April 11, 2020 • 34 mins
You may have heard about his world records, his son, or even something that he was a part of that millions around the world watched. When Dave and his Coach Travis had to scratch the idea of his goal of a run across Canada, they shifted their perspective to make something epic. In a time when the world of endurance racing needed a deep breath and something for hope, they created a virtual event. In this episode, I talk with Dave about what happened, the idea, the race, the pandemic, and much more. I wish you all the best Dave and can’t wait until you cross Canada on foot next year!
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Follow Dave:
IG: @Daveoutrunsrare @RunProctor
Website: https://outrunrare.com/
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Follow Dave:
IG: @Daveoutrunsrare @RunProctor
Website: https://outrunrare.com/
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Follow Coach Terry:
Instagram: @PerfectRacePodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Episode three hundred and forty seven The Pandemic Series with
Dave Procter. Welcome to the Pursuit of the Perfect Race.
I'm coach Terry Wilson, and with each episode I bring
stories of athletes to you that share their experiences at
races in order for you to learn how to have
your perfect race. We will hear stories.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
From athletes of all ages, abilities and races of all distances,
So regardless of where you fen, there's something in there
for you. Thanks for spending some time with me today
and to let the pursuit begin.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Pandemic Series. I'm talking
with Dave Procter. Welcome the show. I'm glad to have
you own and I'm really thankful that you're giving me
a little bit of your time to talk with me.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, thanks for having me Terry.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, so let's talk about the pandemic here. You were
going to race across Canada and what happened.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, life got turned on its head within a seventy
two hour period of time. So yeah, No, I've been
planning the last couple of years trans Canadian speed record attempt.
I was going to run one hundred and five kilometers
every day for sixty seven days across Canada. Canada is
really big and break the trans Canadian speed record and
raise over a million dollars in awareness and advocacy for
(01:21):
rare disease. My son a eleven year old boy, he's
got a rare disease. But you know, like everybody in
the world, their lives got turned upside down and every
major event, race, public gathering, workplaces, everything's been canceled and
people are now quarantining and to stay to stay healthy
(01:43):
and safe. So unfortunately, we've ended up having to postpone
to run across Canada what we call out run Rare
until the summer of twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Wow, So everybody knows what COVID nineteen is by now,
and if you don't, you've been living in a hole
for a really long time.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
When did you first hear about COVID.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Nineteen and when did you realize like, yeah, okay, it's
just another virus whatever, not a big deal too, Okay,
this is going to have an impact. When what happened?
When did you first hear about it? And when did
that perspective shift?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, you know, we we've heard about a number of
different viruses starting up in China and Southeast Asia, and
they tend to not go too far or you know,
go far enough, and then and then and then science
gets on top of it. But you know, it just
seemed like it spread very very quickly to other countries
like Italy and France, and and and and I believe
(02:40):
it was it was Iraq or Iran, and things got
out of control really quickly. You know, I think that
we could look at those other countries and say, okay,
we know what's coming. You know, it's like when a
major downpour happens out in the mountains and the towns
along the way are getting flooded, and you go, oh
my goodness, those towns are getting well, you're in your next,
(03:01):
if you're downstream, your next. And so we we should
have all seen this coming. But when the when the virus,
when COVID nineteen started coming and arriving in our countries, uh,
the United States and you know, I live in Canada,
it came and it really scared everybody just because you know,
our medical offices were telling us just really how how
(03:24):
how terrible this is, and and including myself, my my
my son, he's he's got a complex medical history, and
you know, if you were to get sick, this would
be very very bad for him. And so we as
a family, we have to take this even more seriously.
And so it just seemed like every organization and every
family was in crisis and we all needed to make
(03:46):
very difficult decisions within a few days of hearing these
things because it just wasn't well, it wasn't responsible for
anybody to to go out and do these public events.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So when did it actually hit home that, okay, this
is going to be something bigger than most viruses to you.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I think again, it was about three and a half
weeks ago or four weeks ago, and yeah, it started
coming upon where you know, people would start staying at home,
you or our regional governments and provincial governments and federal governments.
