Record-setting runners Ahmed, Levins taking 'friendly rivalry' to the road at Ottawa 10K

Last spring, Moh Ahmed and his Bowerman Track Club teammates were training in downtown Portland, Ore., when he ran into fellow Canadian distance runner Cam Levins, who had just finished a workout.

Unaware his 2012 and 2020 Olympic teammate still lived in the city, Ahmed spent a few minutes catching up and invited Levins to join him for a 70-minute run.

It felt like 2012 for Ahmed, who was reminded of Levins's powerful and sturdy form "when he was at his best." That year, Levins won the Bowerman Award as most outstanding male track and field athlete of the year after his NCAA Division 1 double gold-medal performance in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres.

"It was like he used to run," Ahmed, who was seventh in that 5,000 final at NCAAs, recalled of that spring run during an interview this week with CBC Sports. "He looked really friggin' good."

They haven't raced each other since the men's 5,000 final on July 7, 2016 in Edmonton at the Canadian track and field championships, which doubled as the Rio Olympic trials. Ahmed won in 14:00.93 while an ailing Levins was seventh, nearly 16 seconds behind.

The next day, an MRI revealed a tear of the peroneal tendon in his left foot, stress fractures in two bones, a bone spur and bone chips that doctors had to shave and remove that month, forcing him to miss the Summer Games.

"I didn't get to give him a great final race [on the track] but we had lots of fun battles up to that point. I would describe our relationship as a friendly rivalry over the years," Levins, who transitioned to road racing in 2017 and hasn't looked back, improving upon his 2018 Canadian record in the marathon, adding the national mark in the half marathon and setting a North American record in the Tokyo Marathon in