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Sipping an Orange Crush and sinking into a back-stage leather couch, Dave Proctor comes to a quick conclusion.

“I hate running right now.”

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That feeling promises to be fleeting. This is not someone who sits still for long. Under the circumstances, though, it is an understandable sentiment.

Only minutes earlier, Proctor had staggered off a treadmill.

After 24 straight hours of galloping.

Inside the Big Four Building at the Calgary Marathon Expo – from 4 p.m. Friday till 4 p.m. Saturday – he ran and ran and ran.

Painfully, Proctor pounded out 260.4 kilometres, establishing a Guinness World Record.

So to suddenly detest his sport? Fair enough.

Hate away.

“I don’t want to ever go out for a run,” says Proctor. “That was a terrible choice. That really, really, really hurt.”

He smiles.

“But I know that three or four days will pass and I’ll get an itch.”

Proctor’s mood – after knocking off the equivalent of six consecutive marathons without sleep or even rest (think about that) – is impossibly sunny.