Renowned ultramarathon runner Dag Aabye, now 82, moved to Canada from Norway when he was young and fell in love with the harsh wilderness. Living in a bus off-the-grid on a mountainside in British Columbia, Aabye has made a name for himself in the ultra-running community as the oldest person to have completed the grueling Canadian Death Race held in Grande Cache, Alberta. In an excerpt from his book Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past in the Walrus, Brett Popplewell talks about how Aabye first ended up entering the race at 62: "Someone slapped a promotional flier for the Death Race onto a table while he was eating and said, 'Here's something you're probably too old to do,'" Popplewell writes.
Aabye has since repeatedly faced off against nearly 78 miles (125 kilometers) of "mud-sloped inclines and exhausting switchbacks that make up" the race. He finished it seven times within the specified 24 hours, each time as the oldest person to do so. Once he became unable to cross the finish line within that window, he "never stopped trying," instead pushing himself to complete the Near Death Marathon. It's basically the first half of the Death Race, a roughly 30-mile portion that has to be finished in 9.5 hours. In 2010 he ran it in 8 hours, 45 minutes; in 2011, he shed 28 minutes from that time. In 2016 it was 9:29:31, giving him just 29 seconds to spare. It was his worst finish. "Look at that," was his response. "A new record to break." (Read the fascinating full story at the Walrus.)
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