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 now not most effective has he now finished 400 marathons, however he has participated in each and every unmarried Toronto Waterfront Marathon within the race’s 34-year historical past.
As though that weren’t sufficient, Rayman has additionally run each and every unmarried day for the previous 44 years and 10 months–a day-to-day run streak that’s crowned through just one particular person in Canada, in keeping with runeveryday.com. (That’s Simon Laporte of Notre-Dame des Prairies, Que., whose streak is 3 years longer. Rayman is #20 at the global run streak listing.) “I don’t know if the nineteen runners forward of me have run as many marathons as I’ve, however who cares?” he says, including, “The older and slower I am getting, the extra notoriety I am getting.”
On Dec. 10, he’ll rejoice 45 years of working with out lacking a unmarried day. He runs for a minimum of half of an hour, although some days he runs for an hour or two. And he is taking care so as to add that he by no means runs on a treadmill–although he has participated in 10 indoor marathons up to now, together with six at York College, 3 on the College of Toronto’s Hart Area and one the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre).
“It’s this kind of nice marathon!” Rayman says of the Toronto race, despite the fact that he struggled with again ache in the second one half of, maximum of which he walked. “I will be able to run 12 miles (or 20 km) with none ache,” he says. When requested if he’s ever thought to be switching to the half-marathon, he replies, “By no means.”
“It’s a excellent query,” he concedes, “as a result of my half of marathon time is significantly higher than my complete. However I benefit from the problem of the marathon.” Rayman used to be the one particular person within the M75-79 age class.
Over time, Rayman has observed a couple of adjustments on the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The era for monitoring runners at the path, specifically, has advanced significantly for the reason that early days, and he enjoys the hot adjustments to the path, which enable midpackers and back-of-the-packers like himself to peer the elites working previous within the different path on Wellington Side road and Jap Ave. He credit race director Alan Brookes and his workforce at Canada Working Sequence with striking on a world-class match.
Rayman admits he’s slowing down. “I’m now not going to do some other marathon this 12 months,” he says, including that subsequent 12 months, he has plans to run the Citadel Lauderdale Marathon in February, Ontario’s Georgina Marathon within the spring, the Buffalo Marathon in Would possibly and the marathon on the Niagara Extremely in June. “I did 11 [marathons] this 12 months; I would possibly minimize that during half of subsequent 12 months. Possibly six or seven.”
Regardless, you’ll be able to catch him working on a daily basis, rain or shine, from his house in North York. “I’ll stay doing it till I will be able to’t,” he says.