Dave Proctor set to start TransAlberta run on Friday

Canada’s Dave Proctor will start his TransAlberta FKT (fastest known time) attempt on Friday at 9 a.m. MDT, kicking the challenge off at the Alberta-B.C. border. He’ll follow the Trans-Canada Highway all the way across Alberta for 537K before reaching the border with Saskatchewan. Proctor hopes to complete this run in 72 hours or less, which would set the TransAlberta FKT and break his own national 72-hour record of 500K. The run starts Friday morning, and anyone interested in following along can track Proctor’s progress here.

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Proctor has had multiple Canadian and world records to his name, and he is the current national record holder over 24, 48 and 72 hours. His original plans for this spring involved running across the entire country in an attempt to set a cross-Canada speed record. He had actually hoped to complete that run in May 2020, but the pandemic forced him to postpone. Those plans have been put off once again due to COVID-19, but Proctor didn’t want to let his fitness go to waste.

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Certain province-to-province travel might not be allowed right now, but Proctor is free to run within Alberta’s own borders, so he decided to shift his focus to a shorter but still gruelling challenge. While he hoped to complete his cross-Canada run in around 67 days (which would beat Al Howie‘s 1991 record of 72 days on the 7,200-kilometre route), Proctor will now look to run across Alberta in three days or less. 

“I have all this fitness, and I wanted to put it to the test,” Proctor said after announcing his run. “I wanted to go out and test myself with something really, really hard.” The coast-to-coast run would have been supported, but Proctor will be all alone during the TransAlberta FKT, pushing his food, water and other supplies in a stroller. 

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Proctor is confident that he’ll beat his the 72-hour bar that he has set for himself, and he said that other than a few quick naps on the side of the road, he will pretty much run uninterrupted for three days straight. He’s aiming to run the first 100 miles (160K) in 14 to 16 hours (which is about 5:15 to 6:00 per-kilometre pace). After that, he said he’ll likely slow down a bit, but he’ll fight to keep running at a good clip. 

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“After 200 miles, I can’t really say what the pacing strategy will be,” he said. “From there, it’s just a sustained effort and I have to hold on for dear life and pray that I make it in time.” More and more races are cropping up around the world after so few events last year, but the total is still far from where it was before the pandemic. Proctor’s run isn’t an official race, but it is a chance for fans of the sport to watch something exciting and special. Follow his progress on the route here (his dot and route won’t appear on the map until he starts running) and check out his Instagram page for updates over the weekend.