This week we chat with Phil Suzor-Morin. Back in 2003, Phil signed up for a half marathon and trained exclusively on a treadmill. After finishing the race, Phil felt unfulfilled and gave up on running; he would ultimately return to running years later, participating in 1-2 half marathon races a year. On Christmas Day 2015, Phil was watching a documentary on the Kona Triathlon World Championships and was inspired by the stories of athletes who overcame obstacles to compete; shortly after, Phil registered for the 2016 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

For me it was never about losing weight. It was about pushing myself. It was about doing this extremely ambitious goal of mine and losing weight was just something that had come with my that has to come with it.

Phil Suzor-Morin

While Phil lost 50 lbs in the process of training for his first marathon, weight loss was not the primary reason he committed to the process; instead, Phil wanted to see how far he could push himself.

This brings us to one of his major accomplishments, his still active runstreak that hit the 365 day mark this past May! Phil got the idea after suffering an injury which set him back 3-4 months. Initially, Phil set a goal of running 7 days in a row. Phil then took advantage of run commuting home from work and eventually he was hooked.

Phil put “push himself” to the ultimate test when he decided to run both an 80 kilometre and 100 kilometer run through Toronto and parts of the GTA respectively. Without the ability to register for a race to cover these distances, Phil had to work out the logistics on his own. We’ll walk through the thought process, logistics, and challenges covering these distances.

Phil has no plans on stopping and hopes to add a 100-miler to his running resume whether there’s an official race or not!

To learn more about Phil, you can follow him on Instagram at: @flywithphil

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