By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Milton’s Symon Burgess started running in 2019, after a friend suggested setting a 100-day goal for something. Burgess hoped that after running for 100 days, it would become a habit, or possibly even an entire lifestyle for him.
It seems to have worked: on May 24, 2025, Burgess ran the Sulphur Springs Trail Race 100 Mile Ultra Marathon. Burgess also raised $1500 for the Terry Fox Foundation through a fundraiser he started shortly before the race.
He spoke about his humble beginnings as a runner.
“I started running 2 miles a day for 100 days, and then sure enough, COVID hit and gyms closed,” Burgess said. “[So] I started to run more often and amp up the distance.”
In January of 2020, Burgess trained for five months to run his first marathon, which was ultimately cancelled. Despite this, he met his goal, running the marathon’s distance anyway.
“I ended up running my own, solo,” Burgess said. “Just to say ‘Hey, I’m keeping myself accountable.’ If I signed up for a marathon, I’m going to run a marathon on the day that I said I was going to run a marathon. So I ran a marathon.”
A 2021 marathon that Burgess signed up for was also cancelled due to COVID: again, he ran the distance anyway, by himself.
It was in 2022 that Burgess got his first medal for running the Toronto Marathon. For the uninitiated, all official marathons cover a distance of 42.195 km or 26.2 miles.
It was at this point that Burgess asked himself, “What’s next?”
“I kept hearing about all these different athletes that were pushing the boundaries as to what is possible and running longer distances,” Burgess said. “They call it an ultra marathon when it’s anything longer than a full one. And from there, I said ‘Okay, let’s up the ante here and try for 100 miles.”
Burgess received advice from a former boss that he should work his way up to the 100-mile goal, so he ran a 100-kilometre ultra marathon instead, in 2023. (Ultra marathons vary in distance, unlike marathons.)
He said that it was a “very challenging ordeal.”
“A big revelation that I took from that experience was, it’s okay to not be okay, and it’s okay to talk to somebody if you’re having issues,” Burgess said. He said that the experience made him become more of an advocate for mental health and “want to be a conduit to help.”
In 2024, Burgess made his first attempt to complete a 100-mile race but bowed out after approximately 100 kilometres due to inclement weather and a foot injury he suffered earlier in the race.
Lap two flew by. After rolling my ankle I was worried that my foot wouldn’t hold—but by about 25 km, the pain faded. I tried to make sure that I kept my lower body, especially my feet relaxed, so whenever I felt things starting to tense up, I’d just remind myself to stay loose.
— Symon Burgess, from his reflections on the ultra marathon
“The revelation that I took from last year was that, as much as I didn’t finish the race, I should be grateful that I have the ability to go out and to run this type of a race [in the first place],” Burgess said. “There are so many other people in the world that are struggling with multiple sclerosis, different types of cancers, blood diseases, anxiety, depression, or struggling with addiction problems, and for me to go out and be able to do this was fantastic.”
After reaching his 100-mile goal this year at the Sulphur Springs Trail Race, which is a 20 km loop through the Dundas Valley Conservation Area in Hamilton, Burgess said that his biggest takeaway was the importance of community.
“Having the right people in your corner to support you with your goals, ambitions, dreams, and desires, helping you to get to where you want to go,” Burgess said. “Just finding the people cherishing and being appreciative, the people that are there to support you, because they sacrifice just as much to see you accomplish your dreams.”
I was away from the base camp when a deep chill struck me to the bone. I was underdressed. Thankfully, I was able to pop on another layer, but we needed to get going. We had to keep moving. I remained positive and still energized. My mind had itself in check, but my body had other plans. My legs were failing, my knees were starting to lock up, and my stomach was not interested in processing anymore food. Also, every ten minutes I had to stop and pee. The cold had seeped in and the freeze started to take hold.
— Symon Burgess, from his reflections on the ultra marathon
Burgess spoke about the many supports that exist in the community for both beginners and more experienced runners.
“Whether it be through the Milton Running Group, the Burlington Runners Club, or the Travelling Circus Running Group, there are a lot of great people in the community that are there to provide support and encouragement to get you to achieve or attempt to achieve your goals,” Burgess said.
“If you’re tackling a 10K, you’ve got people that are cheering for you; if you want to do a 20K or a half marathon, there’s going to be people that’ll help you train and help get you to where you want to be,” he continued.
Tying into his revelation about community, Burgess said that his desire to become the best version of himself is no longer for his benefit, but for others. While there are many other runners and social media influencers who inspire him, ultimately, Burgess’s biggest inspiration is his future self.
Ruben and I approached the final 6 km and the three sisters — what a shitshow. Every step up those hills felt like I was tackling Mt. Olympus with each one slowly eating away at my soul. Was I going to have enough left in the tank to finish? Believe it or not, the thought never made it to the surface of my mind. I would finish. I kept repeating my mantra: I will finish. I will finish. I will finish. Just keep moving.
— Symon Burgess, from his reflections on the ultra marathon
“I want to look back on all that I’ve done and achieved, and be proud of that achievement,” Burgess said.
Burgess spoke about the unique perspective that running can provide.
“It helps you be present and aware of how you feel, but it’s also the fact that it sucks,” Burgess said. “Nobody likes running. People say, ‘Oh, man, you can run 100 miles? That’s crazy.’ Some mornings, I have a tough time getting up and running five, or the first two kilometres feel like absolute trash, like I have cinder blocks attached to my feet. I don’t want to do it. So I think it’s just that doing something hard makes everything else easy.”
Burgess said that he hasn’t decided what his next goal will be, but promised that it will be something out of his comfort zone.
“It might be to run a sub-three-hour marathon, qualify for Boston, maybe run a sub-12-hour 100K; it could be running another 100-mile in another country, doing it through the mountains, maybe in Colorado or Quebec,” Burgess said. “It’ll be something that I haven’t done in a place I haven’t done it.”