We're all stating, you know, different things in order to
(04:29):
really you know, make people self quarantine without them putting
regulations in place. But we knew the regulations were going
to be coming, right, So it was interesting a couple
of days before, you know, I wasn't allowed I'm not
allowed to go to work right now, I'm quarantining in
my house with my family up here in Canada, and
I was going into work, and I was thinking, what
(04:49):
am I doing? Because I know when three or four
or five days the government's going to stamp in and
say you're not allowed to go to work? So what
am I doing putting my family at risk? Knowing very
well that hey, the virus is here in my city
and I might be coming in contact with it today.
I'm just going to go and stay at home. So
it's it's a it's an alarming feeling. It's not a
good feeling, and it makes you surius, your your loved ones.
(05:16):
You know you're you're medically vulnerable, you know, the elderly
in your community, like my parents. Yeah, it makes you
want to hold them a bit closer.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So I think right along this time, we started hearing
that Boston was canceled or postponed rather and then almost
it was like almost overnight, hundreds of almost thousands, but
probably in that thousands of races, including marathons, half marathons,
ironman events, ultra distance events, canceled, postponed.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Not happening. And how did this leave you feeling?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Because I know me personally, like that's a big part
of who I am and what I do and how
was How was that for you?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It really hurt. You know, I ended up having to
make the decision because you know, I put in tons
of ton and effort and my my whole life in
the last many years into my Outrun Rare project to
run across Canada in order to you know, create a
voice for for rare disease support and access in Canada.
(06:24):
And to to have to to stop it and to
have to say, Okay, this isn't happening, it broke my heart,
It really did. It was. It was a very very
difficult time in my my life. And you know, I
came to realize that, you know, it's it's not just
me who's feeling this way. It's a lot of other
people as well too, when they've put their heart and
(06:45):
soul into something and it's been taken away from them
or hasn't been taken away. But it was it was
an active God that that this happened. And and now
we have to pivot. We have to we have to
we have to do something with our emotions and thoughts
and feelings. And and so my coach, Travis Schuler Brown
ended up texting me that night after we canceled and
he said, hey, so Dave, what do you think of
(07:07):
this idea? If we were to end up going and
creating a free event and we call it Quarantine Backyard
And immediately it was like, we need to talk. And
so I think I gave him a call within a
half an hour, and by that time the next day
we had ended up having all of our outrun or
volunteers to run across Canada. We took those volunteers, we pivoted,
(07:29):
and we pivoted and we created an event that we
wanted to bring a global community something to look forward to.
Also understanding that there was no sports entertainment. There's no NBA,
there's no football, there's nothing happening in the world, and
this is the only sporting event that's happening in the world.
And so what we wanted to do is we wanted
(07:50):
to create a virtual race in which all the runners,
you know, click on a zoom link you could see
a video from their living rooms or their treadmills or
their front doors, and they would go out and run
a six point seven kilometer loop every hour on the hour,
the backyard style Lazarus like down in Big Doug's backyard
Ultra is event. We can end up going and creating
(08:13):
a pretty rad event, like like a global event that
anybody and everybody can do, because your goal might be
to do two laps, or your goal might be to
do one hundred. And so what we decided is is, Okay,
let's go and create a really big global event and
let's just go and hit all the different points. So
what we did was we took our disappointment with canceling
(08:35):
our run across Canada and we put that into an
excitement of what, you know, this is how I feel,
this is how hurt I feel. How excited could I
make somebody else feel by creating something great? And so
what I did first was I told Travis Nash, I said,
hold on one second, I'm going to send out an email.
And even during our first meeting, I said, guys, by
(08:56):
the end of this meeting, I'm going to send click
and I'm going to send an invite out to the
twenty five World's Beast Must Day runners. And I did
that and within a couple hours we got a handful
of runners that were like, dude, I'm in So I also, I.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Mean this included Courney de Walker, who's won UTMB and
Mike Cordain and Maggie who won Big Backyard last year.
