Veteran road runner Cal Steede will run his 100th marathon in next month’s Bermuda Marathon Weekend.Although the 51-year-old Bermudian did not take up the sport until he was in his 30s, he has since run an average of five or six full marathons ever year and is now set to reach the remarkable milestone of 100 completed marathons.A familiar face on the Island’s road running scene, Steede set himself the target of hitting the big 100 a few years ago and has diligently worked towards ensuring he would reach that mark in Bermuda’s only full marathon.In the end it meant squeezing in two marathons in the space of just two weeks during October and November. His 98th marathon was the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC, which was followed by race 99 in North Carolina.His marathon odyssey began in the early 1990s after he watched the New York Marathon on TV. In 1993 he entered his first marathon, the prestigious Boston Marathon, and so began his love affair with the 26.2-mile event.“It was never my ambition to go for 100, but when I was 40 I had reached ‘40 at 40’ and that’s when I thought about doing 100,” he said.He works as a maintenance man for Appleby and is a member of the Swans Running Club and the Mid Atlantic Athletic Club. Last weekend the Swans Club awarded him with a lifetime achievement award.“Being a member of Swans and MAAC has helped me in my training,” he said. Steede’s fastest marathon was completed in two hours and 49 minutes in Boston.“I was training really hard. I was doing 90 miles a week and doing long runs on Saturdays and Sundays, one day with the Swans and the next day with MAAC, and that really helped.”He has never dropped out of a marathon. His slowest time is five hours.Asked why he had such an affinity with the event, he said: “With the marathon you can settle in to the race and the crowds carry you along. If you are physically fit you can race hard, other times you can just run the distance.“One year I ran three marathons in the same month and I found I got faster in each race.”He has competed in the Boston and Marine Corps marathons the most often, 18 times each, and he considers them his favourites along with the Midnight Sun Marathon at Tormso in Norway.In next month’s Bermuda Marathon Weekend, Steede will once again compete in the Bermuda Triangle Challenge, running the mile, 10K and full marathon on consecutive days. He won the inaugural Triangle Challenge in 2008.But it is the marathon that will be the big focus next month as he sets out to hit the big 100. And after that?Steede said: “I’ll keep on running. I’d like to do the Comrades Marathon (a 56-mile ultra-distance road race) in South Africa during the next two years.”n Online entries for next month’s Bermuda Marathon Weekend will be accepted until December 31. Late entries for the 10K, half marathon and marathon will be accepted at the race number pick-up at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel on January 13 and 14.Online entries are accepted online at www.bermudaraceweekend.com.