Sage Canaday

Last updated
Sage Canaday
2013 Mt Washington Road Race-16 (9802179515).jpg
Canaday at the 2013 Mount Washington Road Race
Personal information
Born (1985-11-14) 14 November 1985 (age 39)
Oregon, United States
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight150 lb (68 kg)
Website http://sagecanaday.com
Sport
CountryFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Event(s) Marathon, ultramarathon, trail running
College team Cornell
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s) 10,000m : 29:47.39 [1]
½ marathon : 1:04:32 [1]
Updated on January 4, 2019

Sage Clifton Read Canaday (born November 14, 1985) [2] is an American long-distance runner and ultramarathoner. [3]

Contents

Running career

High school and collegiate

Canaday attended Newberg High School in Newberg, Oregon, where he ran track and cross country. He then went on to run for Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at 21 was the youngest qualifier and runner at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials marathon, held in New York City on the same weekend as the 2007 New York City Marathon, and went on to win the Ivy League 10,000 meter championship in 2008. Canaday graduated from Cornell in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in design. [4]

Professional

After graduating from Cornell, Canaday began his professional running career as a marathoner for the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, sponsored by Brooks Sports. While with Hansons-Brooks, Canaday set personal bests in both the half marathon (1:04:32 at the 2011 Rock 'n’ Roll Mardi Gras half marathon) and marathon (2:16:52 at the 2011 Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon *Not Legal worldathletics.org). He qualified again for the Olympic Trials marathon, where he finished 43rd in 2:18:24 in 2012, but left Hansons-Brooks that February to pursue a career as an ultramarathoner. [5] [6]

Canaday wrote a book titled Running For The Hansons about his experience with Hansons-Brooks, published in 2011. [7]

Canaday placed second at his debut ultramarathon in March after running off course for several minutes in the Chuckanut 50k in Bellingham, Washington, and won the USA Track & Field (USATF) Mountain Running Championship at the Mount Washington Road Race in June. That same year, he moved from the Hansons-Brooks base of Rochester Hills, Michigan to Boulder, Colorado, a major center for endurance athletes, and in October announced a sponsorship deal with SCOTT Sports, which replaced Brooks as his primary sponsor. [8] Canaday's streak of ultramarathon success continued into 2013, when he won the USATF 100K Trail Championship in Bandera, Texas, the Speedgoat 50K, and Lake Sonoma 50, all in course records, as well as the Cayuga Trails 50 in Ithaca, New York and the 100K race at the Tarawera Ultramarathon in New Zealand. [6] [9] [10]

Canaday has set 6 Fastest Known Time running records, including the speed record for the 28-mile Maroon Bells 4 Passes Loop in 2013. [11] [12]

In January 2014, Canaday announced a new primary sponsor, Hoka One One, a French running shoe company known for its "maximalist," highly cushioned shoes. [13] Wearing Hoka One One shoes that year, Canaday replicated his victories at Tarawera and Speedgoat and also won the Pikes Peak Ascent in August, en route to winning the prestigious The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile race in December. [6] [14]

In 2015, Canaday re-focused on the marathon distance with the goal of qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Trials marathon. In March, he was 8th in the USATF marathon championship among American runners at the Los Angeles Marathon, in which he placed 12th overall, and was 16th overall at the Boston Marathon in April, though he fell short of an Olympic Trials qualifying time in both races. Canaday made a brief summer return to ultramarathoning for the Comrades Marathon, where he placed 15th, and Speedgoat, which he again won, before competing in the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc his first race of 100 milesin late August, which he was forced to drop out of due to a knee injury. [15] [16] [17] He would make two more Olympic Trials marathon qualifying attempts, at the California International Marathon in December and the Houston Marathon in January 2016, but failed to meet the qualifying standard of 2:19:00 before the January 17, 2016 deadline, with a season best time of 2:19:12 on a windy day at the Boston Marathon where he was 16th place overall. [18] [19]

He continued his ultra-marathon career in 2016, including his second 100-mile race and first finish at the distance, placing 11th at the Western States Endurance Run, having at one point been second and ahead of record course pace. [20] [21]

Through February 2020, Canaday continued to compete in both marathons and ultramarathons. In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic and personal health issues limited his ability to compete. By 2022, Canaday began racing again. [22]

Personal bests

Personal bests
DistanceTimeLocation
5,000 meters14:29.01University Park, PA
10,000 meters29:47.39Lewisburg, PA
Half-marathon1:04:32New Orleans, LA
Marathon2:16:52San Diego, CA *Not legal[ clarification needed ] [23]