Basically the who's who of Ultra running was on this.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Right absolutely, and then even from that after that twenty
five there were people that were jumping forward were like,
oh shoot, I forgot to put that guy in the list,
but yeah, he's wanting in right. So it wasn't the
top twenty five, it was the top fifty, right. And
what I also did with that emails I made sure
I didn't put a BCC on it, so I wanted
them all to see that all the other guys were
on the list. And I know because they all were
(09:46):
texting me and they were like texting one another, They're like, hey, dude,
if you're doing it, I'm doing it. Oh hey, I
heard so and so is doing it, so I'm going
to do this too. And you know, before we able
to put up registration the next day, we had I
think it was twelve or fifteen really strong elites were saying, hey, guys,
we're going to do this. Lazarus Lake's on board and
as well to check out all these names, and then
(10:08):
immediately yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, so, how did I'm gonna interpe you there. How
did Laz find out and what was his first impression
of it?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I give him a call, and so Las and I
have become quite good friends. He's he's a pretty amazing
human being. And so I called him and Sandra and
I said, hey, Las, I got an idea. And he
just started laughing, you know that laugh that everybody knows.
And he was like, well, that's not that bad of
an idea, And so he was going on. He says,
you know, Dave, I would love to be involved, but
I don't know how to sort up this internet thing.
(10:38):
And so I said, no, you know what we're gonna
I'll get a guy to give you a call. He'll
walk your hand through and walk your walk you through this.
So you know, he was on board right away. And
he was just such a big supporter as well. He
said it gave him something to do. He's been quarantining himself.
He's taking this COVID nineteen in business really seriously, as
(10:59):
he should.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, I mean, and so I was supposed to do
his race the strolling gym in May and that guy.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I mean, I'm basically saying it's canceled.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I mean, it's not gonna It's not gonna happen this year,
but hopefully I can go out there next year. So
he gets involved and then all these emails start going around.
When does it actually say, you know, this is actually
gonna be a lot bigger than just twenty five fifty people.
This is actually going to be one of the biggest
ultra marathons in the world. When how did that progress?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Probably within two days we had five hundred. It was
like you what? And then it was pretty kind of cool.
It was pretty cool to see all those elites, you know,
signing up and then putting it out on their social
media platforms that hey, guys, guess what I'm doing and
you could do it too, and it was freeing my goal.
Oh yeah, it was free.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So the goal is, you know, is your goal? Five loops?
Is your goal? Twenty five loops?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
You know?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
But get out there and do it and and all
you need is zoom. All you need is to watch.
All you need is to try to do what you
can and do based on the country that you're in
and regulations that that that that are that are that
you have to have to have to have to work with.
But yeah, within dates, we were like, oh right, like
it was like five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred people.
(12:15):
I think in the end we we talked out at
two thousand, seven hundred. But keep in mind as well too,
these are people that registered. I know a ton of
people that ended up not registering and just doing it
at hawk right. So what what was the ultimate number
of people that did it? I don't know. We don't know,
but I know we I think we had two thousand,
seven hundred registrants. And on race day it terrified me,
(12:39):
to be honest with you, I have no idea about zoom,
you know, YouTube, any of that. I had to have
my handheld throughout all this. But you know Travis and
Ashley with with personal Peak and you know all the volunteers,
they they did extraordinarily well building this platform. Yeah overnight. Yeah,
(13:01):
and yeah we had issues right now. Knowing what we know,
we would do things very differently. Now there's different platforms
to use. One of the big issues is on YouTube.
If you're if somebody there, their their ring tone goes
off and I'd say it's a popular Bruno Mars song,
the whole cut thing will be cut. So we had
four YouTube feeds and each one of them got cut
(13:23):
one by one down the road and you're like, oh, okay,
we're running out of YouTube feeds. But luckily enough enough
runners were dropping out that we could squeeze them into
the other ones, and so it was really it was,
it was it worked out really well. I know a
lot of runners who their longest run that they've ever
run was twenty kilometers and then they were running over
one hundred cilometers that day. I mean, we created for
(13:46):
those people a truly meaningful experience they'll remember for a lifetime.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I mean I'm down here in Texas and like I
found out about this and I'm like, okay, I'm set
mac Ox, like I'm going to be up watching this.
