Inspired by the memory of his longtime coach, Mark Pinckard broke a near 20-year-old Canadian record on the track and now has his sights on the 2022 World Masters Track and Field Championships in Finland.
The Boundary Bay resident and 800-metre specialist captured gold at last summer’s B.C. Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Bear Creek Park in a winning time of 2:10.77, breaking the record in the men’s 60-year-old age class by nearly two seconds. The former mark set in 2002 belonged to renowned B.C. Athletics Hall of Famer Harold Morioka.
How good was Pinckard’s performance?
His time would have won him the 55-59 age group that day by 16 seconds and he was just four seconds off the winning time in the 40-44 group. It was also the fastest time in the world posted this year among age 60-to-64 male runners.
“In the number of years I have been doing this my times just haven’t changed that much,” said the now 61-year-old. “When I first got into it, I ran a 2:08 10 or 11 years ago and then I run a 2:10 (this summer).”
Pinckard dedicated the record performance to his former coach Jean-Jacques (JJ) Schmidt. The legendary running mentor, who spent decades with the Richmond-based Kajaks, lost a 10-month battle with pancreatic cancer back in July. He was still providing virtual coaching from his Vernon home weeks before his passing.
“When I eventually started to get my times down (earlier this year) I communicated with him that maybe I wanted to break the record,” Pinckard recalled. “Each race I got closer and closer and I flew to a meet in Ontario hoping to do it there but it ended up being the next race back in B.C. J.J. was always a real big supporter of mine.”
Also pushing Pinckard is his workouts with the South Surrey-based Ocean Athletics Track and Field Club where many of his training mates are decades younger than him.
“I train with high school kids and they are super dedicated. I can’t remember myself in high school being as dedicated as they are. They are out there in the rain and cold and they are a great group of kids. I want give them kudos too. I got them to chase,” he laughed.
Pinckard did some sprinting as a young teen but then turned his attention to rugby before his career and raising a family. It was in his 40s he began running again, initially doing a marathon then shifting to the track. He has attended World Masters events in Spain, Korea and California. Now he hopes to be heading to Tampere, Finland next June as long as the pandemic doesn’t get in the way.
