Jason Warick set his first Saskatchewan age-group record on the track when he was in Grade 8. Thirty-seven years later, he set another record this month, this time in the M50 mile with a blistering time of five minutes, 10 seconds.
“I had no idea what my fitness level was, so that was a pretty cool surprise,” Warick says.
A lot has happened in the 37 years between records.
After high school, Warick had a successful university track career and was later named to two national marathon teams. He travelled around the world to race and compete and broke the Saskatchewan men’s marathon record three times, lowering it in Chicago to the current 2:19:39.
Warick’s running came to an abrupt halt in 2012 after he suffered a hip injury in an accident with a distracted driver. In the years after, when he wondered if he would ever run again, he devoted himself to coaching masters and youth athletes. The M50 record Warick just claimed had been set a year earlier by an athlete he once coached.
While Warick enjoys training and racing on the track when his body feels healthy, he gets just as much joy out of cheering on his daughter, Annie, and parents, Judy and Randy, as they compete on the track themselves. He’s also become a devoted student of speed skating so he can help coach the group that his son, Taras, is part of.
This week, Warick talks to the Brainsport Times about his running journey and finding joy in the sport.
Q: Take me back 37 years — what do you remember about setting that bantam record?
A: I was a hockey player in elementary school and got to enjoy track and field because my mom (Judy Warick) was the coach of the Century Track Club in Saskatoon. I started tagging along with her and it was so much fun. I would go for runs with her and try to test myself and see how close I could come to her and how long I could stay with her. She was one of my first running heroes — and she still is.
I got into competing and, in Grade 8, I got the 800-m record for the province for what used to be called the bantam category (it’s U14 now). That was pretty cool. And then I didn’t set another record until I was 28 years old — that’s when I got the marathon record for the province when I was doing more serious training.
Q: A seismic shift in your running story came in 2012 when you were rear-ended by a distracted driver and suffered a hip injury. What was going through your head in the weeks and months after that accident and do you remember what your relationship with running was at that time?
A: For a long time, I struggled to get back to it and it just didn’t work, even after I got surgery.
It was about a three-or-four-year process of walk/jogs and sticking to the letter of the law, following what my coach (the late John Fitzgerald) was giving me and what Bruce Craven was giving me for physio. I just had faith that, by being smart, I could at least be healthy and maybe be able to jog again with the kids or with my mom and dad. That was really the ideal: I just dreamed of going for a jog around the riverbank with my family. Now I’ve got that.
I can do three or four runs a week — most of them easy 30 minute jogs — but that’s more than I ever thought I’d get back to.
I’m really grateful and, in the last year or two, I’ve been able to try some of these masters races, which are a ton of fun.
But the main thing for me at that time was just to get back to being healthy and being able to move around the riverbank and getting outside to get fresh air and do as many things with my family as possible.
Q: Since your injury you’ve come back as a coach and a record-setting masters runner. When you look back at everything you’ve accomplished in sport so far, what are you most proud of?
A: I don’t know what I’m most proud of, but my identity is largely tied up in running and, when it was taken away from me, I realized how much. There’s a lot of positives about that, but I also realized I needed to have other things in life — I did, but running was a bit disproportionate and I had put too much emphasis on the performance end of things rather than just enjoying the actual act of running. Like most spouses of injured athletes, my wife Michelle put up with a lot. But she but also helped me work through these issues and gain that perspective. And so I think I’m most proud in these later years of feeling gratitude for every stride, every step that I’m able to take in a healthy way with people I enjoy spending time with. And I hope that, through coaching, I’m helping pass a little bit about that to other people.
On a bigger picture, for a lot of years I was known in track circles as Judy Warick’s son. And then there was a little period where people knew me a bit. And now I’m known as Annie’s dad — and it’s awesome. I love it.
There’s not a lot of people who can go for a run with their kids and their parents and I’m able to do that.
Q: Your mom, Judy Warick, has played a huge role in building the masters athletics scene in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan — and is a really decorated masters athlete herself. How has she inspired your progression as a masters athlete?
A: She is THE role model in so many ways for everyone in this province for track and field. She is a huge reason we have distance events for women in this province, or at least got them as quickly as we did. I remember when I was little and they didn’t allow women to do long distance races. Mom and a number of others fought hard for them to do that. And she established and normalized masters’ track and field at a time when it was definitely odd for even a 40 year old to try and run a track race. Now that’s common and it’s pretty awesome to think of the growth of the sport and how everyone is included.
Mom and dad are still competing and mom is still setting masters records. They’re the ones that convinced me to start racing on the track again.
Q: What do you hope people take away from your journey in running?
A: I just hope that people can look at me and other masters runners and see what’s possible. If somebody can watch me running and think: “That looks like fun, I’m going to try it, I’m not too old,” that’s great. Then maybe they’ll look at my parents and say: “They’re not done yet so it’s never too late to get started.”
I didn’t think I’d ever be jogging ever again and now things are going really well. So I’m just really grateful.
Q: What’s next for you in running?
A: My mentality right now is that I’ll enter one or two things a year and, if I feel good that week, I’ll do it. If not, I don’t want to risk being injured and missing out on all those things I just talked about. My risk assessment is much more conservative than it used to be because I just love all the other elements of running right now.
During Easter break our family is going down to San Diego, where I went to high school. And we’ve entered a race called the Carlsbad 5000 — it’s billed as the world’s fastest 5k. I did it when I was in high school and my mom took me to that race. And now I get to take Annie to it and that’s going to be super cool and I’m going to run it too if I feel good.
Q: What else do you want people to know about your journey and what you’ve learned about running?
A: It’s an awesome sport. I’m coaching more speed skating than track this year because my son (Taras) is doing so well and I’m so proud of him, but my first sport is track and field and road running. It’s just an incredible sport where everybody can compete against each other, in a spirit of competition, but also friendship. And you’re not necessarily just competing against each other or other track clubs or other provinces. There is that, but it’s really about whatever level you’re at, just seeing if you can test yourself or improve your own health or come out to a group and make some friends.
You can make running whatever you want.
This interview has been edited and condensed
