Bre McAdam
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
At the age of 22, Lynne Wawryk-Epp ditched the cigarettes for a different habit: running.
The newlywed was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia when she met a runner in her program.
“I quit smoking and I honestly just started running. It was crazy. I just sort of swapped one in for the other,” she said.
That decision lead to decades of road races and marathons, with long-distance cross-country ski races and bike trips in between.
More than 40 years later, in 2020, Wawryk-Epp made another life-changing decision to start competitive track running — think 400, 800 and 1,500-metre races.
She was 64 years old.
“It’s been a real big learning curve for me, because track running is so, so different from road running — the pacing … because they’re so much shorter than a road race.”
On Jan. 10, Wawyrk-Epp, 70, ran Canada’s fastest-ever indoor mile in the female 70-74 age group. She broke the 19-year record of 7:20:42, held by Ontario’s Jean Horne, at the Saskatoon Field House during the University of Saskatchewan’s Sanderson Classic track and field event.
Wawryk-Epp, who trains with the Running Wild Athletics Club in Saskatoon, smashed the record by more than eight seconds, running eight laps of the inner track (1.6 kilometres) in 7:12:28.
“I was going into that race really hoping to get it, like I thought I could get it,” she said.
The night before, she was around two seconds off the Canadian record in the 800m race.
“I was so ticked, because I didn’t get the record on Friday night, so I was super bummed out,” she said. “But then I got it on Saturday, so I was happy.”
Last year, Wawryk-Epp also captured the Canadian record for the outdoor mile in her age group — straight from a 220-km bike trip in Quebec.
“I wasn’t on my top game, I can tell you that, but I managed to snag it,” she said, laughing.
That’s just how Wawryk-Epp rolls. In 2023, she was at a masters cross-country ski event in Austria when she learned the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships were in Poland right after the ski event.
“So I thought oh my god, I’m going to go to that too!”
She went straight to Poland, nursing an Achilles injury, and won a bronze in the 1,500m.
“And I was blown away. I was shocked. So that set me on fire.”
Wawryk-Epp said she was “so amazed” by the number of masters athletes she met at the event in their 80s and 90s, some running 200-m races.
Executive director of Saskatchewan Athletics, Bob Reindl, said Wawryk-Epp’s recent performances are strong enough to break even more Canadian records in the 800 and 1,500 meters.
“She’s a talented athlete. I expect big things from her,” he said, adding Wawryk-Epp is one of many Saskatchewan masters athletes accomplishing inspiring feats.
Last year, Saskatoon’s Gwyneth Woodson — with Riversdale Athletics Club — set the Canadian indoor record for the 3,000m in the 70-plus age group. Woodson and Wawryk-Epp used to train together, Reindl said.
“We’ve got lots of masters athletes that inspire people.”
It’s challenging to have a youthful spirit in an aging body. Reindl said sometimes, older athletes “think that they’re 20 years of age again, and when they have that mindset they go out and they train and they overdo it and the injuries pop up.”
Wawryk-Epp has struggled with lactic acid buildup in her legs. She even worried about it during her recent record-breaking race, describing a race last year when she “could hardly get one leg in front of the other.”
Her training includes speed intervals and weightlifting to maintain muscle mass. She’s also part of a year-long U of S blind research study looking at strength building and protein drinks.
In August, Wawryk-Epp plans to attend the world masters outdoor championship in Korea. Despite all her success, she said she never envisioned herself breaking records, at any age.
“I mean I loved to run, and I just find that running has been such a relief for me. I find it so healthy, mentally. It’s such a great way for me to relieve stress.”
A retired school psychologist, Wawryk-Epp said running was a welcome break from the heaviness of her career. It also helped her cope with the death of her sister in 1998.
“I was so heartbroken, it was so horrible,” she said, choking up. “Thank god I had a really good girlfriend who I ran with, and we would just run and run and run and talk and talk and talk.
“Running is my therapy. And I still feel that.”
She said being outside — whether it’s running, skiing, biking or kayaking — is where she feels best.
“And I think honestly, if more people did outdoor fitness, being in nature, I think our world would be a better place.”
