Jerry Hughes smashes Canadian 48-hour record

Victoria, B.C.’s Jerry Hughes set a new Canadian 48-hour record early Sunday morning at the Fat Ox Endurance Run in Arizona, running 368.031 kilometers (228.684 miles). Hughes boasts an extensive ultrarunning resume, but this is his first Canadian record, besting Dave Proctor’s 2018 record of 358.163 km (222 miles). Hughes headed into the event with a goal of qualifying for the Canadian 24hr team, a goal he nailed along the way. Hughes ran 221.01 km (137.33 miles) in 24 hours, more than any Canadian in 2022.

The Fat Ox Endurance Run (hosted by Aravaipa Running, known for endurance events like Javelina Jundred and Across the Years) was “originally founded as a research study on fat oxidation utilization for ultra runners,” ultrarunner and race director Jamil Coury explains. The race was in a new location this year, held on a 1590.3-meter concrete loop on an eight-foot-wide sidewalk winding through Estrella Mountain Regional Park, just outside of Phoenix, Ariz.

In its third year as a fixed-time race with multiple distances, the 48-hour event began Friday in ideal running conditions–cool and overcast skies. Saturday, however, was another story, with an increasing chance of rain evolving into a significant rainstorm that Coury says “parked itself across much of the state of Arizona and recorded a rainfall record for Sky Harbor airport.”

Despite the conditions, Hughes kept on moving. “Runners persisted throughout, including Jerry Hughes who really dug deep the last night running through off-and-on rain to not only set a new Canadian 48-hour record not only overtaking Dave Proctor but also landing on the top 10 all-time in North America,” says Coury.

Hughes’s journey of resilience

Hughes started running in 2014 with a 10K race and says he was hooked after that. “A month later, I did my first half-marathon in 1:40,” he says. In 2015, he ran his first marathon in 3:11, and decided to make the leap to ultras, tackling the Squamish 50-miler in 2016. He upped his distance with his first 100-miler in California, where he bested his goal of running under 24 hours by a large margin, finishing in sixth place in a little over 18 hours.

“It was at this point that I realized I had a bit of a gift for this,” Hughes says. Since then, Hughes has been a regular on the ultra scene, racing everything from 100-milers to multi-day events. When COVID-19 shut down events, he reached out to friends Lisa Large and Josh Heath to organize the One Track Mind Ultra, a fundraiser for the Help Fill a Dream Foundation. The charity supported Hughes and his siblings (all of whom live with Gardner’s syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that can lead to colon cancer) when they were younger.

Hughes, a busy father of four young children, is known for being a positive force in the running community in Victoria and beyond, and for taking every opportunity he can find to give back. Fellow Canadian ultrarunner Matt Shepard ran with Hughes at One Track Mind Ultra, and says he was impressed by his resilience. “After hearing his story and the challenges that he has faced, I was blown away,” says Shepard.

“After realizing that he didn’t have to let his challenges define him, he started chasing these big goals to show others that they can also overcome seemingly impossible obstacles. Jerry shares so much love and inspiration,” said Shepard. “I am incredibly proud of him for his efforts and the lessons he is sharing with the world.”

While Hughes described the rainy, middle-of-the-night laps toward the end of his 48-hour run as “pure misery,” he was in great spirits Monday morning as he prepared to head back to Canada, joking that while he felt pretty good, he might need some assistance getting into the plane.

posted Monday December 5th
by Keeley Milne