Marathon of Hope

 While most people were bedding down for the night, the Junior High X-Country team was just getting started. In connection with the Terry Fox Run, the school hosted an all night Marathon of Hope to raise money for cancer research in Canada. From 8pm to 8am kids, teens, parents, friends, brothers, and sisters, ran a continuous relay throughout the night. Tents were set up on the school grounds to sleep in between running shifts.

It is funny how sometimes we can discover, suddenly, things about our own kids that we never knew previously. To my delight, I found out that my Reggie is a running fool. After setting up his tent, he took the glow stick baton from a team mate and began to run a stretch that would last for 12km. I kept telling him to save some kms for later in the night, but he had heard that the record for a continuous km stretch was 10kms and he was determined to break it. When he was done he crashed in his tent while I watched the Terry Fox movie with my other kids and about two dozen others projected on the back of the school.

Unfortunately Reggie got sick in the night and had to come home : ( .   He was pretty mad. I think he over did it and his GI tract paid the price. He seemed ok by the morning and we headed out to the Community Terry Fox Run, which I am the organizer of. The cross-country team finished their last kilometer of the night joining with the community run. It was amazing. They ran over 700km as a team and raised over $2000 in a single night. One kid ran a full marathon (40km) during the night. Rachelle Sugden and Nathan Smith did an amazing job of planning and putting on the event.

 
I was so grateful for all my family and close friends that supported me for the community run. Ironically, Cam and I took over the organizing of the run about a year before he was diagnosed. With cancer, there is not much you can do to help someone fight it, but this run is one thing that can be done. It was a great day! Special thanks to Mom, Dad, Erica, Shannon, Mindy and Graham for all your help with the set up, registration, and food. Love you guys!