As Canadians there is a fairly long but modest list of people that we put up on pedestals, and a bit shorter list of folks who deserve to be there.
Near the top of that second list is the late, great Terry Fox.
As I write and post this (in late September) we are about to commemorate this national treasure with the annual Terry Fox Run, a community fun run and fundraiser continuing the legacy of a young man who when faced with the diagnosis of cancer just started running.
The story of Terry Fox is about as well known to the average Canadian as any modern folk tale. A young man is diagnosed with a disease that, at the time, was almost certainly fatal. Despite losing a leg and being left to get around on a 1980s prosthetic limb, he set out to run across Canada, a planned distance of over eight thousand kilometres with a goal of raising a million bucks for research.
He made it 5,373 kilometres (or 3,339 miles) before complications sidelined him. And he was unable to continue or finish before he passed from the disease.
Now, decades later, each September hoards of Canadians converge on local events to log their own mileage and raise a bit more cash to contribute to what is now an astronomical total of over a billion dollars raised to fight cancer.
This weekend I’ll be logging my own ten klicks for Terry. I’m not canvasing for collections, but you can certainly donate to the cause at terryfox.org
Definitions
- Canadian
- I write this blog from a small city in the middle of the Canadian prairies. It means I use terms like kilometres and celsius and you're just gonna need to deal with that. I run four seasons long, from blisteringly hot summers through icy cold winters. I've encountered moose, beavers, and snakes on our trails. And we're proud of it all.
- goal
- In training lingo, a planned series of steps and milestones to reach some planned achievement: A race time. A race finish. A weekly mileage total. A streak. Or getting through an injury. Goals are personal and (for me) important.
- klick
- As a Canadian I run in metric. As a writer, I find the word kilometre clunky and clinical. I'll usually use the colloquial "klick" or "klicks" to substitute in for this.
- september
- The days are noticeably shorter when we realize that September is upon us. The post-summer routine kicks in and people are back to regular work schedules and kids are back in school. It can still be warm, but the hottest days are behind us and most of the biggest races of the year are in the rear view. We savour September knowing winter is too soon to come.
