Chris Wytinck runs the full at Run for the Hills

Chris Wytinck of Glenboro isn’t new to marathons. He began with the 10-kilometre race at Treherne’s Run for the Hills in 2018. Since then he graduated to running half marathons and has improved his time year after year. This past year has been especially rewarding: in June, he set a personal best at the Manitoba Half Marathon, and just this past Sunday, he ran his first full marathon 42.2Ks at the Run for the Hills, finishing first in his age group and fourth overall with a time of 3:28.

Watching him cross the finish line, greeted and congratulated by family and friends, it was easy to see a flood of emotions reflected in his face and posture; relief and excitement that yes, he had done it, and it had been hard, really hard. Recent rains had left the course soft and heavy, making the route even more challenging for all the runners.

Personal challenges are one of the things that keep runners coming back, and Chris is no exception. “When I finished the half in June, I felt so good, like I could have kept going. I hadn’t started training until May, so I thought if I kept it up through the summer, I could do the full in Treherne. Then I set the goal of qualifying for Boston. I knew it was a far reach, but I made it my goal anyway and started pacing myself for it,” he explained.

Chris crossed the finish line at 3:28, 8 minutes short of the qualifying time for his age group. “That’s a huge miss,” he admitted, shaking his head. “I was pacing perfectly, but in hindsight I started out too fast. By the three-quarter mark I knew there was no way I could reach it. I was slowing down, the road felt heavier, and I was starting to cramp.” In fact, no one qualified that day; not even the first-place finisher. It was a tough road for every runner.

Yet for Chris, the challenge is what keeps him coming back. That determination traces back seven years ago, when he first laced up his loafers, yes, loafers in his work jeans and headed out for his very first run. He chuckles at the memory: “I only made it a quarter of a mile and was done. But it happened to rain that day, so Abby (my wife) and I went to Brandon, and I bought a proper pair of runners.”

When asked what inspired him to run that first time, Chris’s answer was both comical and deeply thoughtful. “One early morning I was headed out to the fields and noticed Cory Anderson running up the gravel road. I stopped and asked him if everything was okay. Then a little further down the road I saw Cory Feschuk out running too. That was a small nudge. But the big nudge came at a ball game, when Cory (Feschuk) introduced me to his daughter and said, ‘Chris used to be quite an athlete.’”

Those words, “used to be” hung with Chris. They made him take a hard look at his lifestyle and realize he had gained a significant amount of weight and had become too stationary over the years. And that was all the motivation he needed to make changes and set out to prove to himself, that he could once again be “quite an athlete.”

Now equipped with proper running gear, Chris began running regularly, heading out on the gravel roads at 5:30 a.m. “I just fell in love with it. The peacefulness gave me mental clarity,” he explained. “I’d go to bed with tons of thoughts racing through my head; questions or problems I couldn’t put into perspective until I was out running. I’ve never meditated, but I feel running would be similar.”

The next turning point for Chris came when his former teacher and coach, Kevin Newton, told him about a running club at the Brandon Sportsplex. “That really helped. It was eight or ten weeks over the winter, and they taught us how to pace and how not to overtrain.” Later that fall, Chris signed up for the Run for the Hills 10K, while his wife showed her support by entering the 5K. She’s continued to join him at several events since then, often alongside family. This year, Abby, their daughter Lindsay, Dom Keller, Dana Kyle, and Bobbi Rankin (Abby’s sister and mom) all took part in the 5K – with Bobbi earning 2nd place in her age division.

This past winter Chris hired a personal trainer to help him with nutrition and weight training. “That really paid off, the nutrition part was a huge game changer, building strength was huge and the result is that this is the first year since I began running that I have been injury free.”

Minutes after crossing the finish line, Chris thought, Maybe this should be my last race. He was hurting and disappointed, but it didn’t take long for him to rethink that and start planning for next year. Running may have started as a small step toward reclaiming his health, but for Chris it has grown into something much larger, a way to test his limits, find clarity, and set goals that keep him moving forward.

“It’s doing the hard thing no matter what,” he said. “When training for running, we are practicing not only the physical part, but the mental part of being comfortable with discomfort and not quitting when things get difficult. So, if it’s raining, cold or windy or I just don’t feel like it at 5:30 a.m. I just do it anyways; because if I don’t, all I’m doing is practicing quitting.”

With family cheering him on and his own drive pushing him further, Chris proves that every run, whether in loafers on a gravel road or chasing down a marathon dream, isn’t just about the finish line. It’s about grit, the lessons learned, and the courage to tackle the hard things.

PHOTO CAPTION: RUN FOR THE HILLS … (l. to r.) Chris Wytinck who ran the full 42.2 K Run for the Hills Marathon was supported by a few family members who ran the 5 K; Abby Wytinck (his wife), his mother-in- law Bobbi Rankin who came in 2nd in her age group, daughter Lindsey with her fiancé Dom Keller and sister-in-law Dana Kyle. PHOTO BY GISELLE LUSSIER