By Klara Pachner
Centretown runners may have spotted him running along the canal, a young, slight, fair haired man cruising along at a six- minute-per-mile pace. Others may know him from the Slater Street Running Room store. But few know he’s one of the country’s top runners or that he’s fighting to stay and compete in Canada.
Scott MacDonald, 26, is one of half a dozen distance runners competing for a spot on Canada’s Olympic team. Last year he placed fifth at the Canadian championships, and on March 20 he returned from the World Cross-Country Championships in Portugal where he placed third among the Canadians.
But unless he receives funding, MacDonald says this may be his last year of competition. In Canada, only the very best runners are able to make a living running. Others, like MacDonald, have to fend for themselves, paying for everything from entry fees to coaching to travel expenses.
“It’s kind of a catch-22,” he says. “You have to work your way up to get that good to be able to make all that (money). There’s nothing there for you to get you there.
“For me to make the Olympics would mean that I’m right on the same level as (top runners Kevin Sullivan and Graham Hood) who have contracts and who are being paid to train full time.”
Ray Elrick of the Ottawa Lions running club, who has coached MacDonald for the last 12 years, says he thinks MacDonald will go far.
“He certainly has the potential to make the Olympic team,” he says. “He has all the competitiveness and desire to excel and is willing to work hard.”
There are three spots on the Olympic team but Sullivan and Hood will probably win two of those. For MacDonald to have a chance at the third spot, he has to place in the top four at the Olympic trials this August and shave six seconds off his 1500-metre time of 3:42.
If MacDonald doesn’t make the Olympic team but still meets the qualifying time, Sports Canada will probably card him as an athlete and pay him about $500 a month – enough to keep him competing. Otherwise, MacDonald says, he’ll probably go back to school to study law.
MacDonald says the lack of funding in Canada drives many runners to the U.S. where there is plenty of money to support athletes. MacDonald spent some time in the U.S. where he attended the University of Michigan, which offered him an athletic scholarship – something no Canadian university provides.
After he graduated, MacDonald came back to Ottawa to live with his parents and train full time.
“I decided either I’m going to do this or I’m not going to do it,” he says. “It’s all or nothing.”
MacDonald’s father, Jack MacDon-ald, says his son has made many sacrifices for running.
“He’s not able to work,” he says. “And he doesn’t have much of a love life. He seems to be completely dedicated to running.”
While MacDonald has had to foot the bill for training – a few thousand dollars a year – for the past two years, the Saucony athletics company has provided him with most of his equipment. That includes a new pair of shoes each month, to keep him clocking his average of 110-km a week.
In January 1999, MacDonald took a part-time job at the Running Room to help defray the costs of training. But by December, MacDonald was on the road again. He left his job to attend an Olympic training camp in Arkansas where the weather is more conducive to running. There is no indoor track in Ottawa, making it very difficult to train here during the winter.
MacDonald was recenty in Toronto for another training camp. On April 13 he left for Vancouver – a trip paid for by the Vancouver Sun – to take part in the 10-km Sun Run. The racing season gets going soon afterwards, in June and July.
Meanwhile, MacDonald says he’s feeling pretty confident about making the Olympic team.
“It’s an outside shot. (But) I think I definitely have a chance.”