This is one of a series of articles, as part of the feature called "Helpers", which focuses on people and organizations that help make our community better.
You may know him as “The Running Grandpa”. North Bay runner Gerald Brazeau has received lots of attention for being able to compete and complete some major marathons all in his senior years. And in that way he is helping encourage people to do what they can to change their own lifestyle and help themselves find a way to stay active.
On top of all of that, he has now added another accolade to his many accomplishments. Brazeau completed an Ultra to celebrate his 70th birthday earlier this month.
“When my 70th birthday came along, it marked 10 years since I started running and I wanted to run an Ultra Marathon which is anything above a full marathon,” says Brazeau. “But because of COVID-19 I hadn’t run anything, yet this year and many events got canceled. So, I decided to run a virtual Ultra and I said, you know what 70 kilometers for my 70th birthday sounds good.”
And not only did he attempt it, but he finished it all in one day.
“I started at 5:30 in the morning and when I finished it was dark, but it was all the same day,” says Brazeau. “It was around North Bay, down Trout Lake Road, all over the place. If I didn’t do it all on the same day, I wouldn’t count it as completing an Ultramarathon. The first 50 kilometers were not bad but the last 20 were brutal. But I finished. I had a lot of friends and family meet me at home. There were a lot of friends along the way that helped me. Even the fire department had a food and water station prepared for me. It was a great day.”
This run is almost 30 kilometers longer than a regular marathon and Brazeau says the mental aspect is just as hard as it is physically.
“So much stuff goes through your mind when your running and you’re tired and you play games in your head to try and forget that you’re tired. I started thinking about things in my life. Looking back on all the things that have happened over the years. I went from 70 right down to my childhood…after that it got tough,” says Brazeau.
“I just tried to concentrate on finishing and thinking that once it is done it is going to be so worth it, and it was,” he continues. “But a lot goes through your mind. You think about your family and your friends, how far you’ve come. I’ve got six Boston medals hanging down in my basement. I’ve run in Iceland and the United States. I was supposed to run in Berlin which is the biggest Marathon in the world. I thought about my family and how fortunate I am to be so healthy and have so much support. I thought about my mom who passed away at 92 years old not too long ago and when she was in her 70’s she was still cross-country skiing and that’s definitely where I got my running genes from.”
Brazeau is part of a group of runners who train through Active Running here in North Bay and he says without them he wouldn’t be where he is today.
“I can’t even count the emails and the congratulations from the people in that group. They give me so much support. One thing we all have in common is the fact that we are all runners and there’s so much support and its incredible to be a part of this group.”
Brazeau has had a lot of success for someone who only started running ten years ago. He says he got started because of a conversation he had while out with some friends.
“When I turned 60, I was out with some friends for dinner and we were talking about bucket lists. Back then I weighed 200 pounds and I’m only 5’3” so I was quite round. I didn’t run, I was out of shape and I said for my bucket list I wanted to run the Boston Marathon,” says Brazeau.
“So, there was a lot of chuckles, but the next day I really thought about it, I thought about it for two weeks and I just started walking and then running slowly and then just started building up. Two years later I ran the Boston Marathon. Since then I have run the Boston Marathon six times, I’ve run 22 official marathons and two virtual marathons and I’m down to about 140 pounds now.”
But it wasn’t an easy road to get there.
“I didn’t know you had to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I thought you could buy your way in,” he says.
“There’s a lot of things you learn. I didn’t realize how tough it was going to be to qualify, but I also didn’t realize how much I was going to enjoy running. After training by myself I found a fantastic group called Active Running and they helped me get to my goals. My first marathon was in Mississauga, and I failed to qualify by two minutes. The year after I ran that again and failed to qualify by about the same time. So that same summer I just kept training and I did another marathon and qualified with 10 minutes to spare. But I kept going and I ran another one in Amherstburg and I qualified with over 20 minutes to spare and that got me all set for my first Boston marathon. The first time I was there was the first year after the bombing and I have run every year since then.”
Just getting to cross that off his bucket list wasn’t enough as Brazeau says he truly found that joy in running, but he says there has to be a purpose for why he’s doing it.
“For me to keep running I have to have a goal. So, when Boston got canceled this year, I ran a virtual marathon at my house on the day that it would’ve been raced. I saw the Rocky Mountain virtual marathon online which is 200 kilometers in 14 days, so I signed up for that one and in the first six days I ran 166 kilometers. My wife and I took a short road trip, so I took two days off and when I came back, I ran the other 44. That gave me 200 kilometers in nine days, and I was done. I have to have a goal to keep training, I don’t want to stop running I love it too much. So, the one for my birthday that was also a goal and I had to train for that one by running back to back long distances and then on the 13th of September I did all 70. My birthday is on the 14th and I ran it the day before because I wanted to be upright on my birthday!”
Brazeau has truly become an inspiration to his friends, family and fans around North Bay and beyond.
“A lot of my family have now taken up running. Some of my grandchildren have run with me. My son and daughter-in-law have taken it up as well. In fact, she’s had three kids, she’s lost 100 pounds and is running half-marathons now. When I ran my first marathon in Boston the two of them were there on the sidelines cheering me on with their kids and when I finished, I got a big hug and kiss from them all and she said right there ‘I can do this. I can run. I want to do this’ and she did.”
He says he hopes that this story proves that age shouldn’t be a limit and Brazeau encourages everyone in our community to stay active.
If you have a story suggestion for the “helpers” series, send Matt an email at [email protected]
