In 2015, Ihor Verys of Chornomorsk, Ukraine, arrived in Manitoba on a scholar visa. He has by no means returned. Now, 29, and based mostly in Chilliwack, B.C., he has taken up path operating, racking up victory after victory at a few of Canada’s hardest races. Regardless of his success, he brings a humble self-awareness born of hardship, loss and gratitude
It’s Could 2022 after I first met Verys. We’re each operating loops on the inaugural B.C. Yard Extremely in Salmon Arm. Sporting a blue baseball cap with UKRAINE on it, the Chilliwack-based 28-year-old is smiling and pleasant. Tall, with highly effective legs, he runs with a metronomic gait, showing fully relaxed even after 24 hours—the purpose at which I drop out, having achieved my objective of 100 miles. Different athletes, conscious that the earlier fall, he received the very difficult Finlayson Arm 100K on Vancouver Island—his first extremely—are clearly in awe of him.
Verys received once more in Salmon Arm, with 39 “yards” (6.71-km loops, run each hour till just one particular person is left)—i.e., a complete of virtually 262 km over 39 hours. His win earned him a spot on the Canadian staff competing at Huge’s Yard Extremely World Championship in October 2022, the place he was the final Canadian standing, with 67 yards, or 449.57 km. Canada completed fourth, behind Belgium, Australia and Japan. (Ukraine had a staff, one thing Verys was happy to see; they completed twenty seventh out of 37 nations.)
He’s received virtually each race he’s entered since 2021, together with (apart from the B.C. Yard Extremely and Finlayson Arm) the Sinister 7 100-miler in Blairmore, Alta. and Fats Canine 120-miler in Manning Park, B.C. And earlier than coming into any ultras, Verys accomplished a 125-km fastest-known-time (FKT) alongside the distant Mantario path on the Manitoba/Ontario border, which Manitoba ultrarunner Kristian Andres refers to as “completely insane.”
Verys didn’t win at Whistler Alpine Meadows, a race he entered outdoors his season plan after receiving an invite from race director Gary Robbins, who describes him as “extremely proficient and devoted.” (He completed second.)
I’m curious to study what makes Verys tick, and the place the connection lies between his youth in Ukraine and his skill to win extremely after extremely. A couple of months later, I’d get the chance to listen to his story.
Verys grew up within the Ukrainian metropolis of Chornomorsk, simply south of Odesa, on the Black Sea. He describes his life as easy however comfortable; he and his mates performed soccer and basketball, however he was by no means taken with operating for its personal sake earlier than coming to Canada. His mom labored 12- to 14-hour days, seven days per week, as a faculty inspector, trainer and personal tutor, to supply for him and his older brother (who now lives in Brandon, Man.). “My mother has at all times been my largest inspiration,” says Verys. They didn’t personal a automotive, and she or he walked him the three kilometres to and from faculty each weekday for the ten years of his faculty life.
“In my college years, I ended up strolling 5 kilometres every approach for 4 years,” he says, including that this isn’t uncommon in Ukraine. Whereas his mom might afford a automotive now, she continues to stroll. “That’s her way of life,” Verys explains. “She at all times says, ‘Motion is life.’”
On reflection, he says, his way of life in Ukraine was one huge base coaching block, and what he drew on when he started his operating profession in Canada, in 2016—a yr after arriving on a scholar visa in 2015, at age 20, to check at Assiniboine School in Brandon.
Changing into A Runner
Verys had by no means travelled outdoors Ukraine when he arrived in Canada; he had at all times wished to see the world, and to study English. “I fell in love with this nation and its folks,” he says. “I like the principles and excessive requirements of this nation, the respect folks present to one another. I like when individuals are smiling once they run into one another, I like Canadian infinite ‘thank yous,’ I like how Canada loves and promotes self-made folks. That is the nation of infinite alternatives. You will be whoever and no matter you need right here, and nobody goes to cease you. That is additionally one of the various, multinational international locations on this planet, and I really like how everybody resides in peace right here. I felt very snug on this society, and so I wished to develop into part of it.”
