A Winkler resident is among a handful of runners in the Province to take part in the Manitoba Marathon for all 40 years.

Suderman has also been an organizer of the Thanks For Giving Run in Winkler

Dwight Suderman was honoured recently among a group of '79ers' that ran in the first Manitoba Marathon in 1979 as they geared up for the 40th race last month. Suderman notes he was one of approximately five others who've taken part every year since the event's inception.

He explains marathons were just gaining popularity at the time when the Manitoba Marathon began.

"I was in university and looking for something to do... I said to myself, I could do that, or at least try it," he says adding running 26 miles is quite a feat.

"It takes a lot of training," Suderman says, noting a half-marathon requires only a quarter of the training. "It's not simple doing a full marathon."

He says a cooler day if preferred by many runners; 10 degrees celsius is ideal.

Since running his first full marathon Suderman says he was hooked on the sport, going on to run dozens of marathons and half-marathons across Canada and the world.

Suderman even took the sport to its roots, running the original mythic run, following the path from the battle of Marathon in Greece.

In the future, Suderman says he would love to do the famous Boston and New York marathons.

Locally, Suderman has also been a promoter of the sport as an organizer of the annual charity Thanks For Giving Run held in Winkler every fall.

Suderman second from the left: "Running creates a common bond among the marathon crowd, we can talk together quite easily," he says.