Marathon Quest by Martin Parnell

Author:Martin Parnell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Philanthropy & Charity, SPORTS & RECREATION / Running & Jogging, SPORTS & RECREATION / Extreme Sports
ISBN: 978-1-927330-14-2
Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books
Published: 2012-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

I thought about Right To Play, its programs based on sport and physical activity that channelled kids’ enthusiasm toward learning to work together, to find confidence in themselves, to become leaders. Injured or not, I knew I was even more determined than ever to raise the $250,000 I had committed to raise: enough money for programs for 5,000 kids.

And so, with the kids in mind, I decided I would continue to do my school visits and some walking laps. I rounded out February with trips to the Hamptons School in Calgary, and Mitford Middle School, where I was met with the same enthusiasm for sport that I had seen across Africa. These kids knew they had a lot in common with the kids being helped through Right To Play. Mitford students had already raised money for Right To Play in 2009. Both schools invited me back to run later in the year. And I planned to be fit for them!

As part of my rehab plan, I went to see Dr. Greg Long, a chiropractor at ProActive Health in Cochrane who performed some active release therapy on my shin. He also worked on some inflexibility issues in my left ankle, which may have contributed to my shin problem, putting pressure on the tibialis anterior muscle, especially when I climbed hills. He continued working with both parts of my leg well into the spring. After that first visit, I felt better, so I readied myself for what would become my “Walking Marathons.”

March came in like a lion, if a slow-paced, slightly lame, shuffling one. I decided to walk the first marathon of the month and see how things held together. I used walking poles to take some of the pressure off the muscle around my shin, and I slipped on some new shoes, donated to me by Impact Magazine. I also switched routes from the hilly Cochrane Foothills Marathon to the Cochrane West Point Marathon course, which follows the Bow River and is relatively flat. I ended that first day of March with a time of 8:18:00, and my shin felt pretty good, even after a twinge at the 30 km mark.

During my half-month of walking marathons, I found that my cold-weather gear strategy didn’t work as well for me as when I was running the marathons in sub-zero temperatures. I just couldn’t seem to warm up. But, I persevered. I knew my muscle would recuperate eventually, that I wouldn’t have to walk forever. I walked around the Cochrane course, and I also walked at a variety of schools and along some Calgary pathways.

Athlete Ambassador for Right To Play: Wayne Gretzky

In the early 1980s I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the Edmonton Oilers and watch probably the greatest player ever to put the “biscuit between the pipes.” Time moves on, and it was with a measure of pride that on February 13, 2010, in between marathons, I watched Wayne Gretzky carry the Olympic torch on its route through the city of Vancouver.

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