Local Terrace runner Ed Ansems made it three in a row last month, placing 1st at the B.C. 8 km Championship held at the Shaughnessy road race on May 26 in Vancouver.
Ansems has now won three championships in the last three months. His time of 34:14 was the fastest in the 65 to 69 age group, with the 2nd place runner 46 seconds behind. Overall, Ansems placed 47th in the race out of all of the runners.
"I was hoping for a faster time but the course was quite hilly. We were running either up or running down the entire time. I probably should have spent more time running some of the hills in Terrace but there has not been a lot of time between races," said Ansems.
Ansems has been running since his high school days in New Westminster and is full of facts about his lengthy career.
“I have run 50,318 miles or about 94,000 km in that time period. That is about 2.33 times around the world (at the equator). At one point I thought that I might be able to complete 3 times but now I do not see that happening. So, if I make it to 100,000 km I would be quite happy.”
To get there, aside from these races, he runs three times a week.
“I need a day off between runs now that I’m older,” he said.
Some career highlights include running 740 km in one month. That was March 1984. And he ran 200 km in six days.
In 1983 and 1894 (clearly a strong year for Ansems) he ran the Victoria Marathon and Vancouver Marathon with a time of 2 hours 28 minutes. The pace of those races works out to be 5 min. 39 sec. per mile – or 3:30 per km.
But it’s his latest accomplishments that stand out. “Over my 50-plus years of running (mostly in Terrace – since we moved here in 1971 for a teaching job) I have won many trophies, plaques, etc. but these B.C. Championship wins in my age group stand out as major accomplishments,” he said. “Though, I felt quite good after winning the Canadian Half Marathon Championship in my age group in 2008.”