A master class in the runner’s life
Modest Milton resident showed that age is no limit if someone is truly dedicated
Ed Whitlock had a love/hate relationship with running. The promise of fast finishes and smashed records always pulled him — grudgingly — back to the trails.
The decorated marathon runner, who famously smashed records well into his 70s and 80s, died Monday, just a week after his 86th birthday.
Whitlock’s family said he died of prostate cancer in a Toronto hospital. “His wisdom, guidance and strength of character will be greatly missed by his wife Brenda, sons Neil and Clive, and sister Catherine,” Whitlock’s family said in a statement distributed by Canada Running Series, the organizer of the annual Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
The British-born resident of Milton, Ont., who called his training runs “a chore,” holds 36 world records from the road and the track. He became the first septuagenarian to run a marathon in under three hours when he posted a time of two hours, 59 minutes, 10 seconds at age 72 at the 2003 Scotiabank event.
A year later he improved that record with a time of 2:54:49, a result that, if age-graded, is considered by many to be the fastest marathon ever run.
Alan Brookes, the race director of the Toronto event, called Whitlock a “legend.”
“This is an enormous loss to Canada and the global running community,” Brookes said. “Somehow we thought Ed would just go on setting records forever. We are especially saddened at Canada Running Series.”
Eventually he set world master’s marathon records for age 75-plus, 80-plus and, most recently, 85-plus with a time of 3:56:38 on Oct.16 at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
The droll Whitlock was the hit of the post-race news conference. When asked if he felt pressure to break the record, he replied: “I don’t want to disgrace myself, I suppose.”
He ran that day in a faded teal running singlet and scuffed running shoes. How old were they? Whitlock couldn’t recall.
“They’re well-aged,” he said, prompting laughter.
Brookes said Whitlock defined the Toronto marathon.
“He will always be a vital part of the identity and spirit of that race,” Brookes said.
Whitlock was known for his daily training sessions at Milton’s Evergreen Cemetery, where he would do laps around the grounds for hours past the carefully tended headstones. The sweeping canopy of maple trees, he’d explained, provided cool relief in the summer.
Whitlock grew up in London and moved to Canada following university. He ran in his teens and then rediscovered the sport in his 40s when he volunteered to coach with a track club just outside Montreal.
He said neither of his two sons were serious runners and wife Brenda had no interest in the sport.
“No, she’s got more sense,” Whitlock said in a 2012 interview with The Canadian Press. “Got to have one sensible person in the family.”
Whitlock had no love lost for the solitary training of a long-distance runner. There was no runner’s high when he was out in the cemetery. He would skip training runs for family commitments and didn’t like to run in the rain.
“I don’t particularly enjoy this daily drudge. It’s something that has to be done if you want to run well,” Whitlock said in 2012. “I suppose it’s the sense of satisfaction to be able to keep going for one thing.”