That’s a sub-4 marathon for 85-YEAR-OLD Ed Whitlock! Incredible. Massive WR and 3:56 officially! A photo posted by canadianrunning (@canadianrunning) on Oct 16, 2016 at 9:43am PDT

Ed Whitlock defied expectations and ran a 3:56 marathon on Sunday at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, breaking the men’s 85-89 world record by more than 30 minutes. The 85-year-old Milton, Ont. resident ran in a 30-year-old singlet and 15-year-old Brooks shoes.

RELATED: Top one-liners from Ed Whitlock at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

He ran 3:56:33 (3:56:38 gun time) after going through the halfway mark at 1:54:34. He says that he went out a bit too hard but still maintained an overall average pace of 5:36 per kilometre throughout the 42.2K race.

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The previous world record was 4:34:55, set in 2004, according to the Association of Road Racing Statisticians. It’s being reported that his age-graded time equates to a 2:08 for the full marathon. It was Whitlock’s first marathon in three years. Among his lengthy list of accomplishments is being the only man over 70 to have broken three hours in the marathon.

Canadian Running caught up with Whitlock after the race.

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