Like I Mike was in there, Mike wor Day and
he won the fifty k at Marine Corps marathon last year,
and we played chess all the time, like because we're
both herds. But I mean, it's it's so many people
(14:12):
that I know that we're doing this. I'm like, Okay,
this is gonna be really fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Right, No, absolutely, And it was, and it was fun.
You know, you know on the Elite feed, you know,
Courtney to Walter ended up you know, giving these you know,
terribly wonderful but terrible jokes every hour, you know, these
dad jokes or whatever you would want to call them.
You know, almost immediately, there was this guy from Dubai
(14:38):
who ended up getting you know, strung into the elite
field because everybody was voting for him because he was
he was he was he was trending on the internet
as a living room guy.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
He was a Russian living in Dubai and he's running
loops around his living room and it's I think his
three year old four year old boy ended up running
more than he did because he was dressed up as
like a traffic control officer and he was like, you know,
you know, telling his dad what to do, and it
was just awesome. It was you know, there's so many
amazing stories. There was Anna Carlson who end up I
think got third or fourth I think, but yeah, but
(15:09):
she ended up running around the frozen lake in northern Sweden. Yeah, yeah, Sweden,
Northern Sweden and so just hardcore. I think that she
ended up getting like eighth place or sixth place or
something rather last year at Biggs. Just a beast, she's
but even a better person than even a runner. So
(15:30):
it was full of incredible stories, right, and and and
I think that you know, everybody focuses right now on
the controversy at the end. I would like to suggest
everybody calm down. You know, you know, we we love,
we love to be critics, right, but let's face it.
You know, we got this done within two weeks. And yeah,
(15:52):
what could have been handled better at the end? Yeah, yeah,
of course, but you know, let's let's focus on the
good that happened. And there was a true end this
amount of good. And and I would suggest everybody it's like, okay, yeah,
you know what, we created a free event and and yeah,
let's let's leave it at that. Let's be let's be
(16:12):
grateful for the things that we have instead of arguing
the things that that happened.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, so you dropped out at thirty one. But let's
kind of back up a little bit. What was it
like for you to start the first loop with everybody
else knowing that this is about to really happen, with
twenty seven hundred other people around the world.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Well, it was so fun because I was on the
elite field and you know, you're you look at the
starting corral and you see all those names and you're like,
who like that? That's pretty intense.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Part of me was thinking, oh, technology, hold up, you know,
because that it could just fail and I don't know
enough about it to know that, you know what, what
what would I do? But like anything, you know, you
you you you, all you do is like any race,
all you do is you go and do the first loop.
That's all you can really be responsible for. And then
(17:06):
you do it and and you do what you need
to do in that loop in order to get out
of the next one, and you're responsible for that one,
and so you really it's a lot of living within
the now and instead of being fearful of Okay, I'm
going to be running thirty forty fifty sixty hours later.
Anybody who thinks that is you would we would be
crippled in fear. You can't think that. All you can
(17:27):
do is is, okay, what am I eating right now?
What am I drinking right now? How's how am I
taking care of that knee thing? That's that's that's acting up?
So yeah, no, it's it's it's it's a really cool
event these backyards because really it's just a focus in
a living within the now and and not being too
worried about the future and in the past.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, so, I know a lot of people have asked,
and I've seen it asked one hundred times all over
the internet.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
When is the next one? Have yall thought about doing
another one?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah? But yeah, See that's the thing is that, you know,
I would like to say, hey, let's pause for a second,
But then on the other hand, everybody's asking, and so yeah,
I don't know, I really don't know. I know that
there's a lot of chatter from within the volunteer committee.
I know, I know we can make it better. I
(18:22):
know that, I know that there's so many opportunities to
give back to a community that really needs something right now.
