Eight kilometres away from a new world record, an ominous thousand-yard stare was pasted on ultramarathon runner Dave Proctor’s face. He had just run 252 kilometres on a treadmill, and his body was screaming ‘enough.’
His gastrointestinal systems had shut down, excruciating pain emanated from his stomach and the threat of falling short of his goal was real.
“Eight kilometres to go to the record, Dave had crumbled. His body had given up on him,” said Canmore ultrarunner Adam Campbell, a member of the MitoCanada running team.
Proctor was the one who came up with a 24-hour treadmill challenge at the Calgary Marathon to raise awareness and funds for MitoCanada, an organization that supports the battle against Mitochondrial disease. He sorely wanted to finish what he started, and MitoCanada’s founder Blaine Penny was rushed to his side.
“Dave gave me a blank stare. He was looking through me. He said ‘you need to give me a reason to keep going here, because I’m kind of done.’ It can be so hard to justify to keep going. You can stop or dig deeper,” Penny said.
Penny, who’s son Evan has mitochondrial disease, began to tell stories – stories of struggle and hope to energize Proctor for the final push.
“I reminded him why we are doing this again, and explained how tough it has been for Evan these past few months,” Penny said. “Dave has a boy with special needs as well. When I first met him, they thought his boy might have mitochondrial disease as well, but he was later diagnosed with a genetic connection. Because of this, Dave and I have a connection – we both have boys with special needs.
“Very few people can understand the challenge that brings and in that moment, we acknowledged how challenging that is and how it lifted each other.”
Proctor reached towards the treadmill control panel. Instead of shutting it off, he sped it up.
“It was incredible. His expression changed and he started to smile. He got his mojo back and started increasing the speed. He ran through and didn’t have any more issues,” Penny said. “It gives you goosebumps.”
Proctor set two Guinness Book of World Records that day at the Calgary Marathon, running 260.4 km in 24 hours, and 139 km in 12 hours to take the record, while raising more than $75,000 for MitoCanada at the Calgary Marathon.
In total, MitoCanada runners set seven records, including the women’s fastest 50 km and 100 km on a treadmill (Arielle Fitzgerald), the farthest 12-hour run on a treadmill (female) Bernadette Benson – 128.62 km, the farthest distance by a women’s team (344.45 km) and farthest distance by a men’s team (394.76 km)
Campbell, who is one of Canada’s top ultrarunners, was part of the award-winning men’s team. He maxed out the treadmill speed on both of his shifts, and said running for an important cause and being part of a team made the kilometres fly by.
“Running is an individual sport, but this event had an incredible team atmosphere. We were all there to support each other,” Campbell said.
Treadmills got their start as a form of punishment for prison inmates in the 1800s, and the idea of running indoors for such a long challenge was daunting for the team – which included many of the area’s top athletes. However, Campbell said that helped capture the public’s imagination.
“One thing about this challenge, it is something people can imagine. You tell them your team will run 24 hours on a treadmill and people know that’s nuts,” Campbell said.
The team broke up the day into shifts, with each runner taking 30-minute sections. Campbell was on the treadmill when the world record fell, and said the atmosphere – in the middle of the Calgary Marathon Expo – was incredible.
“I just wanted to get there as quickly as possible. I cranked the treadmill up to 20 km/h. I haven’t run that hard in a long time, and finished off with a sub 15 minute 5 km.”
Penny, who was also on the men’s team, said the day was incredibly special for so many reasons, and credits a crack team for pulling it off.
“In retrospect, it was like a fairytale,” Penny said.
The team is still collecting donations for the event. Visit www.mitocanada.org for more information.
