Rob McWilliam may soon need to trade in his running shoes for a pair of moon boots. At the rate he’s been checking marathons off his list, he’ll soon run out of terrestrial terrain.
In March he completed the Antarctica Marathon, which means the Texada Island resident has now laced up on all seven continents. It is a hobby and an obsession that began 25 years ago at the Midnight Marathon in Whitehorse, Yukon, where he lived at the time.
“My first marathon was the year I turned 40,” he recalled. “It was kind of my protest against aging. And I thought, this is nuts, why would anybody do this. But then I thought, well, I should improve my time so I’ll go back and do it next year and one turned into two and two turned into 13 or 15 a year.”
In total, McWilliam has run 143 marathons and ultramarathons in 13 different countries. He even descended a portion of Mount Everest for one that took place in 2011. Until earlier this year, however, there was an empty check box next to the earth’s southernmost continent.
“There’s a three-year waiting list to go,” he explained, adding that a company called Marathon Tours takes just two ships down to Antarctica every year, each filled with a maximum of 100 runners. Only 100 are permitted to disembark in a single location at a time and one group runs the course while the other explores nearby areas, switching places the following day.
Although it was March and feeling like spring back home on Texada, late fall was in full swing in the southern hemisphere. “Winter was just starting to push in and we had brutal windy conditions,” McWilliam recalled. “It basically rained or sleeted the entire run...We were running in mud up over our ankles except when you had to run through streams.”
It was there that McWilliam also received a formal introduction to penguins, and to skuas, a carnivorous type of seabird with a reputation for putting runners’ self-defence moves to the test. “That’s kind of the neat part, being down there seeing all of this unique wildlife,” he said.
After the marathon was over, he received a medal for completing the Antarctica Marathon along with another that commemorated his induction into the Seven Continents Club. Currently, there are just over 390 men and women in the world who can boast such a feat, according to the honour’s official website.
McWilliam still remembers each continental victory in order, despite the dozens of other marathons he ran in between. “I started out, obviously, with North America,” he said. “Then when we were travelling I did a marathon in Chile. It’s called Marathon Costa Del Pacifico down in Viña Del Mar, so that got me South America. I ran a couple in Europe, most notably the Athens Classic marathon, the original marathon route, and I thought well I’ve got three, it’s only seven, so I did China Coast in Hong Kong, which got me Asia. I did Buller Gorge in New Zealand which got me Oceania and that left me with Africa and Antarctica, so I did Marrakesh in Morocco for Africa.”
Of all the iconic marathons on his list, it might come as a surprise that McWilliam’s favourite is located much closer to home. “Boston,” he said. “You get treated like an elite runner even if you’re a back-of-the-pack runner. The crowds and the people of Boston are just so supportive of the event and it’s got so much history behind it. You feel like you’re a rock star.”
McWilliam’s experiences at dozens of marathons around the world have also provided valuable insight for one he co-organizes on Texada, called Run the Rock. “I’ve picked up ideas about what works and I try to bring that back so that we can incorporate as much as possible,” he said. This year’s Run the Rock will take place on Sunday, August 24, and offers a full marathon, half marathon and eight-kilometre event.
Runners have already signed up from Germany, the United States and the Lower Mainland, although those from Powell River have been noticeably absent from the list. “I don’t understand it,” chuckled McWilliam. “I know there are some good Powell River runners. The [registration] cutoff is midnight on August 21, so don’t wait until the last minute and be disappointed.”
As an added selling point, he promised there would not be any skuas in attendance. “Unfortunately there are no penguins either.”
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