Billy Loutit’s family
In Athabasca’s 1904 flood a local Métis mailrunner named William (Billy) Loutit ran from Athabasca to Edmonton with an important message to tell of the town’s emergency. Billy made the trip over flooded roads and undeveloped terrain in 16 hours - an hour quicker than the messenger on horseback. The duathlon is modelled after the outdoor, long-distance, in-the-elements, mailrunning kind of life Billy lived. We think that Billy would have also excelled at the demanding sport of triathlon.
The Loutit family (also spelled Loutitt) has been involved with the Billy Loutit events from their beginnings in 2003. In 2004, over thirty Loutit relatives came to Athabasca during the triathlon, including Billy’s two surviving daughters, Ellen Bishop, born in 1922, and Sarah Parke, born in 1926.
If you are a member of the family and would like to share a story or some photos, or, if you think you might be related but aren't sure, please contact info@billyloutit.ca.
The Summer 2005 issue of Alberta’s Legacy magazine features an article on the Billy Loutit events and the Loutit family.
Jason Loutitt is Billy’s great grandson, and is gaining national recognition as a marathon and mountain runner. See Jason's biography at Manitoba's Champions for One-Tonne Challenge Program.
Jason completed the duathlon in 2004 with a time of 3 hours and 17 minutes, beating the next-fastest individual time of 4 hours, 9 minutes.
Shannon Loutitt, Billy's great granddaughter, participated in our 2004 triathlon and her first ever, claiming third place in the women's sprint event.
In 2007, Shannon Loutitt ran the Boston Marathon in honour of Canada's Tom Longboat, the Aboriginal (Onandaga) runner who completed the famous marathon in 1907 with a winning time of 2:24:24. Read the Globe and Mail article about it.
In 2008, four years after her first triathlon and over a century after Billy Loutit's epic 1904 run to Edmonton, Shannon Loutitt retraced her great-grandfather's trails from Edmonton to Athabasca in an honour run, bringing Billy's spirit back home.
Read the Edmonton Journal story about Shannon's 100-mile run.
Senator Lilian Dyck attended the opening ceremony for Shannon's 100-mile journey, and spoke about it in the senate.
“Spirit runs, the legs just follow.”—Shannon Loutitt
Jason Loutitt continues Mountain Running and other runs, and keeps a blog about them, titled Running Through Mountains.