Cross Canada Run

I am pretty tired right now and I should probably go to bed soon because it’s way passed my bed time, but I just received an email from my former work partner asking how I am doing on behalf of my former colleagues at Chase Paymentech Canada. My former colleagues have been supporting me and the run from day one and I feel bad that I haven’t been keeping up with my blog so here I am typing while my legs are already half-asleep after a hard run earlier today.

Well, let me start with today’s run. I haven’t been running much in the past week because I have been stretching myself thin among the various things that I felt I had to do and I gave myself all sorts of excuses not to run. As a result, I have not been feeling particular upbeat lately and decided today that I had to go out for a run. I decided to join a local running group for their evening run and let fellow runners motivate me. As expected, I had a good run and I met a few new friends from the running group. One of them was Brenda who has been running for about a year. Brenda told me that a year ago she was looking to sign up for a walking clinic but it was full so she went with the learn-to-run clinic instead. She struggled on her very first run and remembered feeling like she was dying with breathing difficulties and her heart was about to jump out of her chest! While struggling with her first run she recalled at one point seeing a landmark (a pink bush on the side of the road) in the distance and said to herself “I will get to that bush and either stop and never run again or I will keep on running”. She got to the pink bush and then just kept on running. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t very motivated before the run but by this point I was jazzed up and glad I came out for the run. I told Brenda that she made my day!

Lately I have been preoccupied with organizing the run to northern Canada in Spring 2010 with my team in BC, meeting people in and outside of the mental health industry, occasionally looking for jobs (the colonel’s people never call back:) and selling my rv. I have also began to volunteer at the Canadian Mental Health Association in Vancouver where I learned to play bingo for the first time and it was fun!:)

In the process of promoting the cause and the run, I have been attending mental health events and meeting great people. For example, earlier this week I attended an event that was organized by the Canadian Mental Health Association of Burnaby/Vancouver where I saw old friends again and met another young man named Ben Verboom who just biked across the country to raise awareness for suicide.

The event was held at a park and as I was walking out of the park at the end of the event I came across a youngster who was trying to do a chin-up exercise at the bars that were set up in the park. The youngster was about 11 or 12 years old. What caught my attention at first were the fact that the youngster was wearing a relatively thick jacket and long pants on a warm day and her hair was long and seemingly uncared for, and the other signs of a child who was neglected or lacking a permanent or proper home.

The other thing that caught my attention was how upset she was when she wasn’t able to raise her chin to the bar. She disappointedly yelled “I can’t do it!” and swung her fists to show her displease. I was a little sad to see her disappointment so I walked up to her and encouraged her to give the chin-up another try. She again was unable to meet the bar and again swung her fists and said “See! I can’t do it!”. I observed that her second trial actually got her chin closer to the bar than her first attempt so I mentioned that to her and encouraged her to try it again. She didn’t make it at her third trial either and was again upset but I pointed out that she was closer than the last two times and that she can try it again. I was not sure why she listened to me but she did and the fourth trial was a success! I was excited! She was even more excited as you can imagine. I gave her a high-five and she started jumping around in joy! I can still remember how sweet I felt inside as I shared her celebration. But it didn’t end there.

Once the youngster stopped jumping around, she abruptly asked me “what’s the best way for me to lose weight?”. I told her I wasn’t sure but I like running and it keeps me active so she might want to give it a try. She agreed so I advised her to run to the end of the trail then back. The youngster took off like a storm and ran with so much energy and vigor that it amazed me and her fighting spirit brought a smile to both my face and my heart! She got to the end of the trial then ran back with the same energy. At the end while she was sitting on the ground panting, I told her that I truly believed that she can become a champion one day and that she will feel good and look good. I asked if she will continue to run but she said she’s not sure because running is too tiring (not the answer I was looking for:). So I showed her how to warm up with a slower run and some stretch exercises to alleviate the fatigue. I asked her where she lived but she didn’t feel comfortable answering that so I left her my contact information in case she has any questions and I told her that I would come back to the park to check on her progress next week. I walked out of that park with a melted heart.

I am not sure who was giving and who was receiving. Maybe that distinction is insignificant.