Edmonton runner, 84, sets record at Antarctic marathon
Roy Svenningsen, who just became the oldest person to run a marathon in Antarctica, has ambitious resolutions for the next two years.
“My goal is to run a 42-kilometre marathon on all seven continents,” said the retired oil executive who turns 85 in February.
“I’ve logged marathons in Europe, Asia and Africa, and hope to run a marathon in Australia and South America in the next two years,” he noted. “I wanted to tick off Antarctica because if I couldn’t finish a marathon there, there was little point in running races in Australia and South America.”
Svenningsen was reunited with old friends from his University of Alberta-based running club on his return last week.
Some of the runners, such as German language professor emeritus Raleigh Whitinger and mathematics professor emeritus James Muldowney, have trained with him for 30 years.
“Roy ran the first of his more than 50 marathons 55 years ago in Calgary, clocking about three hours and 15 minutes,” said Whitinger.
“But his best time was in his 49th year, when in 1983 he clocked a 2:37 in Helsinki.”
Muldowney and Svenningsen remember running the Las Vegas Marathon 24 years ago.
“Roy came home from the gambling tables at about 3 a.m. and got up at 5 a.m. to catch the bus to the race start out in the desert,” said Muldowney. “He won the 60s age-group category in a record time, beating stiff competition from throughout the U.S. I wilted in the 35 C heat and took a bus to the finish.”
The Antarctica marathon, a few hundred kilometres from the South Pole, wasn’t as smooth for Svenningsen.
“At about the 20-kilometre mark, a doctor suggested I sit down and enjoy a hot bowl of soup,” he said. “I felt good afterwards, but a few kilometres farther on, the vegetables in the soup and my stomach parted company.”
Svenningsen’s wife, Aileen, waited nervously in Punta Arenas, Chile, for news of her husband’s run. “It was the longest day of my life,” she said. “There was no communication between Punta Arenas and the race for five hours. I was, of course, worried.”
Race director Richard Donovan later helped encourage Svenningsen, jogging and walking the last five kilometres with him.
“He told me not to worry about the eight-hour finish time I had in mind but said I would have done well if I just finished,” said the octogenarian.
Svenningsen did, while other runners chanted his name as he clocked 11:41:58. Someone handed him a Canadian flag to carry over the finish line.
It wasn’t an inexpensive experience, said the runner. He and his wife paid for return flights to the Antarctica jump-off point in Chile.
Svenningsen’s costs also included insurance and $18,500 for his return charter flight to Antarctica, meals, support and tent accommodation.
“I was working in Iran when I ran my Asian marathon, and in Nigeria when I ran my African marathon,” said Svenningsen. “But I will have to discuss my last two marathon costs with my wife. She likes to go on a cruise.”