If his emotions about Canadians strike us as barely idealized, it might be as a result of it’s been a number of generations since we’ve skilled the deprivations of battle. And whereas he’s very comfortable to be right here, it hasn’t at all times been straightforward. Verys took up operating, he says, largely for psychological well being causes: “I used to be on my own right here, abroad, going through many challenges. Operating helped me to vent and preserve my head clear. It was additionally the most cost effective sport to get into.”
He entered a small, native 15K and received—although he says it’s solely as a result of it’s such an uncommon distance that not many individuals signed up. It bought him hooked on operating, and he ran a couple of half-marathons over the subsequent couple of years.
After graduating from school and dealing for a yr, Verys certified for a federal immigration program that allowed him to develop into a everlasting resident. (He has been a Canadian citizen since January 2022.) In fall 2019, he dove into the marathon, taking up three in as many months, then a fourth three months later: Regina, Treherne [in Manitoba], Quebec Metropolis and Fort Lauderdale.
“Don’t ask me for outcomes,” he laughs, implying they weren’t quick. “I used to be struggling via all of them, however that’s what pushed me to check and educate myself on learn how to be and do higher. I knew nothing about coaching, weight loss program, diet or energy coaching.”
Treherne, which is considered one of two Boston-qualifying marathons in Manitoba (the opposite is Winnipeg’s Manitoba Marathon), foreshadowed Verys’s transition to ultratrail: in response to him, it doesn’t entice loads of runners, as a result of it’s run on hilly, rural roads. This clearly labored to his benefit, since he received, in 3:36. “I actually loved the ‘vert’ facet of the race,” he says, once more displaying a disarming modesty about his achievement.
In 2020, Verys signed up for a 50K race that ended up being cancelled because of COVID-19. Naturally, the next yr, he headed straight into the Finlayson Arm 100K. And received.
Perspective Born of Hardship
In talking with Verys, I’m conscious that his mother and father are nonetheless dwelling in Ukraine, and I’m nervous about approaching the subject of the battle. However he’s eager to speak about it, his ardour for his nation evident.
Again in 2014, as a younger college scholar (he has a bachelor’s diploma in worldwide relations, and as soon as dreamed of changing into a diplomat), he participated within the Revolution of Dignity, protesting the federal government’s more and more shut ties with Russia and its rejection of a free-trade settlement with the European Union. 100 and eight protesters died within the rebellion, together with considered one of his finest mates, who was additionally a associate in a well-liked sports activities web site. (In the end their political actions left no time to keep up the web site, and so they shut it down.) “I encourage everybody to maintain supporting and serving to Ukraine on this struggle for independence and justice,” he says. “The reality is on our aspect.”
He’s in contact along with his mother and father daily, grateful that they’re removed from the preventing, and comparatively secure. “Each of my mother and father can come and stick with me in Canada, however they select to be in Ukraine, as a result of it’s their dwelling,” he says. “They settle for the danger, simply to be of their homes, on their land.”
Verys, who now works for an insurance coverage brokerage, assures me he’s not indefatigable. “Oh sure, I positively get sore and drained—there’s no approach round it,” he says. However he has realized to anticipate fatigue. “On the finish of the day, an extremely at all times turns into psychological, irrespective of how sturdy bodily you might be. If ultras had been straightforward, we wouldn’t be into this sport, would we?” I can hear the smile in his voice.
He likens his expertise of ultras to a sine wave that lightly however repeatedly rises and falls. “The longer you may experience the higher wave, the higher, however you’ll positively hit some lows,” he says. “You are able to do many issues to get out of a low: downshift gears, enhance hydration, throw in additional sugar, take an extended break at an assist station—you simply have to recollect there may be at all times a excessive after a low.”
Nevertheless it’s apparent his skill to maintain his personal struggling in perspective comes from a resolve that goes a lot deeper than his cheerful optimism would point out. “I typically take into consideration all these girls and boys on the frontline whose lives are stuffed with whistling bullets, blood, darkness and sleep deprivation,” he says. “Regardless of that, they transfer ahead and preserve preventing. They’re my huge inspiration, and so they positively drive me to be stronger throughout my races after I want to beat hardships.” He provides: “I imagine that the will to not hand over beneath any circumstances and keep it up is in my Ukrainian blood.”
