Running for a Cause

I love running. But I don’t do it enough. And I’ve never done a really big run. Like a marathon or half marathon. I’ve actually never run further than 10 kms in one outing.

I’m about to change all that.

A colleague of mine has challenged me to run 27 kms from my house to the location of our current contract in Mississauga, just west of the Airport. He threw down the gauntlet. And while I’ve never run that far, and while it strikes me as slightly insane, I’ve taken up the challenge. I’d like to see if I can do it.

So I’m going to be running 27 kms to work. I have until the end of our contract (end of September) to complete the challenge. And instead of running just for myself, I’ve decided this is a sufficiently large / absurd distance to run for others, too. To run for a cause I care about. So I’m doing that too.

My charity of choice is the David Suzuki Foundation. I’m passionate about environmental issues and in particular the issue of climate change. A few years ago I saw the great documentary Chasing Ice about National Geographic photographer James Balog’s efforts to capture through photography a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. I was floored by the results. Watch it and you’ll see there’s no question that we’re on target to leave future generations with a tragic mess. As a runner, and someone who spent his summers camping, portaging, exploring the wonderful geography our country has to offer, this makes me sad but also animates me. And I can’t think of an organization more committed to achieving real action on this issue than the David Suzuki Foundation.

I’ve set up a fundraising page on CanadaHelps. If you’re interested in the cause, I encourage you to donate. If you’re interested in sending me some motivational love, I encourage you to donate. This being a personal challenge, I’m setting a very modest fundraising goal of $300. Donate as little or as much as you wish. All proceeds will be passed on to the David Suzuki Foundation.

As for the run itself, we’re still figuring out a date but it will likely be Friday, September 30, 2016. I’m logging all of my training runs on Strava to my web site at http://nicholasvanexan.com/running via IFTTT. We may get really geeky about the final run and do a live stream thing. We’re looking into it. So stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted.

And enjoy the rest of your summer!

Nick