THORBURN, N.S. — For Garett Landry of Thorburn, N.S., running his first Boston Marathon on Monday was a long time coming.
Nearly 10 years ago, he was a long way from the starting line of the coveted footrace - let alone the finish.
“I had a trucking company, and it was just sitting stagnant (in my cab all day),” the 38-year-old said on Friday. “Not moving all the time, and (I was always) busy, busy, busy. Just had zero time for myself, and health was not on my radar at all.”
The long-haul trucker weighed 240 pounds at the time and says he wouldn’t have been able to finish a five-kilometre run.
Since then, Landry has lost more than 70 pounds and has run thousands of kilometres. However, even after he caught the “running bug,” qualifying for the world’s most famous marathon still felt out of reach.
“Never, not once, did I think I’d be running the Boston Marathon,” Landry recalled. “It actually came right out of my mouth that, ‘I will never run the Boston Marathon, those guys are so fast.’”
Fast-forward to Monday, and with a time of two hours, 49 minutes and 32 seconds at his Boston debut, Landry was one of the fastest finishers from Nova Scotia.
Though he’s pushing 40 years of age, he thinks he can go even faster.
“That’s what’s so exciting. I don’t know what my limit is,” Landry said. “I’m just keeping on working. I keep on improving and that’s motivating, right?”
While Landry believes he’s only scratching the surface of what he might be capable of, he has another reason to keep finding out.
His mother Heather Wright, who he describes as his biggest fan, was hospitalized following a heart attack in March.
Landry says she is on the mend now and was able to watch with pride from afar on Marathon Monday.
“She is recovering very well,” Landry said. “She’s home and happy. We’re getting her out walking and stuff now, so that’s real nice.”
As for what’s next, he’s already thinking about next year’s Boston Marathon - or heading to England to take on the London Marathon.
His advice to anyone else looking to make a big lifestyle change is to choose a physical activity that they enjoy and focus on consistent effort rather than zeroing in too much on results.
“Don’t worry about the numbers or the weight loss,” Landry said. “Just find something fun to do and do it all the time.”
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