Just walkin' the dog!

Dear Friends:

"Ed Whitlock, first septuagenarian to run marathon in under 3 hours, dies at age 86."

 

Ed Whitlock had a love/hate relationship with running. The promise of fast finishes and smashed records always pulled him -- grudgingly -- back to the trails.

The decorated marathon runner, who famously broke records well into his 70s and 80s, died Monday, just a week after his 86th birthday.

The British-born resident of Milton, Ont., who called training runs "a chore," holds more than three dozen world records from the road and the track. He became the first septuagenarian to run a marathon in under three hours when he posted a time of two hours 59 minutes 10 seconds at age 72 at the 2003 Scotiabank event. A year later he improved that record with a time of 2:54:49, a result that, if age-graded, is considered by many to be the fastest marathon ever run.
Alan Brookes, the race director of the Toronto event, called Whitlock a "legend."

Whitlock's family said he died while out walking the dog yesterday!



http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ed-whitlock-first-septuagenarian-to-run-marathon-in-under-3-hours-dies-at-86-1.3323088