So planning another event for twelve months down the road,
we need to plan something here soon. But yeah, what
it's going to look like. Is it going to be
the exact same format? I can't say. But there's a
(18:43):
lot of really good ideas that are coming through and
a lot of really good people are coming on board.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Yeah. Well, I mean I think it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean, just from my point of view, it's the
only supporting event that I've seen in the last two months,
and I think a lot of people are on the
same page with that. Uh, the last the last real
race I saw was Roman City point three Compechet and
after that that was it. Like that was the last
race and now it's just move it on. So let's
(19:18):
talk about your motivation and your mental health right now?
How is that and has it changed with the quarantining,
You know, it.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Sure has, Like I I don't know, I you know,
I'm living in quarantine with my family right now. I'm
gambled to get in some good miles and you know,
I didn't push it to the limit with with with
quarantine backyard. I was definitely fit enough for you know,
sixty seventy seventy five hours, and so I'm feeling like
I end up having a back issue and it wouldn't
(19:48):
resolve and I don't care. That was the end of
that of thirty one hours. So I'm back, you know,
training again. Mentally, you know, my big focus is is
you know, the big one is twenty one run across Canada,
and that's going to be that's going to be at
the forefront of everything that I do at this point.
But then number two is BIG's backyard. Which is going
(20:10):
to be in October. Hopefully we're back at things come October,
and I think we might be, but I just don't know.
But really, all, you know, with this quarantine that's happening
right now with COVID nineteen, I find it it makes
everybody just kind of collapse a little bit back into
(20:33):
themselves and they start realizing what's most important. And so
I have to admit that I was putting training and
other things at times over top of family and in
my children and my wife. And what I've come to
realize lately is that's that's crap. And you know, all,
I can get up early in the morning or stay
(20:54):
up later at night to get that training in, but
I'll never get these moments back because with this quarantine
as well too, we're all given the gift of time
to spend with our families and and and and be
be closer and more caring for them. And so, yeah,
I think that there's a lot of negative and there's
a lot of you know, mental things we could talk about,
(21:17):
but I think there's a lot of positives we can
end up taking from something like this. Number One, my
family isn't sick, we don't have COVID nineteen at this point,
and number two, I'm just going to hold them closer
while I can.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I mean, and honestly, you have to take some credit
for thinking and organizing this event like this was, in
my mind, a historic event that united pretty much every
country in the world in some way or another with
running and running in the most ridiculous way. I mean
(21:53):
going around a coffee shop a thousand times, or a
living room, or a frozen lake, or treadmills or like Mike,
I think his loop was a half mile, so he
had to do ten loops something crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Well, I think it really comes down togetherness. And you know,
I I challenge everybody out there, you know, to define
what's your community, because you know, I think it's normal
for me to think, Okay, I'm going to my community.
Is my family, my wife and my three kids, and
I'm going to keep them safe and I'm going to
look after them. But okay, it's my community, my neighborhood,
(22:31):
and what about my my family, my parents, my brother
and sister. But beyond that is my community, my province,
or my country. I look out for other Canadians. This
is why we have borders, right but then what about
a global community, what about runners within all over the world,
And really that's where at the very forefront of of
(22:54):
what we what we try to accomplish with the personal
peak quarantine backyard, was we try to view. You know,
the global community is our community, and that's who we
need to be looking for right now, because we're all
in this, in this together. You know, we all have
quarantine issues, we all have races that have been canceled.
(23:17):
We all feel hurt and damaged because of where we
all are right now. And I can't imagine any one
other thing that's ever happened in the last ten, twenty
thirty forty years that's really united the entire world because
we're all in this together.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Right because you know, I mean, the way I like
to explain it is, you know, we all are putting
forth a lot of time, energy, effort, money, resources, phone calls, anxiety,
sacrificing time with family, time at work, time, sleeping, all
because we want to do well on one day that
(23:59):
one is going to matter a lot to us. And
now then all those events for everyone across the world
canceled m hm, and now we're all feeling that same
of Okay, well, what what do we do now?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Right right, and and and and this this this pandemic
and this and this this this is universal trauma has
really united us because we're all in this together. Because
you know, in the United States, we're in in the Congo,
nobody is better off and nobody is worse off. When
you get sick with the coronavirus and your lungs collapse,
(24:37):
you're you're in trouble and there's going to be loss.
