Matt Shepard (photo provided)

By Liam Verster

Record Breaking Attempt

Valleyview man to make record breaking attempt at Ultra Run

Jun 24, 2020 | 1:49 PM

A Valleyview man will attempt to break a Canadian Ultra Running record at the Legion Track in Grande Prairie during the first week of July.

Matt ‘Shep’ Shepard will run as far as possible between 9 a.m. July 1, and 9 a.m. July 7. Over the course of those 144 hours (six days), he will try to break the Canadian record of 870 kilometres, which has stood since 1891. Shep says his goal is to run 1,000 kilometres during his run.

The world record, which was set in the 80’s, saw 1,022 kilometres ran over a 144 hour stretch.

Shep, who has run multiple long distance and endurance races, says he starts off pretty strong in the first two days, and has a game plan for how to approach breaking the record.

“I’m going to try to skip sleeping through the night on day one, and then pack a longer sleep after day two. So just run maybe 41 hours and then take a nap, get up, and then from there I will only have to do about 100 miles (160.9 kilometres) a day in order to break the record.”

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Shep will have to complete 2,500 laps around the 400 metre track in order to accomplish this feat, and he says he’s happy to be making this attempt on the Legion Track.

“It’s a 400 metre rubberized track, which is fantastic. I’ve run these (Ultra Marathons) before on dirt tracks, and I run a lot on the road, so it will be fantastic to have that rubberized track.”

A timing system will be set up on the track, and Shepard will be wearing a monitor that will record every time it passes over the system. The track is certified at 400 metres, so as long as he’s hooked up and on the track, he will be able to verify his progress.

He says while it’s okay for the public to come by and cheer him on over the course of the days, he does ask that people keep their distance.

“With the COVID, number one, running for that long it definitely compromises your immune system. You don’t have the energy to be fighting off [a virus]. So that’s one thing I want to look out for, is definitely not to encourage too many people to come out.

“Also, the Association of Canadian Ultra Marathoners, the accrediting body for this, they do not allow pace runners. Meaning that I can’t have somebody running next to me, because that helps if you’re say, starting to slow down because of fatigue, having someone run with you with fresh legs, then you kind of have someone to follow. So it’s kind of like a form of cheating.”

While he asks people to stay off the track, he does say it would be nice to have people drop by occasionally and cheer him on from off the track. He adds that time is of the essence, and along with not being too exposed to the public, he would like to make sure his time off is spent resting, and that no one disrupts him while he’s running.

“Shep” will also be joined by a crew member who will prepare his food and take care of the little things on the side so he can continue his record breaking attempt without worry.

He adds that he’s very confident that he will be able to break the Canadian record, which has stood for 129 years.