Welcome to the run!
I am so happy you have stumbled along to this site, describing a unique and experimental event that is being planned for the summer of 2021! The above route maps out a course of 205 marathons that stretch across Canada from Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island to St. John's, NL. See who has signed up so far and what routes are left! And click here to sign-up through Race Roster!
The plan: Starting on May 17th, 2021, two marathons will be run each day until Canada has been crossed, from the West to the East. Each leg of the route will be run by either an individual, or small group of runners/athletes who will be raising money for one (or more!) of the five represented charities.
How you can help: In order for this journey to be a success, I'll need your help! If you are interested in participating, please click on the "sign up" tab at the top right. If you do not wish to participate, feel free to browse the charity pages, and perhaps donate to one you are passionate about!
The plan: Starting on May 17th, 2021, two marathons will be run each day until Canada has been crossed, from the West to the East. Each leg of the route will be run by either an individual, or small group of runners/athletes who will be raising money for one (or more!) of the five represented charities.
- ACCESSIBILITY NOTE: If you cannot run any of the routes, that's okay! You can still choose a leg to run and run it on whatever date suites you. The goal is to bring our communities together, and this may mean not being able to create a perfect, sequential route.
How you can help: In order for this journey to be a success, I'll need your help! If you are interested in participating, please click on the "sign up" tab at the top right. If you do not wish to participate, feel free to browse the charity pages, and perhaps donate to one you are passionate about!
The motivation
It's a big ask to ask people to run marathons across Canada - especially when some parts of Canada are fairly remote - but I think the world is ready for something uplifting and exciting! For those of you who don't know who I am, my name is Zoe Clarke, and I am currently chipping away at a graduate degree in computational biology at the University of Toronto. This basically means that I am using genetic/genomic data to try and understand how the hepatitis B virus is causing liver cancer. |
For a few years now, running has been my personal way to clear my mind, stretch my limits, and most importantly, get rid of that hunched, computer position! During an exchange in a foreign country when I felt quite lonely, running was my favourite distraction. When I moved to Toronto in the fall of 2019, the runners at my local Running Room became some of my best friends in the city, and pushed me to run my first ever half-marathon (Scotiabank 2019)!
When COVID19 became quite prevalent in Canada, I moved out of Toronto and in with my family in the country who became my run/bike team. Determined to run a marathon, I ran my first one on my birthday in 2020 completely on backroads with nothing but some water and a few snacks. I was greeted at home by my dog who licked the salt off my face, and was rewarded with the personal satisfaction that I could run this distance that I thought was impossible one small year ago. |
Running that marathon made me realize how much we can accomplish with the right motivation. Realizing that motivation has been rather lacking in the past year or so, I wanted to make an event that would perhaps inspire and bring us together in a way that we can physically run apart. Although it was difficult to choose who exactly to support with this run, the charities I have chosen represent diverse causes that I feel don't often get the attention and funding they deserve. Additionally, these causes are shared across our geography: preventing homelessness, conserving wildlife, supporting Indigenous peoples, addressing mental health issues, and funding the arts. I hope that at least one of these causes resonates with you, and that a run across our diverse country will inspire you to provide help and support to our equally diverse population.