Unknown Victoria

Victoria: The Unknown City is a guidebook to an eccentric town on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. This is the author's blog. Look here for Victoria lore, updates and additions to the book, and hate mail.


Sunday, October 26, 2014

A Tribute to Al Howie

September 1, 2011, marked the 20th anniversary of one of the most incredible feats ever accomplished by a Victoria resident: Al Howie’s “Tomorrow Run '91”, the fastest-ever run across Canada, which he completed in 72 days – at a pace of 103 kilometres, or two-and-a-half marathons, every day.

As I wrote in 2007 (previous post here), Al has been living bravely with the effects of Type 1 diabetes. So to cheer him up, friends and family presented Al with a plaque commemorating the anniversary, and a framed proclamation by the City of Victoria, making September 1 “Tomorrow Run '91 Day”. Here’s a photo of Al (at right) with Victoria Elks exalted ruler Bill Thompson, and Jeff Abbott, who first proposed the Tomorrow Run, which raised $527,400 for the Elks and Royal Purple Fund for children with special needs.

The Globe and Mail’s Tom Hawthorn wrote a great profile of Al, which you can read here. And below is a CHEK News item about the anniversary, with lots of footage of Al running in the 1990s:



UPDATE (October 26, 2014): Last night, Al was inducted into the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame! Read the Times Colonist story here.

UPDATE (July 21, 2022): Dave Proctor, a 41-year-old massage therapist from Okotoks, Alberta, has just run across Canada in 67 days and 10 hours, beating Al Howie’s 72-day record. Read the Times Colonist story here. Congratulations, Dave!



3 Comments:

At 9:18 AM, Blogger Mike Laplante said...

Great story.

Was thinking of doing a speech about him to our Toastmasters club at some point...

 
At 9:26 AM, Blogger ross said...

Hi Mike, please do! Let me know if you need any more information or photos to illustrate it.

 
At 8:23 PM, Anonymous john said...

A racer. A runner. A mentor. A friend..
I miss the days

 

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