Due to Stacy and my trip to Canada this October, I had to find out about Canadian runners. We were mostly in Nova Scotia, which has its share of great runners, but I then realized Ed Whitlock (born in London) had emigrated to Quebec and then Milton, Ontario, and further research revealed what a wonderful person he was. He died in 2017, but reading some interviews with him, he instantly became my overall hero. He was known for his gentlemanly demeanor, gracious smile, and flowing white hair. But what got me hooked was his total lack of ego in the face of recording world records over the course of several decades.<\/p>\n
(20 year old shoes work perfectly well! “perfectbodybywil.blogspot.com”)<\/em><\/p>\n In his youth he did compete a lot (shorter distances) and I couldn\u2019t help but notice his height\/weight (something I\u2019ve become a little bit too obsessed with lately). He only weighed 112 pounds at 5\u20197\u201d. Those statistics seem to be the preferred ones for fast times (see previous articles concerning record-breaking Kenyan and Ethiopian runners). As is the case with the normal lot, he put aside \u201cserious\u201d running for his professional career as an engineer, graduating from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College. He landed in Ontario when he was 41, and only started marathon running when his youngest son had been training to run a marathon himself (his son had run everyday for over a year as his training). He talked his dad into running with him \u2013 Ed had tried to dissuade him \u2013 but surprised everyone by running a 2:31:23 marathon as a 48 year-old. Yikes. Yes, he enjoyed running fast times on the track throughout his life, but he got really serious about running when he retired. His stated goal was to be the 1st person over 70 to run a marathon under 3 hours. Ed made sure he could do that by running the Columbus (Ohio) Marathon way under 3 hours for the 1996-2000 years. He got his goal when he was 73 at the Scotiabank Toronto Riverbank Marathon by running a 2:54:48. And in Rotterdam the next year \u201c…some of the world\u2019s best marathon runners, Kenyans in their 20s and 30s, could not fathom why a person my age would be running a marathon and certainly not in that time. I did 2:58:40 that day and it blew their minds,\u201d Whitlock wrote in a story for iRun magazine. \u201cThis needs to change,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause if they can\u2019t imagine themselves doing the same thing, it will never happen. Why don\u2019t they think they can do the same thing?\u201d I like this guy more and more!<\/p>\n (Ed Whitlock’s record “canadarunningseries.com” at age 85).<\/em><\/p>\n Here are some of my favorite quips from the National Post interview (Mar 13th, 2017):<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you think about when you\u2019re running?\u201d he was once asked. \u201cWhen will this be over?\u201d he replied. Another one: What makes a good marathon runner? Whitlock\u2019s response: \u201cShine a light through their ear. If light comes out on the other side, odds are they\u2019re up to the task.\u201d Ed doesn\u2019t use a GPS watch, and his training regimen was doing laps in the local Milton Evergreen Cemetery. He would just do laps until 3 hours were up, and that\u2019s all he needed to do. Alan Brookes (Toronto Marathon race director) said most world record holders would be wearing free shoes from their sponsors. Not so for Ed. Alan noticed Ed\u2019s shoes, and swore they must be 20 year-old shoes. He obviously was running for the pure joy of running, though he did admit to enjoying all the attention he got – but it stopped there. As he \u201cslowed\u201d down (sub 4 hour marathons in his mid-80\u2019s), he adjusted his cemetery loops to just loops around a gravestone. \u201cI like running in the cemetery,\u201d Whitlock reasoned. \u201cCompared to everyone else there, no matter how you look when you\u2019re running, you look pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/winddrinkers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-26-at-7.30.15-AM.png\")
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