SOME RUN HE’S ON
Regardless of weather, 60-year-old Brian Breit hasn’t missed a day running since 2012 so chances are you’ve seen him on city streets. “I don’t use excuses, ” he says.
Brian Breit might as well be a permanent fixture on Saskatoon’s sidewalks.
For seven years, the 60-year-old has been running outside every single day. While the route, distance and pace are never entirely the same, Breit’s commitment never changes.
“I just do it because I can do it,” he said. “I’m not worried about what the results are — you’re doing it for you. I just look forward to going for my run.”
When he’s not hitting the pavement, Breit cares for his 86-year-old father, operates a courier business and coaches other runners.
His training focuses on setting and making small goals, like reaching a particular stop sign. Every day is an individual goal that adds up to something major.
A self-proclaimed “late bloomer” in running, he started going for short runs keep active as he got older. He was running three to four times a week before his big streak started on Dec. 1, 2012.
He doesn’t have a grand total of the number of kilometres he’s racked up in that time, but between Dec. 1, 2018, and Nov. 30, 2019, he covered about 4,900 km.
He runs an average of about 15 km per day, but doesn’t have any strict guidelines about how long a run needs to be.
That goes for his route, too. Every run is a chance to further himself and see Saskatoon from a new perspective, he said.
“I entered a race one time where you had to win an entry by describing running. I said it’s an endless picture. It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, you see things that are different. Every day’s run is different.”
Weather is never a factor. Breit has run in snow, hail or rain and in temperatures from -51 C to 42 C.
“I don’t use excuses, you just go do it,” he said. “I’ve gone out in pouring rain. I was out once when it was raining and suddenly it was a downpour. I’m thinking, ‘I’m soaking wet now, so if I turn around and go home, I’m still soaking wet.’ ”
He tries to prevent and mitigate injury as best he can with stretching, core strengthening and seeing a chiropractor every three weeks.
Breit tries to wrap up his runs with time in the hot tub. But even then, he’s holding an eight-minute side plank instead of just sitting.
The most important advice he gives the people he trains is to compete only with themselves, he said.
“I tell the people I coach, ‘Before you leave home, go look in the mirror. That’s the competition.’ I think that goes in life — if you worry about yourself and deal with yourself, you’re going to be better than if you tried to compete with the next person. So I think that’s how I view what I do.”