Legend says that Greek soldier Philippides died of exhaustion after he ran 26 miles — roughly 42 kilometres — from the battle of Marathon to Athens, giving a name to a daunting athletic trial that would go on to challenge accomplished athletes in the Olympics and in the streets of cities around the world.
After today, 69-year-old Janet Green of Courtenay will have done that run 426 times.
Green is running the Royal Victoria Marathon for the 30th time, a milestone that also marks her 426th marathon overall.
She’s run marathons on the Inca Trail and the Great Wall of China. She’s pounded the pavement in Chicago and Athens, and even did 427 laps aboard the Russian ship Lyuboc Orlova when weather conditions prevented it from docking for the 2001 Antarctic marathon.
She’s twice completed the World Marathon Majors — a series of the most renowned marathons on Earth in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City.
But Green keeps returning to what she thinks of as her home base: The Royal Victoria Marathon, a race she ran for the first time in 1988 when she was 35 years old.
“An old boyfriend said to me, ‘anyone can run a marathon if they train properly,’ ” she recalled.
Green never looked back.
She’s only missed five of the Victoria marathons since — two because of COVID-19, and three because she was running marathons elsewhere.
A family physician who still works part time, Green found running compatible with her hectic schedule. And despite joint pain, shoulder and knee injuries, an arthritic toe and COVID-19-induced asthma, she’s excited to complete a 426th test of endurance.
“We say there’s two halves to a marathon — the first 20 miles and the last six,” she said. “You really have to hang on for the last 10 [kilometres].”
Her plans after completing her 30th Royal Victoria Marathon? Thanksgiving dinner with family in Saanich.
“It feels like an achievement,” she said. “With a marathon, you feel like you’ve really accomplished something.”
