Amble with Angus Fun Run for the Calgary Food Bank

On Thursday December 16th, Angus Cowan started running to raise money for the Calgary Food Bank milk program for kids. To celebrate the 25 year anniversary, Angus ran for 25 hours straight. The general public joined him for the last 1 hour run around downtown Calgary starting and ending at the Eau Claire Mall. The outside temperature ranged between -10 to -15 degrees celcius. Angus had an extra challenge this year, as the flu had gone through his family that week, and he got the flu the night before he was to run. When I meet Angus before the race on the Thursday morning, he only had 2 hours sleep because he was up all night with the flu. Starting a marathon run dehydrated is not the ideal situation. I worked with Angus for the whole 25 hours and realized that he is one special person. We had Canadream RV's donate one of their RV's.

We used the RV as our satellite clinic and remote headquarters for the Lead support organizer, Charles Finstad. Angus had a spirit that is unstoppable. He soldiered onto the end. He only had one piece of pizza at 2am Friday. I took a picture of him eating, which he only did once over the 25 hour run. He was so excited because it stayed down. He ended up running 100km! His tank was definitely empty at the end of the event. The fundraiser event met its goal that Jason Wall (race director) set for raise $25,000 for the Calgary Food Bank. We had our after race draw prizes in the Eau Claire Mall. There were many prizes from Gord's Running Store, and Ideaca managed to get Microsoft to donate some great computer prizes, and games like "RockBand". Our staff from NCSPT helped out on the running course with injuries and injury prevention. We also had 4 tables set up that were utilized to massage out a few sore muscles, and provide complimentary assessments, and some great advice to participants. NCSPT donated Massage Therapy sessions and video gait analysis vouchers, and a running clinic depending on the amount that you donated.

Overall this was a great event for a very worthwhile cause. The milk program at the Food bank delivered over 67,000 litres of milk to young kids and families in need last year. We were proud to be the medical providers at this event. Thanks to Gord from Gord's Running Store for referring us to Angus to get involved in the amazing event. What will Angus do next year to top this event?