Alan Rushes Forth: Canada's most senior Boston participant tells iRunNation about his long road to Hopkinton

by Mark Sutcliffe

Somewhere in the throngs of runners stretching down every street in the little town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts in April was 75-year-old Alan Rushforth of Ottawa.

A 42-kilometre route leading to a finish line in downtown Boston lay ahead of him. But the path behind him was even longer, stretching back to a day about six years ago when he stood outside the Running Room in Kanata, Ontario, wondering whether or not he should go in.

"When you get to the start line, and they make the announcement that it's the 112th running of the Boston Marathon," says Rushforth, "it's quite a big moment. It's an amazing point in one's life to get there. It ranks up there among the big days, like getting married and dying."

Not that he would know much about the latter. Rushforth's daughter figures running has added some 15 years to her father's life. And it's made his life better, not just longer. "If you're with people who are doing things and are active, it helps so much," says Rushforth. "Compared with being around all these people who are talking about dying and who's going next."

Which is where this story begins. Rushforth was a runner in his late 40s and even completed two marathons. But he gave up running when life got too busy. More than 20 years later, something spurred him to take it up again at the age of 69.

"I went to two reunions," he says. "These were people I'd worked with, people I expected to find quite active and alive like they used to be. Instead, it was rather depressing."

"At the same time, I'd seen these groups going out on Sunday mornings, so I decided to creep off and join them."

But when he showed up for his first running clinic, he hesitated. "I wondered how I would fit in, being as old as I was," he says. "So I waited outside for 10 minutes before I plucked up the courage. Finally, I saw someone else go in with grey hair and I followed him in. As soon as I got in there, I was really welcomed and things have gone very well ever since."

Rushforth ran a few half-marathons and even a marathon in 2004, but when arthritis started advancing on him, his doctors advised him to take up another sport. He joined one of the walking groups, but it didn't satisfy him as much as running did. When he had the chance to ask Running Room founder John Stanton for advice, Stanton advised him to try running again, but to stick to shorter distances. Despite the arthritis, the running went well and before Rushforth knew it, he was doing another half-marathon. "The arthritis is staying level now," he says. "It's not getting any worse. The running is keeping it at bay."

Rushforth's training group had their eyes set on running the Chicago Marathon, so he tagged along for the long runs, thinking he would split off and do another half-marathon. But the training runs went well and he entered the Niagara Marathon and qualified for Boston.

On Monday, Rushforth was the only Canadian in the 75-and-over category in Boston. He ran the whole route - scrapping his usual walk breaks even on Heartbreak Hill - and finished in a time of five hours and 15 minutes.

But it wasn't the finish line that he will remember most, but the start in Hopkinton. So much so that he's already thinking about a fall marathon so he can qualify to run in Boston again next year.

"It makes a day that you can remember forever," he says. "The start line represented the reward for all the hard hill work and training in the winter and all the things I'd been doing. It's so much in contrast to everyday life back here in Bells Corners (an Ottawa neighbourhood)."

When he returned home from Boston, a small group was waiting for him at the airport, including some of the younger runners he'd trained with.

So for anyone who thinks they couldn't take up running in their late 60s, Rushforth has a simple message: "Get out there and try it," he says. "Nothing tastes as good as feeling fit. If you're fit, you can face the world, you've got confidence and life is fuller. There are so many benefits there."