On a day when all eyes were on a young Gibsons’ woman at the 2014 BMO Vancouver Marathon, another local Sunshine Coaster made his own news.
Rick Cooney ran his 100th marathon on May 4 — 11 years to the day he ran his first.
Coming over the finish line in a more-than-respectable 4 hours, 18 minutes, 18 seconds, the huge grin on the 56-year-old’s face told the whole story.
“Thanks for being here,” he said to long-time supporter and friend Don Basham (an organizer with the Marathon for many years), as Basham placed the participation medal around the Sechelt man’s neck.
Running with friend Paul Wright from Sechelt, Cooney was pleased with his time and even had praise for the mixed bag of weather he encountered over the 26.2 miles.
“We even had some patches when the sun shone, and it was quite nice,” Cooney related.
It was after completing 10 marathons Cooney set the goal for himself of completing 100. A runner all through school — relays, sprints, long distance and cross-country — Cooney took a 10-year break while he got his career in the financial sector up and running.
After moving to the Coast in the early 1990s, Cooney started participating in the annual Terry Fox runs in honour of his late father.
After five years of running those 10 km runs, Cooney graduated to the April Fools’ Half Marathon, a feat he’s completed 12 times, including a 2012 run where he made a marathon out of it by running from finish to start and back to the finish.
It was fitting that another two prominent Coast runners, Larry and Teresa Nightingale, organizers and huge proponents of the April Fools’ run were also on hand on Sunday when Cooney made his impressive goal.
Cooney gives credit to a fellow Coast runner for the desire that led to Sunday’s milepost.
“In 2003 I was inspired by a local runner, Carl Green, who finished the Boston Marathon. He let me try on his jacket and medal, so at that point I was hooked. I had to compete in the Boston Marathon. I qualified on my third try in Victoria in October 2004. I went to Boston [for the first time] in April 2005,” Cooney said.
Last year he was also in that city when terrorists killed four and injured another 260 people at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
“Going back to Boston [this year] was special. It was a goal of most marathoners, but only 36,000 would be chosen. I was honoured to be invited back. I qualified by running 10 minutes under my qualifying time, as the demand from runners all over the world was so high, a runner had to be under 3:41 seconds for their age/gender qualifying time to make it in. So, many runners met the qualifying time, but did not get to go. They still didn’t run fast enough,” he said.
Once there, Cooney said the atmosphere was electric. He compared it to the final Olympic men’s hockey game. The estimated crowd of supporters in Boston was one million strong.
“The theme was ‘Take Back the Finish Line’. It was like running in the Sechelt July 1 parade for 26 miles. It was loud and extremely supportive from the crowd, not like any other marathon I have run in,” he said.
In addition to Green and Wright, Cooney counts the Nightingales as inspiration.
“Both are very accomplished runners who have won large marathon events in the past,” he said.
And he saluted another runner, Dr. Janet Green, 61, from Comox who ran her 300th marathon on Sunday.
Cooney considers it important to inspire others to live their best lives in any way he can. Along with promoting physical health and a positive attitude, he works in his position as chief credit and risk officer for the Sunshine Coast Credit Union to encourage financial wellness for Coast people.
Cooney has many great memories of the “Big Five Marathons”; next to Boston his favourite is Chicago for being flat and fast with amazing runners’ support and “free beer at the end”.
“London is my next favourite, the sights are incredible. New York is not far behind that, a great experience. Berlin has so much history from the [Second World] War ... Paris was also an incredible experience. Lastly the original, Athens, was unforgettable, starting in Marathon [where 26.2 got its name] and running to Athens on the same route Pheidippides took, to finish in the 1896 marble Olympic stadium, which is at the foot of the Acropolis. It doesn’t get any better than that,” he exclaimed.
“What’s next? They added a sixth marathon to the world major marathons in Japan. That is now on my bucket list along with the Great Wall of China and Rome,” he said.
There’s one more champion, Cooney credits with this latest success. “My biggest supporter is my wife, Wendy. I couldn’t have done this without her.”
