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Living for the long run

Senior athlete prepares for August event
Andy Rice

At an age when many have long since given up their morning run in favour of a comfortable pair of slippers and a leisurely perusal of the newspaper, Harry Thompson marches to a slightly different tune. Actually, he runs. The 88-year-old former principal remains not only a dedicated track and field athlete, but an award-winning one as well.

After a recent trip to the BC Masters Track and Field championships in Langley, Thompson returned home with four gold medals, bringing his total won as a senior to 143—226 including silver and bronze.

Thompson ran in the 200-metre and 800-metre events on day one and the 100-metre and 1,500-metre events on day two. While weather conditions and back-to-back runs posed a challenge, Thompson said he was happy overall with his performance, especially in the 200-metre and 800-metre events.

Thompson’s current age group, which includes ages 85 through 89, leaves him one more year of competition before advancing to what he calls the “last man standing” category for those aged 90 and older. “There aren’t many of us left,” he said. “I was actually the oldest male athlete there.”

Thompson holds five Canadian indoor records in his age group, in addition to others that remain unbeaten in his previous one. He was also part of the relay team that set a world record for four-by-400-metre relay in Kamloops this past March.

Nearly a decade older than his 80 and 81-year-old teammates, Thompson said that he never imagined he would be part of a world record team. “I felt honoured to be asked and to run the first leg,” he said. “We had a terrific team. I think that record is going to stand for a long time.”

Another highlight of Thompson’s recent career was being asked to be the torchbearer for the BC Seniors’ Games held in Courtenay/Comox last September. “I really felt very good about that,” he said.

Thompson ran his first competitive event in 1989 and has since competed in distances ranging from 60 metres to a marathon. Thompson’s memories of the marathon, which took place in Victoria when he was 66, are accompanied by a rather humorous anecdote that involves reaching the finish line before one of his sons.

Thompson has passed quite a few people over the years. “When I used to run the roads, there was this old fellow I used to see all the time riding his bike,” said Thompson. “He was puffing up that hill by Grief Point Elementary School. I passed him and he said, ‘be careful up ahead, there’s radar.’”

Still training daily on a stationary bike in his home and going for a run every second day, Thompson is committed to keeping active and competition-ready. While a knee operation kept him away from the sport for a brief period two years ago, for the most part he has continued his training without interruption. Even the recent relocation of the athletic track and the waiting time for its replacement at Timberlane hasn’t been enough to slow him down. Thompson runs on the seawalk instead, which offers a new set of challenges.

“It was hard to do any speed work down there,” said Thompson, who spent his final month of training for the masters event without the use of the track. “Because it’s so uneven, your foot hits the ground before you might expect it to, but it worked out.”

Thompson continues to train at the seawalk for his final meet of the season, the BC Seniors’ Games, hosted by the city of Trail between August 17 and 20. He will run distances of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1,500 metres. He might even add a few more gold medals to his collection. After all, he’s never been one to stay under the radar.