There's no crying in marathoning.
It's a motto Richard Stewart has always followed, and he came close to breaking it.
On Sunday in Kelowna, Stewart finished the 100th marathon of his career. The 58-year-old Prince George resident was on course for the BMO Okanagan Marathon and, as he was closing in on the finish line, his emotions nearly broke through his normally stoic race-day demeanour.
"All through this, I was sort of approaching it as, 'It's just another marathon, another day at the office, don't think about it too much, you'll just get yourself uptight,'" he said. "But it was kind of important to finish because everybody's expecting you to finish so you're saying, 'Please don't screw this up,' and about two kilometres out from the finish it started to get real for me. I was starting to get more excited at a finish than I've ever been and I must admit I was a bit emotional at the end because all the friends were there and they were hugging me and stuff like that."
Stewart finished in five hours 28 minutes 55 seconds but the clocking was secondary to the milestone itself.
Stewart ran his inaugural marathon in Saskatoon in 1988 and needed 21 years to complete the first 50. He knocked off the second 50 in about three years, after he joined an international club known as the Marathon Maniacs. Stewart ran most of his Sunday race with fellow P.G.-based Maniac Jim Allen and the two of them crossed the finish line just seconds apart, Allan in 5:29:03.
From the moment Stewart arrived in Kelowna, he was treated like a bit of a celebrity. He was interviewed for television and newspaper stories and was given bib No. 100 by event organizers. Stewart already has plans for the bib.
"I'm going to frame it, with the [participation] medal and perhaps little notes about the event so that when I get older I'll remember them," he said with a chuckle. "I'm going to put it on my 'ego' wall, which pretty well fills the basement hallway. After a while I stopped framing pictures and bibs because there were too many and I started to use a coat hook to hang the medals on. But I think I'll make a special effort for this one."
After Stewart arrived back home, he sent an e-mail to the 100 Marathon Club North America, requesting membership. The club is headquartered in Yakima, Wash., and Stewart intends on running in the Yakima River Canyon Marathon next season so he can "sit at the cool kids' table" after the race.
Next year, Stewart also plans to run marathons in Vancouver, Red Deer, Smithers and possibly Kelowna again. He's also considering lacing up for the Walk in the Park 50km ultra-marathon in Kamloops and will do the Mad Moose Marathon here in Prince George.
Bottom line, he's not about to stop marathoning now that he has hit the centenary mark.
"It's just too much fun," said Stewart, a lawyer with the firm Heather Sadler Jenkins. "At some point in time, as we all do, we'll retire and our plan is to move to the Lower Mainland and you can run a marathon almost every other weekend and really rack 'em up. So as long as the body holds up and the enthusiasm does and it continues to be fun, I'll continue to do them.
"And I couldn't do it without my family -- particularly my wife [Patty], who is long-suffering and patient to allow me to do this crazy stuff -- and my kids," Stewart added. "And my Prince George running chums have been very supportive, as well as my Marathon Maniac buddies."
Aside from Stewart and Allen, seven other Prince George runners started and finished the BMO Okanagan Marathon. They were: Michelle Morris (3:22:30); Robert Millar (3:25:47); Paige Howat (3:28:23); Laurie Hill (3:28:28); Marissa Harvey (3:43:44); Bud Bruintjes (3:52:27); and Jennifer Skoczylas (4:55:35).
