Roy Thomas never wins, but he keeps running because it's not about winning or losing it's about enduring. -Rudolph Brown
By Merrick Andrews, Staff Reporter
SOMETIMES when Roy Thomas reaches the finish line, the award presentations are long over and the officials are packing up to go.
At 73, he has no hope of winning the road races he enters, yet he persists. His mission is just to endure. He's an athlete.
So despite his snail's pace, despite the fact that during several races the ambulance has tried to scoop him up out of the sweltering heat, Thomas continues, his face a mask of determination.
He recalled an "unfortunate" incident some years back when he was nearly picked up by a bus driver while running a half-marathon on the North Coast.
" I was barely making it, and this was not an ambulance this was a bus driver that was taking up the water-stop people. He said 'come on the bus, come on the bus man, you can't finish, you can't finish.'
"Of course that spurred me on to finish."
He considers that he still runs strongly against the younger sons of the road and comments like "Why in hell this old man nuh stap running, suppose 'im have heart attack?," are annoying.
When he was a boy he desperately wanted to be a star athlete but could never make it to the finishing line fast enough. After that he decided take up road racing "just to keep fit and healthy".
His first road race, he said, was in the 1960s, when he contested the now defunct Guinness 4.5-mile race. He doesn't recall his finish.
THE MCDONALD'S ROAD RACE
Running in a yellow, blue and white Saucony sneakers and a red and white Ebony track club outfit last December, Thomas lagged at the back with a small group of walkers and some children who pitied him during the journey.
On approaching the 600-metre mark, he was asked by one of the children if he was alright. Running lean, with his back bent low, Thomas only waved his hand, signalling that he was fine.
Still, the children and passers-by did not stop there as they kept questioning his fitness.
He crossed the finishing line amid a loud cheer from the crowd outside the National Stadium Swimming Pool. He had placed 232nd out of 450 competitors in a time of 25 minutes and 54 seconds - more than two minutes faster than he had expected.
Pamenos Ballantyne, 27, of St. Vincent who won the race 14:44 lauded the veteran runner: "If a man at that age can come out here and run that event...the younger runners will be inspired," said Ballantyne. "I hope the younger youths can see that as a role model."
RETIREMENT, NO WAY
Born May 27, 1927 to parents Catherine and Claude, Thomas grew up in the Cross Roads area of Kingston.
He became head of the processing laboratory of the Film Department of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) shortly after returning from England and Belgium, where he learnt how to process film.
He's officially retired now but continues to work at the National Library of Jamaica in downtown Kingston where he is cataloguing films formerly made by the JIS and the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC), and maintaining the Film Library.
He rides his bicycle from his home in Hope Pastures to work in downtown Kingston every morning. Undertaken at an easy pace, the ride takes about 45 minutes.
"Sometimes, especially in a marathon, I say to my self 'why am I running like a big stupid man - running out in the middle of nowhere, I should be at home sitting down and reading my Bible or something."
Then he remembers what running does for him. "I feel good after the run and I think running is good for the system. I will continue running until the good lord calls me home," said a slim, but muscular Thomas.
"I would recommend running to everybody, I feel like the preacher man who goes out there - the gospel preacher - and he wants everybody to turn to Christ - I want everybody to turn to running."
HEALTH
Is he consuming the right stuff?
"What my diet is, you probably wouldn't feed your cat", he replied.
He refrains from eating "a lot of cooked meals." Now and then he eats some rice and callaloo. His daily diet includes mainly brown bread, sardines, yoghurt, vegetables, Supligen and cereals.
He also stays away from the doctor, unless there's a serious problem.
In this new millennium Thomas believes he's running faster than in his heydays although he doesn't train unless he has a 13-mile half-marathon or a 26-mile marathon coming up.