And if a family loses a family member in Zimbabwe,
or a family member uses a family member in Sweden,
it's a loss. It's a loss to a community, and
we all need to protect and look out for one another.
But I think that by creating community events in a safe,
reasonable way, we're all giving back to thing and remembering that, hey,
(25:04):
you know what, instead of me looking out for myself
and going and buying all the toilet paper in the stores,
that's not helpful. But you know what is helpful is
me thinking outside of myself and going and creating a
community event where I can make somebody else, just one
other persons smile. And I think that's exactly what we
try to do with quarantine. Backyard is we try to
(25:24):
create meaningful experiences for countless other strangers, and I feel
extraordinarily proud about that.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Good.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
So let's just wrap up a little bit here that
we have a little bit of time left. You've done
a lot of races around the world. What races are
still in your bucket list?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Man? Yeah, Spartathlon is a big one. I'm typically a
twenty four hour specialist of two hundred and sixty kilometers
in twenty four hours, So you know, I think that
I could do quite well at Spartathon. And you know,
what a cool course, what a cool historic race. I've
always always wanted to do that. Comrades. I think just
(26:09):
going and and and and seeing and being and feeling
and and and and towing the line of Comrades would
just be an epic, an epic thing, you know. But
number one, you know, I got to run across this country,
you know, to be able to put everything, every single
foot down, and to get from point A to point B.
(26:31):
You know one of my good friends Pete Costelneck who's
run across America, and then of course Key to Key.
You know, there's a very there's a very wonderful feeling,
and I can't think of the word, but it's it's
a very it's fulfilling to be able to to transform
your body, you know, to get your body across a
(26:54):
massive space and say, I've traveled on foot across America
and or from here to here, or and you know,
I'm a Canadian and I love my country and I
want to experience my country in a very unique way
that that that that's very unique.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
To me and whatever you do want to do that
across Canada. Are you going to try to do the
same routes that Terry Fox did?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yes, Yeah, so we're definitely gonna We're starting off in
Saint John's and going to make our way to Victoria's
seven hundred kilometers.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
And that's gonna be you doing that.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Oh huge. I mean, Terry Fox is my my hero.
You know, there's that saying it's it's not how far
Terry Fox got, it's how far he got outs. Since
his passing, Terry Fox, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised
eight hundred and fifty million dollars and really put cancer
on the map in Canada and has saved countless lives.
(27:53):
And so, you know, sometimes people need something to get
behind and to rally behind and I think that people
like Terry Fox are very unique breed that could end
up being that person that that that that that they
see themselves emulated in. You know, we look at these
superhero movies, you know, the Captain of America, Incredible Hulk,
(28:18):
and I think we see the good in in in
that and we want to be that. But what about
those real life people, right what about the Terry Foxes
and the countless others who who are really you know,
kind of you know, the superheroes. And right now, going
back to the pandemic, it's you know, I've ended up.
I have a friend who's who's a doctor, and he's
(28:39):
he's he's not seeing his family right now, but every
night before his children go to bed, he goes over
and he stands outside the window and he kisses his children,
you know, and then this is his sacrifice. He's a
true life hero. And these are all the medical staff
and the frontline workers that are going to be working
COVID nineteen for the next many months. And these are
(29:01):
the real heroes in our lives at this moment. I
believe in heroes.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So I mean, if you could actually like predict when
do you think everything will get back to somewhat.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Normal probably October. Yeah, I don't think that we're going
to see our peak in Canada for probably another five
six weeks, is what our medical professionals are telling us.
