The ageless Colin Fewer was at it again Sunday morning, zipping through the Tely 10 course to chalk up another victory in what was the 92nd running of a 10-mile race that Fewer has almost literally come to own.
Fewer, now 42, streaked to his fourth straight championship, and added to his record number of titles — which appears to safe for a heck of a long while — with a 12th career Tely win.
Ho hum, just another day at the office.
“The guy is amazing,” said David Freake, the fourth finisher on Sunday, nodding towards Fewer. “I mean, he’s on the Mount Rushmore of runners. For him to sustain that level is uncanny.”
Fewer stopped the clock in 49:49, just under two minutes quicker than Montreal’s Graydon Snider, who’s come to be somewhat of a regular in the annual race. Matt Noseworthy was third in 51:13, followed by Freake (51:33) and Blaine Penny of Calgary, who finished in 53:40.
Fewer’s time was just eight seconds of his personal best time in the old race.
“I’m disappointed I didn’t get the PB today,” said the Harbour Main native. “I faded a little bit on the last three miles.
“Some days everything is firing, and sometimes it’s not. I felt strong enough to run under 50, and I did that. So I’m pleased with that.”
It was a glorious morning in metro St. John’s Sunday, temperatures at 8 a.m. in the 17-degree range, almost perfect conditions for the 4,003 runners and walkers who were gathered in Paradise for the start.
A far cry from the almost unbearable humidity which plagued runners last year, and kept St. John Ambulance attendants on their toes.
“For me,” Fewer said, “10 would be ideal, but 17 is right on the money.
“Knowing that the temperature would creep up as you go through the course, I attacked the first five miles.”
Fewer won his first Tely 10 in 2005, the first of seven straight.
And now, despite his age, he doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
“He’s got that ability to every year put in all the hard work,” Freake said. “He’s out there by himself pushing himself every day. It’s tough. That’s a once-in-a-generation type of athlete to have the hard work ethic with all the talent, too.
“It’s pretty amazing.”
A very good university runner, Fewer got away from the sport for a spell years ago, and it showed with a weight gain of close to 30 pounds.
"He’s got that ability to every year put in all the hard work. He’s out there by himself pushing himself every day. It’s tough. That’s a once-in-a-generation type of athlete to have the hard work ethic with all the talent, too. It’s pretty amazing.”
David Freake on fellow runner Colin Fewer
Teaching on the west coast, Fewer went for a light run one day when reality hit.
“I kind of thought, ‘What am I doing to myself?’,” he recalls. “I made a promise to myself, not to anyone else, to do better.”
Today, through rain and snow, in wintertime and summer, Fewer is pounding the pavement. It’s one thing to run the Tely course in front of thousands of cheering bystanders along the route on the last Sunday of July every year. It’s quite another to lace up the sneakers for a run in January.
“I don’t do this to win,” he said. “It’s a love affair. It’s like a spiritual type of journey … you’re connected to something there.
“Without the support of my wife (Becky), this couldn’t happen. We have two kids (Nolan, six, and Maggie, who will be four next month) and I teach.
“My focus is on my family and my job and running is the liaison which keeps me in the right place. It keeps me sane and grounded.
“It feels good to get out and train, to meet all the people you meet through this. So there’s a lot there other than winning. And I think the winning comes when you have that attitude rather than the other way around.”
Sunday’s title was another fine result for Fewer this running season, which saw him finish as the top masters (40-plus) runner in the half-marathon event at the Houston Marathon in the New Year.
Then, in Victoria, B.C., he was fourth overall in the Times Colonist 10K, and was 15th overall — and the ninth Canadian — in a field of 6,978 at the Ottawa Race Weekend 10K event.
“In Canada, in that age group, there’s no one better,” said Freake. “He’s winning everything in the masters in Canada. And he’s holding his own in the open.
“The guys who came in second, third and fourth today, we’re all national-class runners and he beat up on us pretty bad,” Freake added with a grin.
Freake remembers his first meeting with Fewer. It was a St. John’s race, the Downtown 5K, back around 2010 and Freake, who was new to the road race circuit, was donning ear buds.
“He came over,” Freake said, “and pulled the phones out of my ears and said, ‘I never want to see you run with headphones again.’
“I’m thinking to himself, ‘Who’s this little guy? Who are you to tell me I can wear phones?’ People are like, ‘That’s Colin Fewer.’ And I’m like, ‘Ohhh…’
“That’s the respect he commands.”
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