At 70, Mississauga, Ont.’s Derm Holwell still burns with competitive fire, and he’s not slowing down anytime soon. A committed member of the Boston Marathon’s quarter-century club, the runner is taking on the race for his 35th straight year–and hopes to keep the streak alive for much longer. “If it’s possible, I’ll still be going for it at 89,” Holwell told Canadian Running. “As long as I can qualify, I want to keep qualifying.”
After beginning his streak in 1991, Holwell ran his 25th Boston Marathon in 2015, earned a coveted spot in the quarter-century club–an exclusive list of runners who have completed 25 consecutive Boston Marathons. This year will mark Holwell’s first time in the M70-74 division; he turns 71 in May.
For his 35th run, now just 10 days away, Holwell hopes to run three hours and forty minutes–but admits with age, predicting performances becomes a bit of a guessing game. “You’re sort of guessing every year what you’re capable of based off some races and speedwork,” he said. “That’s the problem with getting older–every year you decline. It’s different from when I was younger.”
Holwell tackled the New York City Marathon in the fall, aiming for 3:30-3:32. “It backfired on me, and I blew up in the second half–I ran 3:50:48.” This time, he’s looking to play it safe and aim for a strong finish. “You always feel better if you finish strong,” he added. Remarkably, over all 85 marathons he’s completed, Holwell has never run slower than four hours.
He earned his top finishes the 2009, 2010 and 2015 editions, placing 10th in his age group.
While some might assume there’s a deeper meaning to his continued efforts other than a drive to keep the streak alive, Holwell says he’s just a naturally “streaky” person. A longtime member of Mississauga’s Nomads run club, he maintains a meticulous spreadsheet with every single mile he’s ever run, and aligns major mileage milestones with races.
“I lined up 50,000th mile to be the last mile of 2006 Tely Ten 10-mile road race in St. John’s,” he admitted. “I’m still on track for my 40th Boston Marathon and 100th overall marathon to line up, too.” According to his master spreadsheet, Holwell logged his 90,000th mile on March 17, and ran 2,200 miles last year.
Running at 70 isn’t as easy as Holwell makes it seem. “When you get to be 69 to 75, you can’t keep running more than 2,000 miles per year and go injury free,” he said. “You just have to hope it’s not serious.”
In the fall of 2022, the runner underwent knee surgery; with the injury and recovery, he was sidelined from running regularly from mid-July to the end of the year. Holwell attributes his ability to bounce back and continue running to the expensive, carbon-plated and heavily-cushioned modern shoes. “If this happened 40 years ago, with those old shoes, I don’t think I’d still be running,” he said. “Today’s shoes have helped my knees handle it.”
The closest he had been to missing a Boston Marathon was in 2008, after getting his prostate removed. “I couldn’t run for five weeks after the surgery,” he said. “Luckily, the procedure was pushed from nine to 12 weeks out from the race–so in the end, I got seven weeks to come back to training.”
Holwell’s favourite edition of the event was 1996–the 100th Boston Marathon, and first time the race used computer chips. He recalls how all 40,000 participants were run in one wave–and many of his run club teammates toed the line alongside him. “That was the biggest marathon ever held at that point,” he said. “I even have a 100th Boston Marathon ring, which I received as a gift.”
At the race on April 21, Holwell’s daughter is also set to run–it will be her 15th Boston Marathon. His wife, son-in-law and five grandchildren will be there to cheer them on.
