Krista DuChene

Biography

Canada’s marathon mom Krista DuChene has become an expert at juggling training, racing and parenting. Since winning the national title in 2010, she’s consistently been ranked among the top female marathoners in Canada. After the birth of her third child in 2011, Duchene posted the second and third fastest times in the country in 2012. The next year she made her IAAF World Championship debut, but collapsed at the 13km mark in extremely hot conditions. She was one of 25 women unable to finish the race. That October she recorded what was the second-fastest time in Canadian women’s marathon history (2:28:32) at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. In April 2014 DuChene broke her right femur at the Montreal half-marathon. She began to feel pain with 5km to go and just 500m before the finish her leg gave out as an undiagnosed stress fracture turned into a full fracture where the femur meets the hip bone. She pushed on to finish in third place before undergoing surgery to implant a plate and three screws that caused her to miss the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Pan Am Games. After seven months of rehab and nearly a year after the injury, she went under the Olympic qualification standard with her 2:29.38 at the Rotterdam Marathon in April 2015. A year later she returned to the Montreal half-marathon and ran 1:12:30 to fulfill her competitive readiness requirements for Rio 2016 where she made her Olympic debut, finishing 35th of the 133 runners to complete the course.

Getting to know…

Family: Husband Jonathan DuChene… Sons Micah (born 2006) and Seth (born 2008) and daughter Leah (born 2011)… Older brothers Franz, Kevin and Robert… Older sister Janna… Younger brother Lloyd… Getting into the Sport: Has been running since she could walk… Was an active child with lots of energy… Loved watching gymnastics on TV as a child and tried to perform the moves in her living room before her passion changed to hockey and running… Played hockey at the University of Guelph before getting back into running for fun… Got faster with each successive marathon she did… Outside Interests: Spends her free time being the best mom she can be, taking her kids to swimming and hockey while volunteering at their school and church… Registered dietician… Graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Human Nutrition in 2000… Supports the Kenyan Kids Foundation… Odds and Ends: Inspired by former Canadian marathon record holder Silvia Ruegger for her Start2Finish organization as well as their shared Christian faith… Always travels with her Bible and a photo of Team DuChene, family of five… Was nicknamed Mouse as a child… Favourite quote: “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run I feel his pleasure.” – Eric Liddell…