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Canadian Reid Coolsaet, ninth at the 2018 Boston Marathon, used cycling to keep in shape during recent injury

Hamilton-native ran to the top-10 at the world's most prestigious marathon after recovering from injury when he relied on the bike to keep in shape

April 16, 2018
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The 2018 Boston Marathon was raced in absolutely horrendous conditions with strong winds and heavy rain on Monday. The conditions didn’t stop Canadian Reid Coolsaet who finished ninth in the men’s race with a time of 2:25.02 which though far of his best of 2:10.55 was still respectable in the conditions. Coolsaet’s path to Boston wasn’t straightforward with the Hamilton-native sidelined for most of last season with a foot injury. During that time the Canadian Olympian smashed kilometres on the bike.

In 2017, Coolsaet rode 4,500 km but those numbers are made more impressive considering he only was only riding regularly as of late-July. By September, he was already riding less and mixing in more runs before making a comback to regularly running by the beginning of autumn.

Coolsaet’s biggest ride during the recovery may have only been 125 km but the kilometres quickly added up thanks to his consistency. His biggest week was 722 km at the end of July.

It was Coolsaet’s first time competing in Boston. After the race, Michael Woods gave Coolsaet a shout-out for the Cannondale-Garmin jersey he wore on some of his rides.

Woods was obviously following the marathon closely also commenting that like the spring classics, the rough conditions at the Boston Marathon were not for a faint of heart.

Woods is a former middle distance runner who after suffering an injury early in his running career shifted his focus to cycling.