Achievements

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2012Chuckanut 50KUSA2nd50 km3:49:22
2012 Mount Washington Road Race USA1st12.2 km58:27
2012White RiverUSA1st50 miles6:16:10 (course record)
2012UROC 100USA2nd100 km8:12:05
2013 Bandera 100KUSA1st100 km8:13:49 (course record)
2013Tarawera 100KNew Zealand1st100 km8:53:34
2013 Lake Sonoma 50 USA1st50 miles6:14:55
2013 Transvulcania Spain3rd73.3 km7:09:57
2013Cayuga Trail 50USA1st50 miles6:47:48
2013 Mount Washington Road Race USA3rd12.2 km1:03:39
2013 Speedgoat USA1st50 km5:08:07
2014 Carlsbad Marathon USA2nd26.2 miles2:22:15
2014Tarawera 69KNew Zealand1st69 km5:33:38
2014Northburn 50New Zealand1st50 km4:45:46
2014 Lake Sonoma 50 USA3rd50 miles6:12:58
2014 Transvulcania Spain3rd73.3 km7:11:39
2013 Mount Washington Road Race USA3rd12.2 km1:01:30
2014 Pikes Peak Ascent USA1st>13.1 miles2:10:03
2014 Speedgoat USA1st50 km5:12:30
2014 The Rut USA2nd50 km2:51:07
2014The North Face 50-mileUSA1st50 miles6:07:52
2015 Speedgoat USA1st50 km5:13:02
2016Black Canyon 100KUSA1st100 km7:52:26
2016 Transvulcania Spain3rd73.3 km7:14:16
2016Moab Trail marathonUSA2nd26.2 miles2:58:25
2017 Hong Kong 100KChina3rd100 km10:03:50
2017Chuckanut 50KUSA3rd50 km3:40:28
2017 Lake Sonoma 50 USA1st50 miles6:17:55
2017XTERRA Trail Run World ChampionshipUSA2nd13.2 miles1:19:21
2018 Speedgoat USA2nd50 km5:29:22
2019Moab Red Hot 55KUSA2nd55 km3:52:41
2019 Pikes Peak Marathon USA2nd26.2 miles3:39:02
2019XTERRA Trail Run World ChampionshipUSA2nd13.2 miles1:22:27

Coaching

Canaday is self-coached and very public with his training, posting most of his workouts on the activity-tracking website Strava.

He and his girlfriend, fellow ultramarathoner Sandi Nypaver, are the owners and founders of Higher Running, an online running coaching website which markets training plans and e-books for the running community. [24]

Canaday is an outspoken opponent of performance-enhancing drug use and has professed support for a zero-tolerance policy for PED users in endurance sports. [25]

Personal life

Canaday was raised a vegetarian and describes his current diet as "nearly vegan," citing the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based, high-carbohydrate diet. He admits to regular beer-drinking and is sponsored by the Boulder-based Avery Brewing Company. [26]

In 2021, Canaday suffered from a bi-lateral pulmonary embolism and lost his home and most possessions in a fire that destroyed an entire apartment complex in downtown Boulder, Colorado. [27]

Internet videos

Canaday is the owner of the YouTube channel Vo2maxProductions, where he posts a mix of training videos, running gear reviews, race recaps, and "training talks", all self-produced. He often releases several videos a week. As of July 2024, the channel has over 247,000 subscribers and more than 49,000,000 views. [28]

Canaday was also the subject of a documentary film, "Starting Over," which highlighted his illness and return to running. [29]

References

  1. 1 2 "Sage CANADAY - Athlete Profile". IAAF . Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  2. "SCOTT Sports - Canaday Sage" . Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  3. "Sage Canaday, 2014 TNF EC 50 Mile Champion, Interview". 7 December 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  4. "Hansons-Brooks Athlete: Sage Canaday" (PDF). Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  5. "USATF - Events - 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials - Marathon" . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 "Sage Canaday Athlete" . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  7. Jeff Benjamin (2011-12-22). "Running for The Hansons, by Sage Canaday: RBR Book Review by Jeff Benjamin, note by Larry Eder". runblogrun.com. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
  8. "SCOTT Sports - Sage Canaday joins SCOTT" . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  9. "USA Track & Field - News and Notes, Volume 13, Number 3" . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  10. "2013 Cayuga Trails 50 Results". 8 June 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  11. "Sage Canaday | Fastest Known Time". fastestknowntime.com. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  12. "Maroon Bells 4 Passes Loop | Fastest Known Time". fastestknowntime.com. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  13. "Big new SPONSOR announcement 2014 - YouTube". YouTube . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  14. "2014 Pikes Peak Ascent - Male" . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  15. "Comrades Race VLOG" . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  16. "2015 Speedgoat Race Report: Chasing Splits" . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  17. "Sage Canaday UTMB 100 Race Report: A DNF" . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  18. "Sage Canaday California International Marathon Race Report" . Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  19. "Houston Marathon and Half-Marathon Results". 17 January 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  20. "2016 Results". Western States. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
  21. Hicks, Megan (2016-06-26). "2016 Western States 100 Results". iRunFar. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
  22. "Inspiring new film follows runner recovering from pulmonary embolism". 2022-06-01.
  23. www.worldathletics.org
  24. "Higher Running" . Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  25. "Doping in Mountain-Ultra Trail Running: Enter Lance Armstrong" . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  26. "Athlete Profile: Sage Canaday" . Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  27. "Sage Canaday Is Back" . Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  28. "Vo2maxProductions". YouTube. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  29. "Watch Sage Canaday "Start Over," Return to Racing After Scary Illness" . Retrieved 20 May 2022.