Canadian raises $5,000 at Houston Marathon as “last runner starting”
Calum Neff, who lives in Houston, passed thousands of runners to fundraise for the Houston Marathon Foundation
Calum Neff is a fast and experienced runner and racer. So when he volunteered to raise funds at yesterday’s Houston Half-Marathon by starting at the very back of the pack and picking off runners one by one (or rather, dozen by dozen) as he made his way to the finish line, they could be confident of raising a significant amount. Neff started a full 50 minutes after the gun went off and, making his way through the crowds of runners and walkers, managed to finish in a very respectable 1:09:59, in 129th position overall out of 13,409 runners. (This means he passed 13,280 people on his way to the finish line–not including all the full marathoners he passed before they split off from the half-marathoners at the eight-mile mark.)
Houston, we raised A LOT of money this morning for the Houston Marathon Foundation. I lost count around 11,218 people ? Still waiting for official count but unofficially a time of 1:09:59 this morning in the half as @HoustonMarathon #LastRunnerStarting@AltraRunning #ZeroLimits https://t.co/nXdHJZxNuf
— Calum Neff (@CalNeff) January 19, 2020
Though the final tally has not yet been made, Neff (who is Canadian but has lived in Houston for a few years) estimates he will have surpassed the $5,000 goal set for the project. (There is already $1,035 in single donations showing on the donation page.) This is the third year in a row the marathon has held a Last Runner Starting event to benefit the Houston Marathon Foundation, which offers a scholarship for a local student to attend university or college in Texas. (The HMF also supports local high school running programs by providing shoes, coaching, and entries to the 5K, which takes place on the same weekend as the Marathon.)
RELATED: Linkletter nails his first half-marathon at Houston
Honored to represent the Houston Marathon Foundation, the Houston runners, and the City of Houston during our grand stage to the world at this mornings @HoustonMarathon. I ran my heart out as Last Runner Starting. Thanks for the send off Mayor @SylvesterTurner ? #RunHOU https://t.co/hFgpXiO7gZ
— Calum Neff (@CalNeff) January 19, 2020
Neff used the half as a tuneup workout for the Tokyo Marathon on March 1, where he hopes to improve upon his Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon time of 2:20.
“I race so much that its also fun to compete in different formats of races,” Neff told us by email. “One of my favourites every year is the Wings for Life World Run where there’s a catcher car to eliminate runners as they are passed, so in that case it’s last runner standing. It was fun to be somewhat of the human catcher car this time around, which spurred the human Pac-Man design on my singlet to ensure people knew why I would be flying by them on Sunday and that it was all going to a good cause.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7h_qJsnoMW/
Neff, who had warmed up with the elites, found it an eye-opening experience to watch wave after wave of runners go through the start before he could start running himself. “The biggest thing was realizing just how many people were running–over 26,000 split fairly evenly between the half and the full events,” he says. Only the half marathoners would count towards my fundraiser. People were able to pledge an amount per person I passed (typically between $0.01 and $0.05 for each person passed)…
“Eventually the “sweepers” approached the start line, holding large balloons. I rushed to the start and stood in the middle of an empty road with 26,000 people ahead of me. Looking up at the clock, I began my own countdown when I saw 49:50 and took off the moment it rolled over to 50 minutes since the gun was fired.”
RELATED: Calum Neff finishes Comrades Marathon strong, stroller-free
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7gZYXPHVIH/
Neff described his technique of running fast where he had enough space to do so, and recovering with slow jogging on the parts of the course that were more crowded. He calls it “fartlek-style” and it’s a technique he uses when training for trail races, where the terrain can change quite suddenly from “runnable” to more technical.
“I quickly caught the back of the pack and slid to the side where there was a lot of skirting up the side, jumping the curb, and hugging the cones,” Neff goes on. “The best way I can describe it was like a real-life version of the game Grand Theft Auto. I decided yelling ahead would take too much energy and be wasted with the amount of people who had headphones, so I opted for the silent approach as I squeezed through moving gaps of people. Corners I was able to swing wide and avoid the crunch and water stations gave me a great opportunity to avoid the masses–but it also meant no water for me. I was able to grab one cup after about an hour of running.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ejlbtHJx2/
I had a lot of support out there. The pre-race engagement helped a lot for everyone to understand why there would be a madman who missed the start and was trying to play catch-up. A lot of “welp, there he goes” “Go Cal” “Last Man” “Human Pac-Man” and “Holy Shhh.” I couldn’t believe my splits! The kilometres kept coming and not far off my normal half-marathon pace, I ran 1:07 here in Houston last year, and sometimes closer to my 3:19/K marathon pace (a great workout ahead of Tokyo).”
The windy weather was a common complaint yesterday. “The temperatures were cold and perfect but the wind at times nearly brought us to a dead stop and even pushed me around as I entered the city,” Neff says. “I had a very rough goal, not knowing how much I would be held up, of running 1:10 and passing 10,000 people (based on last year’s results). With a final sprint effort I crossed in 1:09:59 and the live tracker had me at over 11,000 people. I was ecstatic and shocked.”
Neff recalls his father running the Houston Marathon in 1989, and this was his own first marathon back in 2014, where he ran 2:35. He ran it again in 2015 and 2016, and in 2017 paced the women’s elites. Last year he ran the half-marathon in a personal best 1:07:22. A five-team Team Canada member in mountain running and 50K road and trail racing, he has set three Guinness World Records (two of them in the marathon and half-marathon while pushing one of his three daughters in a stroller) and is a two-time finisher of the Comrades Marathon in South Africa.
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