TRIBUTES RUN AND RUN FOR CANADA’S TARTAN SPARTAN
ULTRA-MARATHON SCOT IS HAILED Charity hero’s final journey
Graeme Donohoe The wife of an astonishing Scots marathon man dubbed the real-life Forrest Gump says he deserves his own movie.
Tributes to long- distance runner Al Howie have continued since his recent death and his estranged wife Claudia Cole says a biography is already being written.
Al, a red-haired, bearded Scot, was addicted to running and traversed Canada in a real-life version of Gump, Tom Hanks’s movie character who spends years jogging across the US.
The runner, who was born in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, before moving to Canada, raised a fortune for charity running 4000 miles across the country.
He also won a string of marathons and long-distance races, making him one of Canada’s best-known sportsmen.
Al died, aged 70, last month and now his widow Claudia believes the Scot’s amazing life should be celebrated in a Hollywood biopic.
She said: ”People ask me all the time if there’ll be a movie about Al. There’s a fellow in New York who’s writing a book about his life.
“He was the first person I called when I was told Al was dead. He has spent many evenings talking to me about Al’s life.
“It’s such an incredible story. Lots of things went wrong in Al’s life but maybe that makes a better movie.”
Raising more than $1million for charity with his endurance feats, Al was nicknamed the Tartan Spartan.
When he wasn’t pounding the track, Al eked out an existence in tough jobs including a foundry worker, tree planter, stonemason, scallop farmer and copper miner.
A Canadian obituary writer described Al as “a skinny Rob Roy, with the voice of Scotty from Star Trek and the prickly temperament of Groundskeeper Wi l lie from The Simpsons”.
He made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1991 when he ran across Canada – the equivalent of more than two back-to-back Tours de France – in just over 72 days to raise money for disabled children.
Just a fortnight later, he set another record when he won the 1300-mile Sri Chinmoy race in New York – taking just over 16 days. In 1988, he ran from John O’Groats to Land’s End in a then-record time of 11 days, three hours and 18 minutes.
He was powered by fish and chips and alcohol and often stunned running rivals by swigging a beer as he competed.
Al once said: “It drove people crazy. They’d see me knocking back a beer while they were stretching and the next time they’d see me would be up on the podium.”
In 1985, he claimed to have been diagnosed with a brain tumour, which he says he beat by going on a macrobiotic diet and going for massages.
After developing Type 1 diabetes in the early 90s, superfit Al ran up and down the 738ft Mount Douglas 10 times to inspire others with the illness.
The Scot was born Arthur John Howie on September 16, 1945, and travelled around Europe before emigrating to Canada in 1970.
Al – who won more than 50 marathons and ultra-running events – once said: “I’m in my element when I’m running. All that matters is that you cover ground, eat right. You stop worrying about Saddam Hussein or that the rent’s due back home.”
But Claudia revealed that the adventurer barely left his home in the f inal 17 years of his life as he was blighted by mental illness.
She said: “He was mentally ill from 1999 and he didn’t do anything at all from that date on.
“He pretty much lay on his bed and had to be coaxed even just to get up and get dressed.
“He went from running non-stop to just doing nothing.
“Just all of a sudden, practically overnight, he became delusional.
“He came back from a race and he told me he had not done well.
“His favourite thing when he wa sn’ t running was writing about his runs but he never wrote another word online again.
“His great delusion was that he was dying. As he started telling me more about what was going on in his head, it turned out that he had a completely unshakeable belief that he was dying and would be dead very soon.
“We took him to the doctor, who couldn’t find anything wrong.
“He just became absorbed by anxiety. I put him in the hospital in December 1999 and that was the end of our marriage.
“My sister went in now and then to see him and usually she couldn’t get any words out of him.
“I sent presents every year on his birthday and Christmas and one time she went in September and he still hadn’t opened his Christmas present.”
Claudia added: “He hated being bothered by people and he was just so sad and miserable all the time and nothing could change that.”
Runners would see me having a beer. The next time they’d see me would be on the podium