On Sunday on the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Rick Rayman, a professor of dentistry on the College of Toronto, marked his four-hundredth marathon end. Rayman is 77, and never solely has he now accomplished 400 marathons, however he has participated in each single Toronto Waterfront Marathon within the race’s 34-year historical past.
As if that weren’t sufficient, Rayman has additionally run each single day for the previous 44 years and 10 months–a every day run streak that’s topped by just one particular person in Canada, in accordance with runeveryday.com. (That’s Simon Laporte of Notre-Dame des Prairies, Que., whose streak is three years longer. Rayman is #20 on the worldwide run streak record.) “I don’t know if the 19 runners forward of me have run as many marathons as I’ve, however who cares?” he says, including, “The older and slower I get, the extra notoriety I get.”
On Dec. 10, he’ll rejoice 45 years of working with out lacking a single day. He runs for not less than half an hour, although some days he runs for an hour or two. And he takes care so as to add that he by no means runs on a treadmill–although he has participated in 10 indoor marathons previously, together with six at York College, three on the College of Toronto’s Hart Home and one the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre).
“It’s such an excellent marathon!” Rayman says of the Toronto race, though he struggled with again ache within the second half, most of which he walked. “I can run 12 miles (or 20 km) with none ache,” he says. When requested if he’s ever thought of switching to the half-marathon, he replies, “By no means.”
“It’s a great query,” he concedes, “as a result of my half marathon time is significantly higher than my full. However I benefit from the problem of the marathon.” Rayman was the one particular person within the M75-79 age class.
Through the years, Rayman has seen a couple of adjustments on the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The expertise for monitoring runners on the course, specifically, has advanced significantly because the early days, and he enjoys the current adjustments to the course, which permit midpackers and back-of-the-packers like himself to see the elites working previous within the different course on Wellington Road and Jap Ave. He credit race director Alan Brookes and his employees at Canada Working Collection with placing on a world-class occasion.
Rayman admits he’s slowing down. “I’m not going to do one other marathon this 12 months,” he says, including that subsequent 12 months, he has plans to run the Fort Lauderdale Marathon in February, Ontario’s Georgina Marathon within the spring, the Buffalo Marathon in Might and the marathon on the Niagara Extremely in June. “I did 11 [marathons] this 12 months; I would minimize that in half subsequent 12 months. Possibly six or seven.”
Regardless, you may catch him working on daily basis, rain or shine, from his house in North York. “I’ll hold doing it till I can’t,” he says.
