Masters Running Legend Ed Whitlock Dies At Age 86
Masters Running Legend Ed Whitlock Dies At Age 86
Masters marathoning legend Ed Whitlock dies at the age of 86.
Masters marathoning legend Ed Whitlock has died just days after his 86th birthday. The British-born resident of Milton, Ontario, passed away Monday in a hospital in Toronto, according to The Toronto Star. He had prostate cancer.
Whitlock holds world age-group records at distances from 1500m and up, though he is most well known for his marathoning exploits.
In 2003 at the Toronto Marathon, he became the first septuagenarian to run 26.2 miles in under three hours with his record of 2:59.10. He was 72. Last October, an 85-year-old Whitlock ran 3:56.33 at the Toronto Marathon and became the first in his age group to break four hours. The run took more than 28 minutes off the prior record for athletes aged 85 and older.
He did the majority of his training in five-minute loops around the Milton Evergreen Cemetery, for up to four hours at a time.
Whitlock ran as a teenager but quit the sport when he moved to Ontario at age 21 to work as a mining engineer. He took up distance running again in his 40s and was a world-class masters runner over 800m and 1500m. He ran his first marathon at age 46 to accompany his 14-year-old son, who was intent on training for the distance. He set his all-time best of 2:31:23 at age 48.
Last fall, he told The National Post, "I'm embarrassed to say I'm not really sure [how many records I own]. There are two outfits that I know of keeping world records. One is the World Masters Association. They keep track of records, and the only road record they keep is the marathon. With them, I believe I have 16 and five pending ratification now. And then there's another outfit called the Association of Road Race Statisticians, who keep records for road races including the marathon. I think I have about 20 road records with them."
Whitlock holds world age-group records at distances from 1500m and up, though he is most well known for his marathoning exploits.
In 2003 at the Toronto Marathon, he became the first septuagenarian to run 26.2 miles in under three hours with his record of 2:59.10. He was 72. Last October, an 85-year-old Whitlock ran 3:56.33 at the Toronto Marathon and became the first in his age group to break four hours. The run took more than 28 minutes off the prior record for athletes aged 85 and older.
He did the majority of his training in five-minute loops around the Milton Evergreen Cemetery, for up to four hours at a time.
Whitlock ran as a teenager but quit the sport when he moved to Ontario at age 21 to work as a mining engineer. He took up distance running again in his 40s and was a world-class masters runner over 800m and 1500m. He ran his first marathon at age 46 to accompany his 14-year-old son, who was intent on training for the distance. He set his all-time best of 2:31:23 at age 48.
Last fall, he told The National Post, "I'm embarrassed to say I'm not really sure [how many records I own]. There are two outfits that I know of keeping world records. One is the World Masters Association. They keep track of records, and the only road record they keep is the marathon. With them, I believe I have 16 and five pending ratification now. And then there's another outfit called the Association of Road Race Statisticians, who keep records for road races including the marathon. I think I have about 20 road records with them."