Beryl Stott: Guinness record holding runner

Jeff Green | Nov 03, 2011

Ever since Beryl Stott moved to the Elphin/McDonalds Corners area in the mid-1990s she has been involved in local historical and other activities, and from time to time she has participated in public events.

Most recently she made presentations to local councils about ATV trails.

All the while she has kept rather quiet about some history she made for herself in the early 1980s, a time in her life when she was a runner.

In 1983 Beryl, who was a follower of Sri Chinmoy and was running as Kanchan Stott, completed a 6867.6 km run across Canada.

“This was only three years after Terry Fox's run,” Beryl recalls, “and I was the first woman to make such a run.” She averaged 33 kilometres a day throughout the 208-day Odyssey, which started in British Columbia in early May and ended in mid-November.

Her daily average would have been much higher but she had to stop running for a while when she became injured during the first half of the run.

“By the end of the run I was doing well over a marathon distance each day, I remember that,” she said.

Rather than following the Trans-Canada Highway all the way across the country as Terry Fox had attempted to do, Stott made some detours to meditation centres along the way.

After completing her run, Beryl was nominated for Chatelaine Magazine's Woman of the Year, but lost out when the magazine decided to honour some well-known politicians, including cabinet ministers, as their Women of the Year.

In 1985 Beryl wrote a book about her run “Heart of Gold, Will of Iron” and next Tuesday, November 8, as part of an evening being put on at the Maberly Hall by the Bethel Women's Institute, she will be talking about her run and her book, starting at 7:30pm.

Books will be available for sale as well, with proceeds going to a local food bank.