like a pipe dream.

"How much sweeter it is because of the struggle I went through," Wodak began, a tad of emotion in her voice. "There was a lot of times where I wanted to give up and I wanted to quit, especially in the last two and a half years. To sort of get to that point and call my mom after the race, she was crying and I was crying and it was really overwhelming and special. That's what we train for, for those moments. It made it all worthwhile and I am so very, very fortunate to be at that place and have my dreams become a reality."

Wodak went into further depth on the impact of that moment on her online blog, aptly titled "Life in the Tash Lane." A very meaningful entry, she recaps the triumphs and tribulations to get to this moment, the present.

Yet Wodak isn't ready to rest on her laurels and accomplishments. At the NYRR Oakley Mini 10-K, she'll face a star-studded field that includes past TCS New York City Marathon champions Mary Keitany and Edna Kiplagat, Boston Marathon winner Caroline Rotich, Kenyan standout Betsy Saina, Great Britain's Gemma Steel, and Spain's Alessandra Aguilar, among others.

"I'm really excited for the opportunity to come back and really improve upon how I did last time," Wodak said, referencing her 18th place, 34:44 finish at the NYRR Oakley Mini 10-K in 2013. "I have something to prove because I ran so poorly there two years ago. That was just one of the races where you just wish you could erase the results."

When Wodak comes to New York, she gains an extra dose of adrenaline, building off the crowd's spirit and the vibes of the city that never sleeps.

"I'm really excited to come back and hopefully run a good time. I would love to place in the top six," she said, the excitement audible in her voice. "I'm feeling fit, excited, and New York is such a great place to run. I love racing there... It's New York!

"I'm so grateful to get the opportunity to race there. These are the fun trips that make what I do so awesome," she added, a reflection on how far she's come over the last decade. Happy, healthy, fit, and ready, she's primed to continue the best year of her career. "It will be great, I know it."

PHOTO: Natasha Wodak of Canada competing in the 2015 United Airlines NYC Half where she finished sixth in a personal best 1:11:20 (photo by PhotoRun, courtesy of the New York Road Runners)