“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” suggests a saying whose origins are based in a Chinese proverb.
Someone neglected to tell Michael Rouleau, who is a Greater Sudbury Police constable by day, that he need not take these words quite so literally.
“My running journey started with COVID,” noted the 30-year-old former AAA hockey talent who completed his first-ever marathon in full police garb in Sudbury in May for Sudbury Rocks. You can see a Facebook reel of that here. “When everything shut down, including the gyms, I didn’t have any set up at home so I took to the streets and trails and started running as a way to stay active.
“It started with just running five kilometres — but then I started wondering if I could run 10, and then wondered if I could run a half (marathon, 21 kilometres). That turned into a marathon, then 50 km, then 80 km, then 100 km.”
This past weekend, the Sudbury native was the last man standing at the first ever Sudbury Backyard Ultra, but not before he completed 25 laps of the hourly circuit that measured 6.706 kilometres in length. That’s 167.65 kilometres, if you don’t want to be bothered to do the math — and it was one more lap than Eric Smith of Stratford completed and two more than the top woman, local phenom Helen Francis.
“I started with a run around the block,” Rouleau mused.
For as much as he knows that what he just accomplished is pretty darn special, in many ways it isn’t, at least not in his mind.
“I don’t think I am different in any way,” said the admittedly stubborn father of one who represented the Northern Ontario Hockey Association as a member of the OHL Cup contingent back in 2010. “I think a lot of people can run exponentially further than they think they can. Pretty much everyone has the ability, at least anyone who is willing to put the time in.”
Interestingly enough, while Rouleau has always been fit and athletic, endurance and cardio were clearly not the priority, pre-pandemic.
“Before, you might catch me on a treadmill or elliptical or stepper every now and again, but really, that wasn’t the focus,” he said. “Endurance training was far from the focus.”
While he remains quite modest, noting that any number of the 70 participants who started the Backyard Ultra on the morning of Oct. 5 at 9 a.m. could have emerged victorious, Rouleau might well serve as a catalyst for someone else, recalling his own personal epiphany.
“I remember a pivotal point, sitting in my basement when I came across a YouTube video of an event that was something like a 100-km race,” he said. “I thought: There’s no way people run 100 kilometres. I watched this video and was in complete awe, not only of the elites but also very much the ‘everyday people’ that were there, in all shapes, sizes and ages.”
“That really piqued my curiosity.”
During a Backyard Ultra marathon, every competitor has one hour to complete a 6.706-km lap. (For perspective in case 6.7 km seems long, at 62 years, this writer can still do that distance quite comfortably in somewhere between 45 and 50 minutes. Most folks can. It’s a reasonably light jog.)
The trick to the Backyard Ultra is runners then have to be willing to get back up and do it all over again at the top of the next hour … and the one after that and the one after that and the one … well, you get the picture.
This is as much a psychological challenge as a physical one, at least for those who have put in the mileage to ensure a decent level of readiness for the task at hand. It’s also that mental approach that perhaps most sets Rouleau apart.
“I humbly had the mindset from the get go that I wanted to be the last man standing, but knowing there are always so many variables: nutrition and hydration, injuries, etc …,” he said. “There has to be that belief that I can run 30 hours, even though I don’t know where the finish line is. That’s unique, a different mindset.
“So many things can change your day very, very quickly when you’ve been running for 25 hours,” Rouleau added. “But that was the goal, to go until no one else was running — and I was prepared to go beyond 25 laps. I had more in the tank to give.
“It wasn’t the end of the world to keep going, but it was a relief to not have to,” he laughed. “I’m cold and I’m wet and I’m ready to go home.”
Still, give the determined local man a few weeks to recover and rest assured he will be ready to do it all over again. All to answer a burning question in his mind: “Just how far can I run?”
“The next challenge might be a 200-km or 200-miler. Next year or the year after, it’s to see what that limit is.”
Randy Pascal is a sportswriter in Greater Sudbury. Pursuit is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
