1. Ed Whitlock was an English-born Canadian long-distance runner, and the first person over 70 years old to run a marathon in less than three hours, with a time of 2:59:10 in 2003.
15 Facts About Ed Whitlock
1. 2.
Ed Whitlock later extended this record, running a time of 2:58:40 at the age of 74.
3.
At the time of his death, Ed Whitlock was known to be the only person over 70 to run a marathon in less than three hours, although Gene Dykes has subsequently done so several times, as has Jo Schoonbroodt.
4.
Ed Whitlock was born in a suburb of London, England, and later moved to Canada to pursue an engineering career following graduation from Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, England.
5.
Ed Whitlock was the winner of the Ranelagh Harriers and South London Harriers inter schools cross country races in consecutive years, 1948 and 1949.
6.
Ed Whitlock was the University of London champion at cross country and 3 miles on the track.
7.
Ed Whitlock did not start running again until he was 41, concentrating on middle-distance running, and after several years recorded best times of 1:59.9 for 800 metres and 4:02.5 for 1500 metres.
8.
Ed Whitlock started running marathons accidentally when his youngest son who was into running at the time in school determined he was going to run a marathon after running every day for over a year without a break.
9.
Ed Whitlock tried to deter him, but in the end reluctantly ran the race with him.
10.
In 2006 he set the world record for the 75 to 79 age group with a time of 3:08:35 at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, and in the Rotterdam Marathon on April 15,2007, Ed Whitlock lowered that mark to 3:04:54 on a day when the marathon was stopped after three and a half hours because of high temperature.
11.
On September 26,2010, Ed Whitlock ran the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon in 1:34:23.4.
12.
At age 81, on Sunday, September 16,2012, wearing bib number 1, Ed Whitlock broke the Canadian and unofficial world half-marathon record at his hometown inaugural race, the Milton Half-Marathon, running 1:38:59.
13.
Ed Whitlock competed on the track, where as of 2012 he held 15 world age group records ranging in distance from 1500 metres to 10,000 m and age groups 65+, 70+, 75+, 80+ and 85+, as well as the three age group marathon records 70+, 75+ and 80+.
14.
In 2016, Ed Whitlock was inducted into the Milton Sports Hall of Fame as nominee in the inaugural induction class.
15.
On March 13,2017, Ed Whitlock died of prostate cancer in Toronto, one week after his 86th birthday.