Even the best ultrarunners have a DNF or two on their resumes; whereas Verys has received virtually the whole lot he has entered, I ask him if he’s ever thought of dropping out. “I by no means considered dropping out of a standard 100-miler,” he says, “however some darkish ideas had been positively creeping up into my head on the yard race, because of an ankle harm that was getting progressively worse.” He credit his crew and mates with pulling him out of a low spot. “Ultimately, I forgot in regards to the ache.”
Robbins factors out the rarity of the psychological toughness Verys has repeatedly demonstrated. “Whereas the remainder of us are struggling away on the market and preventing an incessant inner battle simply to maintain our ft shifting, Ihor appears to genuinely and virtually naturally cherish the reward of having the ability to run in any respect,” he says. “The truth that he can apply that over steady days on finish, to by no means crack internally, is a singular trait that many spend their total operating careers making an attempt to sharpen.”
The yard extremely offers rise to some psychological challenges which are distinctive to the format—specifically, the possibility to take a seat down and relaxation for a couple of minutes earlier than the subsequent loop begins. Verys echoes one thing I’ve heard from different sturdy yard athletes I do know: that they might by no means make the choice to cease whereas resting between loops—the one acceptable approach out is to fail to finish a loop earlier than the one-hour cutoff. “Within the yard format, you have to sharpen your thoughts to focus solely on the present loop,” he says. “When you begin excited about some hefty numbers you intend or hope to realize, a yard race will destroy you.” Verys provides some easy recommendation that has clearly labored for him: “Keep humble and grind, one loop at a time.”
Regardless of his success, Verys hasn’t regarded for sponsors or made any try to show professional. Granted, he hasn’t hit the world scene, however he has smashed a few of Canada’s hardest races. He toed the road at Huge’s Yard Extremely in Tennessee final October, in opposition to the Belgian duo of Merijn Geerts and Ivo Steyaert, who managed to brush a brand new world file in 2022, operating 101 yards (a mind-boggling 677.71 km). Verys ended up runner-up at Huge’s Yard Extremely World Championships, which was received by American Harvey Lewis, who ran a mind-boggling 724 km over 5 days; Verys set a Canadian file of 107 “yards,” smashing his earlier private finest by 267 km.
Trying Forward
I’m curious to know what race Verys is proudest of, however he can’t select one. “I realized lots about myself from all of them,” he says, explaining that he doesn’t assume he has sufficient expertise to evaluate his performances. “I imply, I’ve been within the extremely racing world for a yr and a half now, so it’s all comparatively new to me. I’m very curious with regards to human capabilities and limits, and I believe that’s what drives me in ultras. I really feel like regardless that there may be a lot science on the market about our our bodies, we nonetheless know little or no about our true potential, particularly the psychological half. Exploring these limits, in the event that they even exist, is likely one of the the reason why I’m into the extremely world.”
Despite the fact that he now lives in B.C., Verys stays an enormous fan of Manitoba, the place he was launched to Canada, and to operating: “It’s such an amazing province, with wonderful folks. There’s a motive why it says ‘Pleasant Manitoba’ on Manitoba license plates. Manitobans are really the friendliest Canadians on the market. That’s the place I fell in love with path operating. I’m very comfortable and proud that my Canadian journey began in Manitoba.”
Robbins is assured we’re going to be writing much more headlines about Verys: “He had a yr for the ages in 2022, and he’s definitely on a large upward trajectory proper now,” Robbins says. “Everybody who has met him has immediately develop into an enormous fan, as a result of he’s additionally one of many nicest folks you possibly can ever hope to satisfy. Assuming he stays injury-free, I believe we’ll be seeing his title plastered throughout podium outcomes all over the world within the coming years.”
Verys has a girlfriend, who crews for him (she can be a nurse, one thing he appreciates after lengthy races), and a canine. He has a very good life. He has match a number of lifetimes’ value of experiences (and race podiums) into his 28 years, and whereas he can’t decide a favorite race, he’s very clear on his proudest accomplishment. “I’m most pleased with buying a brand new household—an ultrarunning household,” he says. “It’s probably the most forgiving group amongst all sports activities. Regardless of how sluggish or quick you might be, you’re cherished right here. I’m very fortunate to have found and joined this household.”
I believe I can communicate for my fellow ultrarunners after I say that the sensation is mutual.
