Former Norwood high school teacher an inspiration
A high school math teacher who once lived and taught in Norwood is about to start a new challenge: run 12 marathons in 12 months.
John Young, 52, now lives in Salem Massachusetts.
Young was born with dwarfism. He stands 4’4”, and is one of only four runners with dwarfism known to have ever completed a marathon.
Of those four runners, he’s completed the greatest number of marathons: 10. Now he plans to do 12 more marathons over the next year, starting April 16 with the Boston Marathon.
On May 6, Young will run the Toronto Marathon.
It’s a tall order for a short person, but never mind. Young is up for the challenge, even if it means putting up with “ignorant” fellow marathoners.
“Sometimes they think it’s OK to yell the M-word,” Young says.
When they do that, it fuels his motivation.
Young grew up in Toronto in foster care; although he was never adopted, he remained with the same foster family from the time he was born.
He taught math in Peterborough briefly at Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School while he was still in teachers’ college at the University of Western Ontario.
He also did an internship at Norwood and District High School, and was later offered a permanent job there. Young lived in Norwood and taught math from 1990 to 1999, and said he loved it.
One of his friends was Raeburn
Scott, the head of the math department at the high school.
Scott interviewed Young for his job, and recalls asking how was he going to teach using a blackboard when he’s just 4’4”.
“He said, ‘Well I’m going to use an overhead projector,’” Scott recalled.
Young soon became the basketball coach at school in Norwood. Never mind his small stature: they needed someone to do the job, and he volunteered.
“I used to joke that I couldn’t teach them how to dunk,” he said.
In Norwood the high school teachers gathered weekly for pickup hockey, and Young joined the team. But he didn’t run, in those days.
Doctors had warned him against it. Young says he was told by doctors that people with dwarfism shouldn’t run because it would hurt their backs and feet.
“I listened to them,” he said.
But years later, after he’d relocated to Massachusetts with his American wife Sue (who also has dwarfism), Young’s health started to deteriorate. He weighed nearly 200 pounds, and had developed sleep apnea.
To get fit, he tried swimming and cycling. Later he worked himself up to a triathlon - even if it involved running. H
e found he loved running - if anything, it made him feel healthier and happier.
These days he inspires his son Owen, 15, to run. Owen has dwarfism too.
Young isn’t fast: his personal best, in a marathon, was 5 hours 50 minutes.
He paces himself by running for nine minutes and then walking for one minute. He doesn’t see any reason to push himself to go faster.
“That’s the type of runner I am.”