Reid Coolsaet narrowly misses Canadian record at Berlin Marathon

Reid Coolsaet is now Canada's second fastest marathon runner ever after his performance in Berlin on Sunday.

The Hamilton, Ont. native completed the race in 2:10:29, just 20 seconds short of the national record that has stood for 40 years.

In December 1975, Jerome Drayton posted a time of 2:10:09 in Japan. 

Coolsaet's performance was good for a sixth-place finish, with Kenya's Eluid Kipchoge crossing the finish line first at 2:04:01.

Coolsaet said afterwards that it was frustrating to have missed the record by such a small margin, but that he will focus on the positives of the result heading into Rio. 

His coach, Dave Scott-Thomas, who attended a 3 a.m. ET viewing party to watch the race, told CBC Sports that he understands the moment was bittersweet for Coolsaet. 

"The big variable that people will talk about is how close it was to the Canadian record which obviously is something we had discussed, but it wasn't the primary target going into this. It was just run faster than he had run before."

The Canadian ran a consistent race, recording even splits from start to finish, without a hint of a fade in the final stretch of the 42.2 km race. His five km split from 35 to 40 km was 15:35, almost identical to his time for the opening five km of the race, which he ran in 15:32.

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The 36-year-old University of Guelph graduate also eclipsed his personal best time of 2:10:55 that he had set four years ago in Toronto. 

With his performance in Berlin, Coolsaet surpassed fellow Canadian Dylan Wykes' time of 2:10:47 in Rotterdam in April 2012.

Furthermore, Coolsaet becomes the only Canadian to have run under the 2:11 mark on two separate occasions. Coolsaet has already secured a spot in the 2016 Rio Olympics with his 2:11:24 from Rotterdam earlier this year, where he was seventh. 

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