Ihor Verys, who moved to Canada from Ukraine, wins Barkley Marathons in rural Tennessee

When a handful of the world’s best long-distance runners assemble for the start of the Olympic marathon in Paris this August, they’ll be harnessing both body and mind for what is often thought of as a 26.2-mile test of human endurance.On Friday, the ultramarathoner from Chilliwack, B.C., became the first Canadian to complete the famous – or quite possibly infamous – Barkley Marathons, winning the 100-mile event in 58 hours 44 minutes 59 seconds.

“In the ultrarunning community this is the trophy race, this is the gold medal,” said Kirsti Dolson, director of customer experience for Sinister Sports, an Alberta company that specializes in ultramarathon events, including the Sinister 7, a 100-mile event won by Verys last year. “And then because it’s so arduous and so long, you’re now running into sleep deprivation. So can you do all these challenging tasks that are challenging individually, can you do them now while your mind is beginning to fail you?”

Verys, 29, was born in the Ukrainian city of Chornomorsk, on the shores of the Black Sea. He moved to Manitoba on a student visa in 2015, and took up running as a cheap way to keep his head clear and to alleviate the pressure of being alone in a foreign country. His competitive-racing career began with a modest local 15-kilometre race, and grew from there, with Verys becoming a Canadian citizen along the way.

Shepard thinks that is how Verys might have qualified, when he came second to American Harvey Lewis, whose 108 hours just beat the Canadian’s 107.“We spoke with a race director in Manitoba the other day, who knows Ihor as well,” Dolson said. “And this race director said, ‘Ihor, what is it that you’re training for? I see that on Strava you’re doing 10,000 metres of elevation a week.’ And Ihor apparently responded to him and said, ‘Oh, I’m just going away on business.

The effect that a watershed 2024 event has on the ultramarathon community remains to be seen, but Shepard compares it with another historic running milestone.

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