When he crossed the finish line at the 130th annual Boston Marathon on April 20, Ceevacs Roadrunner David Sykes earned the Six Star Medal for completing the Abbott World Marathon Majors.
Established in 2016, the medal honours runners who complete the original six major marathons: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York.
The 71-year-old Cowichan Valley resident is one of roughly 1,200 Canadians to achieve the feat.
Sykes said he likes running “because it’s a goal to achieve.”
“I enjoy running. You feel pretty good after — that you ran a marathon,” he added. “And that’s as much fun as running the marathon.”
Sykes finished Boston, the last and arguably most prestigious race of the Big Six, with a time of 4:42:02. He was 204th in his division but he’s not racing so much for time anymore — just for the experiences.
“You get to run and see the world,” he said. “I have no plans to stop. I’m 71 but I don’t feel 71.”
Sykes didn’t start running seriously until he was in his early 50s. He’d moved to Pender Island from back east and ran the local Terry Fox run. From there he and some others created a running club on the small Gulf Island.
His first marathon was the Edge-to-Edge event in Tofino/Ucluelet in 2008. He has put in a lot of kilometres since then.
Sykes moved to the Cowichan Valley and joined the Ceevacs Roadrunners in 2017. He runs about four days a week and also weight trains. His runs with Ceevacs are usually on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
“David is a humble, highly motivated runner and a quiet leader in the running community,” said Ceevacs coach, Sheron Chrysler. “Completing the six Abbott World Marathon Majors is an incredible feat. Running even one marathon takes immense dedication and training, but six world marathons is on another level.”
She noted that earning the Six Star Medal in Boston wasn’t planned, but it feels like fate for him to finish with the marathon.
Sykes completed New York in 2010, Chicago in 2018, and Berlin in 2019. He’d planned to run Boston next but COVID-19 put the kibosh on that. Instead he ran Tokyo in 2023 and London in 2024. This year it was finally Boston.
He said he has a special memory for every one of the major races but his favourite race was probably Berlin, where he finished in his fastest time of 3:48. He also fondly recalls qualifying for Boston and laughs about his memory from the Big Apple.
“My memory for New York was I was hoping to go under four hours and right at the end somebody got in my way,” he said. “I crossed the line and looked up at my time: 4:00:00.”
Sykes said it wasn’t technically under four hours, but he was OK with that.
He also has the distinction of having run the Sydney Marathon, after it became the seventh Abbott World Marathon Majors, which he did in August 2025.
Fewer than 200 Canadians have completed all seven.
While there are no special accolades for running the seven major marathons, soon there will be a medal for running nine, and Sykes has a goal to earn it.
Races in Cape Town and Shanghai are next to be certified Abbott World Marathon major races and Sykes has them both on his schedule.
He is hoping the upcoming marathon in South Africa on May 24 will count toward his next medal.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed it’ll actually be a full fledged star,” he said.
He’s also hoping that by the time he gets to China in 2027, that race will also count and upon completion, he’ll have earned the nine-race medal.