Since Could 15, Canadian ultrarunner Dave Proctor of Okotoks, Alta. has been on a quest: to interrupt Al Howie’s cross-Canada pace report of 72 days, 10 hours, set in 1991. Proctor began in Newfoundland on Could 15, and has been on the highway for 51 days, principally following the Trans-Canada Freeway and passing by the Terry Fox memorial in Thunder Bay, Ont., on June 23. He’s at present working by means of Saskatchewan, and expects to succeed in Victoria on July 21.
This isn’t Proctor’s first try on the report; in 2018, working within the different path, he was beset by a again damage and pressured to give up in Manitoba after 32 days on the highway.
Proctor is certainly one of Canada’s most completed ultrarunners. He set the 48-hour Canadian report at 6 Days within the Dome in 2018 (358.163 km); as well as, he holds Canadian data over 24 hours (257.093 km) and 72 hours (500.077 km). When he’s not working great distances, he works as a therapeutic massage therapist in Okotoks, Alta.
Proctor’s present try, initially deliberate for 2020, was delayed by the pandemic, however lastly began on a sunny spring morning with a hat-dip in St. John’s. Proctor has constantly run for about 11 hours a day, masking about 105 km daily. He has not taken a single time off, and his tempo has by no means assorted by various seconds per kilometre. (His Strava doesn’t even present his meal breaks; he defined that he has his watch set to auto pause.) A fall leading to a deep gash to his brow the day he handed by means of Thunder Bay (the place Terry Fox needed to abandon his run in September 1980, when his most cancers returned) doesn’t seem to have slowed him down.
These serious about “nerding out” on Proctor’s stats could also be pissed off by the truth that, till a number of weeks in the past, the brand new Strava account he created for this mission had his coronary heart price information toggled off (it’s now on). Additionally, his Garmin monitoring information exhibits some troubling skips in mileage between the place he stops and begins from daily (resembling on June 10, in Deep River, Ont.), regardless of his follow of marking the spot the place he stopped working; all of it factors to a stage of indifference towards the technical documentation of his journey (which Proctor readily admits) that some may discover shocking, contemplating he hopes to say the title of the quickest particular person ever to cross Canada on foot. “I’ll share all of it on the very finish,” he says. “The technical information is all there. If it doesn’t concern me within the second, I don’t concern myself with it.”
Listed below are another questions we requested Proctor once we reached him on Tuesday:
Dave, you’re working on the paved shoulder of a freeway more often than not. How are your toes? How are you caring for them?
All of the highways in jap Canada are fairly closely sloped, and fairly slim; my toes took a beating early on, principally for that motive, however since getting into Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the shoulders are huge and never as sloped, and it’s much more snug. I didn’t get a blister till day 43—I’m carrying the Altra Rivera shoe and Swiftwick socks (I’ve 12 pairs of footwear, and I’m on pair 9)–however I even have a stride that doesn’t put quite a lot of pressure and stress on my toes … That blister has gone away, and I haven’t had a recurrence.
Are you able to describe your every day routine?
Each day is like Groundhog Day—I’m very systematic and disciplined, and I haven’t fallen off the plan in 51 days. I get up, and my crew treats me like a toddler–they make my oatmeal and occasional, and I take advantage of my Theragun and eat my oatmeal. We go away the resort and drive to the place I ended the day earlier than. I run 20 km, and so they drive forward and await me, and I seize new water bottles and new meals to place in my vest, reapply sunscreen, after which do one other 20 km. Then we cease once more and do the identical issues. For the remainder of the day, it’s classes of 10 km every. On the finish of the day, we mark the facet of the freeway with Google maps and a pinwheel marker, then drive to the resort we’ve got booked. Once more, my crew treats me like a toddler; they’ve already ordered meals, and I’ve a bathe and do physique care–I therapeutic massage my legs and do foot and ankle mobility workout routines. I placed on my Normatech restoration boots, and I’m falling asleep as I eat my dinner. I obtained to mattress earlier than 8 p.m., and I get up at 4 a.m.
For those who’re following Al Howie’s route, why didn’t you run by means of Prince Edward Island?
Al Howie didn’t have to run by means of PEI, he simply did that for fundraising functions. In the end, the run throughout Canada is a point-to-point run from St. John’s to Victoria. It’s actually tough to know which route he ran, as a result of he didn’t submit it; I attempted to search out maps of the place he ran. If I can keep away from working downtown in a metropolis, I’m going to run round that metropolis—generally it’s longer, generally it’s shorter, nevertheless it’s all the time safer.
How did you calculate that you possibly can do the run in 66 days?
I made up my very own route utilizing Plotaroute.com. I didn’t even consider Howie’s 72 days, 10 hours; I began mapping, and mentioned, I do know my ultrarunning and what I’m able to, and I believe I can run 105 km daily. That introduced it as much as 66 days, in order that was the quantity. I’m not excellent on the technical facet, and I admit I had a few beers once I was doing it, as a result of whenever you’re mapping out the nation, it’s a must to numb your self a bit or it scares the residing shit out of you. I’ve obtained individuals which are redoing the mapping, so it now seems to be like I’ll be ending in 67 days, not 66, and I’m averaging 106-107 km a day proper now. I believe July 21 is the day I arrive in Victoria.