Kimberley Doerksen is too young to have been around for the Marathon of Hope but, growing up and learning Terry Fox's story in school, she remembers a sense of awe at what he'd accomplished and dreaming that, one day, maybe she would do the same.
"I had fantasies of running across Canada," she recalled. "I don't know why maybe just because it was such a lofty goal in my 10-year-old brain."
Big-time running goals aren't too far out of Doerksen's reach, however. The competitive long-distance runner was the first woman to cross the finish line at the 2014 BMO Vancouver Marathon, completing the 42.2-km race in just under two hours and 37 minutes - 40 minutes faster than her previous best time and a race record.
And although she's recuperating from a re-fractured heel, the Coquitlam resident is keen to lace up for the Terry Fox Training Run, the April 4 event that will follow the path Fox used to prepare for his 1980 Marathon of Hope.
Terry had trained for the previous 18 months, which meant learning to walk with an artificial leg and, eventually, to run, honing his gait on a route through the Tri-Cities that, closer to the end of his training, he sometimes did two or three times in a single day.
"It was my 10 miles," Fox said of his route. "You could not find a better 10 miles in the world."
Fox left from the coast of Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 and ran a marathon every day for 143 days to raise money for cancer research. The run ended on Sept. 1 of that year, when the cancer that had returned made it impossible for him to continue.
It's a tragic story, Doerksen said, "but at the same time it's an amazing storyabsolutely incredible" - particularly since she knows well the rigours of preparing for a big run.
As an elite athlete, her training schedule is intense, often including two workouts a day and logging up to 160 km of running a week. When physical fatigue sets in, the mental challenge of finding a way to continue can be one of the toughest hurdles to overcome.
"You have to mentally prepare yourself for that," she said. "You know it's going to be a slog the next day and you know some days you're going to feel good and some days not the greatest."
That Fox could push through those slumps and get up, day after day, to run marathon after marathon, let alone on one leg, is unimaginable, Doerksen said.
"Runs of higher intensity and longer duration are very mentally taxing, so you do have to dig deep and get that motivation to fight through the things that are most uncomfortable," she said.
For Fox, each day of training and the Marathon of Hope was about digging deep - to get out of bed at 4 a.m., to run through blisters or a sore stump, to make it up the hill, to the next telephone pole and then the next and then, the following day, to do it all again.
Nearly two years after losing his leg to osteosarcoma, Fox had run 6,398 miles (10,297 km). About 3,060 miles were logged in training, starting with the track at Maple Creek middle school (then Hastings junior secondary) and, later, from his Morrill Street home through Coquitlam, out to the Ioco townsite and back.
The Terry Fox Training Run on April 4 will give runners a chance to follow that same route, as well as a chance to reflect on Fox's incredible athletic accomplishment - and the mental stamina it took to get him there - in celebration of the Marathon of Hope's 35th anniversary.
The Terry Fox Training Run starts at Westwood elementary (3610 Hastings St., PoCo) at 7:30 a.m. on April 4 (registration runs 6:30 to 7:15 a.m. or online). There is no fee to participate and, in keeping with Fox's wishes, the run is neither timed nor sanctioned. Everyone is welcome to the opening ceremony at 9:45 a.m., followed by a community walk at 10 a.m. Visit www.terryfoxtrainingrun.com for full details.
@spayneTC
