Sault man goes from couch to one of world's hardest marathons

A Sault Ste. Marie man who recently competed in one of the most gruelling marathons on the planet says he only began running seriously last year.

In a call from Nepal, 46-year-old Jamie Ray told SooToday he never considered himself a runner before he began jogging in the bush to prep for a 15-day trek to Mount Everest base camp last November.

“It’s a pretty strenuous thing but it’s something I always wanted to do,” said Ray of the Everest trek. “I have never been a runner but I decided it was something I wanted to do. Some people plan this thing for years, but I only decided six months in advance that it is what I wanted to do.”

Ray said he spent every day last summer running in Hiawatha Highlands.

“You have heard of ‘couch to 5K?’ I was doing couch to 10K,” said Ray. “I don’t like running on the road, I only want to run in the bush on the trails.”

That constant running in the bush helped prepare Ray for the Everest trek over uneven ground — but not for the thin air at high altitude.

“At an elevation like that, everything you do is about twice as hard. If you think about just throwing on your hiking boots and going for a leisurely walk — we are doing this on huge inclines,” said Ray. “All of the time I spent training and doing technical running in Hiawatha really paid off, it was good to prepare me for what I was going to do, minus the elevation.”

While on the Everest trek in November, Ray noticed some people were running together.

“I just thought that is amazing,” said Ray. “We are tired coming down and here are a bunch of people running up.”

Ray learned the group of runners was participating in the Everest Marathon, a gruelling 42-kilometre run at more than 5,643 metres above sea level. He instantly had his next goal in his sights.

He returned to the Sault and began running on the trails again, 10 to 15 kilometres at a time.

“I had been out at Hiawatha every day until I couldn’t anymore because the ski trails started, then I moved my running over to the walking trails at Fort Creek,” said Ray. “That was my challenge to get ready for this Everest Marathon.”

“I had a rough idea of what it was going to be like because I was here last year, but running at high elevation is a whole different can of worms, man,” he added.

On May 29, Ray competed in the Everest Marathon, his first-ever full marathon.

“I had run a bunch of half marathons at home,” he said. “I had never run a full 42-kilometre marathon, this is the first one I picked to do and it was awesome.”

He completed the marathon in 10 hours, 55 minutes.

“It turns out that training was awesome for me — running out at Hiawatha every day — the hills and ups and downs were good. I almost feel like I was well prepared for something even though I didn’t know what was ahead of me,” he said.