The impact of Canada's imposition of visa restrictions on Mexican visitors in the middle of July has taken most of my time in recent weeks. It's been a very challenging summer to say the least. But I am an optimist and an entrepreneur. I am looking at Spain to pick up some of the shortfall. But that's another post.
-Today I want to call your attention to a crazy but admirable idea, one of those that create conversational capital for a destination. One of my followers, whom I also follow on the micro-blogging service, is the eco lodge E'Terra Inn, an award winning eco friendly luxury estate in Ontario's Bruce Peninsula, by an "ancient coral reef known as the Niagara Escarpment next to the diamantine waters of Georgian Bay." E'Terra alerted me to the 850 Race, a fundraising event whose website introduces as follows: "Think about doing the impossible. Dream. Raise one million dollars to help kids in need. Impossible? How is this for impossible? Run a marathon. Run two marathons, back to back. No. That is not impossible. It may be painful. But not impossible. How about running two marathons a day for six days in a row? Starting to sound impossible? One last thing, let’s not do it on a road. Let’s do it off road on trails..." Now, I am a runner myself and would say have excercised regularly most of my life. I once ran the full Mexico City Marathon and in recent years I ran a half marathon at the Toronto Waterfron Marathon. I am aware of extreme sports and, of course we all know Terry Fox's story. But no matter how you spin it, running two marathons daily (84 kms) for six days does sound like an impossible (and dangerous) thing to attempt.
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The 850 Race is a project in support of the Global Child Health Program which is the collective strategy for SickKids and partners in developing nations to address the Millennium Development Goal #4 - Reduce Child Mortality. David Battison and Brian Culbert are the men behind the 850 race. David, a well known coach in skiing circles, and Brian, an avid cyclist, are both avid extreme sports practitioners. Not the leisure runs I take around my home or in parks and cities wherever I travel. No, these guys don't excercise for health or fun reasons. They like crazy challenges. Apparently on day they were talking about coming up with new challenges and making a "bucket list." One of the items of the list was to run the entire Bruce Trail. Ah, but this not being enough of a challenge they thought "why not make it a race...in six days!" (my quotes).
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And so David and Brian are running as I write this. I would have loved to at E'Terra near Tobermory this Friday to see them cross the finish line (thank you E'Terra for inviting me), but other commitments and my work precluded me from driving up there. Best of luck with your feet (and knees, and ankles, and backs) guys. Godspeed!
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Please visit the 850Race website and support this worthy cause. Follow the race on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/the850race. Visit E'Terra's website to learn about this unique Inn in the Province of Ontario.
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Jaime Horwitz
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