Beryl Stott’s incredible journey

Nov 17, 2011

Photo left: Beryl Stott in Maberly. Below: Beryl on the road in 1983.

Unknown to many is the incredible story of long- time Elphin resident Beryl Stott, who in 1983 at the age of 37 made it into the Guinness Book of World Records when she completed a 6867.6 km, seven-month long run across Canada.

On November 8 at the Maberly Hall, Beryl spoke to members of the Bethel Women’s Institute and guests about her record-breaking achievement, which she said she undertook simply “to set a world record”. At the time Beryl was a follower of Sri Chinmoy, an Indian spiritual teacher, who taught her the practice of transcendental meditation, a philosophy based on meditation and transcendence of the self and world.

Beryl was given the name Kanchan, which translates to Heart of Gold. As explained in the book “Heart of Gold - Will of Iron”, written by June Rose-Beaty about Beryl’s run: “Through the teachings and practice she (Kanchan) found something that she had up until that time always been searching for, a perfect balance between leading an outer, physically active life while developing a spiritual inner life.” Beryl spoke of that inspiration in Maberly. “My teacher promoted running as a form of self-transcendence. He felt that if you really worked at it you could pass through the pain. It was all part of the philosophy.”

The run proved to be incredibly difficult on both a physical and mental level and though she prepared by running numerous marathons and ultra-marathon races both in Canada and the US (she set a Canadian record for a 24 hour race in New York in October, 1982) she also sought the expertise of an Olympic-class coach before taking on the cross-Canada run.

During her talk she recalled the one and only time that her set goal truly frightened her. “I remember looking out the window of the plane on the flight out to Victoria, BC [where her run began] and realized that I had to run all of the way back. It was the first and only time that I wondered if my training was sufficient.” Regardless, the run was a grueling one. Throughout it she lived alone in a camper and was assisted by two attendants, who saw to her daily needs. One, she recalled had to feed her her dinner, as she would often be too exhausted to even lift a fork to her mouth. Every day she set out with a body in pain, which steadily began to take the toll of her daily efforts which consisted of two running stints averaging 33 km per day.

“The hardest part by far was starting each day. But I used the meditation to find the inner strength to overcome the pain, and to stay focused. It's the marriage that takes place between the body and the mind that got me through.” In Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, she was forced to take a week off when her left knee, wracked with severe tendonitis completely gave out. She tended to her injury by swimming and by designing makeshift devices that she fit to her knees and upper torso before setting out each morning. In hindsight she said it was the physical obstacles, particularly the tendonitis she experienced in Saskatchewan that she learned most from. “It taught me that you cannot run with your mind. You literally have to go with the condition your body is in as well as all of the outdoor conditions, like the weather and wind. I learned that you have to give yourself the privilege to let the body dictate what it is capable of doing, not what your mind wants it to do and that was a big shift for me and a wake up call.”

In her down time when alone in her camper each evening she recorded on tape each day’s experience and after completing the run took them to a dicta-typist, who she said “typed out every single word that I recorded”. Her goal? “I wanted to use the diary to create a book for children, particularly girls who I felt needed strong role models at that time and I wanted to be one of them.” The result was the book, “Heart of Gold, Will of Iron”.

Beryl completed her mission and on November 29 arrived at the Atlantic ocean at Black Rock beach in Halifax, Nova Scotia to the sight of water cannons shooting off in the harbour in recognition of her efforts. Did the run change her? “I see life in a different way. The run took so much determination and inner strength every single day that I felt very old after completing it, not physically but emotionally and psychologically. Something like that ages you inwardly.” That being said she is glad to have experienced it and to have achieved what she did. “It gave me the experience of Canada and its people first hand from one ocean to the other and that is really a once in a life time experience. But the most important thing I got from it was the experience of being on the road. There is something about doing something, every single day and staying completely focused on it that gives you such a fine concentration that everything else seems to fall away. And it also brought me to where I am today. After the experience of being so fully in nature, I could not live in the city after that.”

Stott brought with her to Maberly numerous mementos from the run. One of her favorites is the letter of congratulations she received from Alexa McDonough, at that time leader of the NDP in Nova Scotia, which accompanied a T-shirt that read “A Woman's Place is in the House.... of Commons”. Anyone interested in reading more about Beryl’s 208-day journey from sea to sea can contact her at 613-278-0041.