Achi news desk-
The 2024 Servus Calgary Marathon is the longest running marathon in Canada and will be held on Sunday, May 26th. The event was sold out with 13,600 participants ranging in age from just 11 months to 88 years.
This is the biggest road race field since 2014.
But it has become much more than an event to test a runner’s endurance: the marathon is also a way for participants to raise awareness of and raise money for a variety of charities.
Kirsten Fleming is the executive director of the Calgary Marathon Association and says around $650,000 is raised annually through its 109 partner charities and an initiative called ‘The Charity Challenge’.
Since its inception in 2013, the challenge will have raised more than $10,000,000, including donations made in 2024.
“A lot of races only have one charity that benefits but the magic of the Charity Challenge is that with 109 charities there’s a cause for everyone,” said Fleming. “We’re saying please use our race as a platform to raise money and awareness, let’s focus on race logistics and put the whole thing on, make your fun T-shirts that thank your sponsors and focus on having a great day and picking up important things. money for those charities — so it’s a huge aspect of the race.”
Fleming says the event begins May 24th with participants registering at the Marathon Expo at GMC Stadium in Stampede Park.
“We’ve been trying to make it a full week of events for many years and this year, it really feels like it’s all come together,” he said. “We have pre shake out rounds, we have yoga, we have the diapers for the little babies, an opening reception and an after party so it starts here today at the expo and the pick up and it’s indeed. go through the weekend.”
First timers
Adil Adetunji and his sister Asiyah are running in the marathon for the first time with a team they created called ‘the Uplifters’. The 16 and 14 year olds have volunteered at the Calgary Food Bank since the pandemic and decided to use the marathon to raise money for it.
So far they have raised more than $6,700 from family and friends.
“We’ve been hiking and running for a while now,” Asiyah said. “So since the Calgary Marathon is going to be coming up around this time, we decided why not combine the two things we love – raising money for the Calgary Food Bank and the marathon.”
“Our family takes pride in giving something back to the community just because we feel that we are well off and that there are those who are less fortunate than us,” said Adil. “We feel that we have been very lucky and that it is our responsibility to give back to the community from which we have benefited so much.”
Adil says that in the time he and his sister have volunteered at the Food Bank they have seen the demand increase.
“Honestly, like between the first couple of months we’re just learning the ropes and between then and now we’ve just seen honestly say double at some point, it’s a lot of progress,” he said.
A genetic disorder
Blaine Penny is the co-founder of Mito Canada, a charity dedicated to supporting those affected by mitochondrial diseases. It is a genetic disorder that affects the mitochondria, the parts of cells responsible for energy production.
Penny became an advocate for the disease after his son Evan was diagnosed. Through the charity, he and other runners have raised thousands of dollars to fund research, support families affected by mitochondrial diseases and raise awareness.
This year he and 13 others will be attempting the Guinness World Record for the fastest linked men’s half marathon.
“The current record is one hour and 26 minutes and we need at least five people but of course, we are doing this to raise awareness for Mito Canada and to raise money,” he said. “So we’re going to have 14 guys linked together, tied one meter apart, trying to run under 1:20 for this half marathon.”
Penny and her group of supporters are no strangers to world record attempts at the Calgary Marathon.
“This is actually our 15th Guinness World Record we’re going for,” he said. “So we’ve done a lot of records over the years, all in partnership with the Calgary Marathon so they’ve been tremendous in supporting us and helping us accommodate all the things we need to do to get these records.”
“I would say Mito Canada is like the little charity that could,” said Fleming. “It’s a small group of passionate people and they make this a central part of their fundraising every year and they’ve done an amazing job raising awareness and now there aren’t many runners who don’t know what is mitochondrial disease due to this group. .”
On May 24th, extreme athlete Andre Belibi will make a Guinness World Record attempt to have full body contact with ice outside the GMC Stadium, but also to raise awareness for people on the autism spectrum. The current record is held by a man from Poland at four hours and two minutes. Belibi is looking to stay engaged and break the record of 13 minutes.
“For something like this, you experience a lot with the mind, you do a lot of mental training, a little breathing a lot of meditations to train it,” he said. “Of course you do ice baths, exposed to cold water, ice water in the mountains or run in the snow barefoot for hours but definitely the mind, the mind is the engine, the motor pushes me to keep going.”
Grady Semmens helps him along the way to record the event and fallow all Guinness guidelines and rules to ensure the record breaking attempt is valid.
“Setting a world record is extreme by nature,” he said. “There’s a lot of things we’ve had to learn as we go, as well as just training for cold and cold, it’s been accepted so they’re aware and this is going to be an official Guinness attempt World Records. “
Semmens says Belibi’s safety is paramount and a paramedic was on hand to monitor him for over four hours. He says it’s a great way to start the marathon celebrations.
“It worked really well in partnership with the Servus Calgary Marathon,” he said. “We started talking to them several months ago and they thought it would be a really neat addition to the Marathon Expo on opening day because it’s something that’s focused on human performance.”
Find out more about the event here.