It's going to get worse and worse and worse before
it gets any better.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Still, I see people, you know, getting together and doing
public gatherings, not taking certain precautions when when at the
grocery store or whatever, and they keep thinking, Okay, come on, guys,
like I know that there are certain people out there
that are saying, hey, it's no big deal. You know,
the governments it's conspiracy or whatever. You guys are putting
(29:50):
people like my son at risk. And we need to
temper this as soon as possible because you know, if
I were to get it, okay, I would probably get
quite sick, cause you know, respiratory issues for life. But
if my son were to get sick, it would be
a very different story. And I need to protect him
(30:11):
and and I need to spread a positive message about
please everybody reconsider who's your community and help out my
son and help other other people who are more vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Right, So we have to mention Sam's disease and I
happen to be honest, I don't know how to say
it correctly.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I don't either. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, some of my son,
he's got a rare disease called relapsing encephalopathy with aarabella
a taxia, so we call RecA ore e c A,
and it's a it's a it's a it's a genetic
disease in which he's a taxic, so it means lack
of balancing coordination. So he walks around and moves around
(30:55):
like he's about to fall over all the time. He
struggles to feed himself and get dressed in the morning,
and you see, you see it in his speech, and
so you know, he's an eleven year old boy who's
just he loves superhero movies, he loves he's he's just
a really good kid, super smart, all those different things.
But yeah, he struggles with basic movements. Unfortunately, he gets triggered.
(31:18):
His rare disease gets triggered by a specific virus and
a number of specific viruses that also come on as
as fevers. So if Sam were to get a fever,
he basically starts off with basically jomp berth, so he
loses the ability to move, turn his head, to be
able to breathe on his own, to be able to
(31:38):
do anything, to even blink his eyes or swallow, and
so he needs to be put on the respirator and
he needs support. So what terrifies me is this fever.
This virus, the corona nineteen of the coronavirus is a fever.
And so if he were to contract this as well too,
it collapses your lungs, it basically brings upon pneumonia. He would,
(32:02):
of course need a respirator. We're running out of respirators
in Canada, everywhere in the world is and even on
a respirator, I'm not so sure. And so it it
scares the hell out of me. But if it didn't
scare the hell out of me, I wouldn't be a
good dad.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Man.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, it's a lot to take in. So, uh we
can just go ahead and uh tell people where to
follow you. I know you are at run Proctor and
you also have an Instagram for uh Dave outruns Rare,
and you also have a website which is outrun rare
dot com. Right, so is there anywhere else people can
(32:46):
follow you?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I'm I'm, i'm, I'm, I'm on Facebook, I just opened
a TikTok account with my daughter yesterday, and so we're
making some fun you know, quarantine TikTok that I'm a
terrible dancer. Man, it's not good, but it's fun. You know,
we're having We're having a blast with it. So yeah,
so yeah, go go check out Instagram, you know, follow
us on Facebook and uh yeah, we're going to have
(33:11):
more and more and more news leading up into the
run across Canden next year.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Well, I have to say thank you again so much
for taking a few minutes to chat with me. I've
enjoyed this and Dave, I look forward to fawning you
in the future. This is something amazing that I've been
following for at least eight months now, and I look
forward to follwing you even more.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Man, thanks a lot terry that means a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
You're welcome. You have a good day, Okay, got you too, Man.
Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you're able to
learn something from today's episode. If you enjoy the show,
please take a man to leave a review on iTunes
or share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe
so you never miss an episode. If you'd like to
see pictures from this athlete's race. Learn more about who
I am, what I'm doing, or be on the show yourself.
To share your story, check out my website at coach
(33:53):
Terry Wilson dot com. Until next time, continue to pursue
Episode three hundred and forty seven The Pandemic Series with
Dave Procter. Welcome to the Pursuit of the Perfect Race.
I'm coach Terry Wilson, and with each episode I bring
stories of athletes to you that share their experiences at
races in order for you to learn how to have
your perfect race. We will hear stories.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
From athletes of all ages, abilities and races of all distances,
So regardless of where you fen, there's something in there
for you. Thanks for spending some time with me today
and to let the pursuit begin.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Pandemic Series. I'm talking
with Dave Procter. Welcome the show. I'm glad to have
you own and I'm really thankful that you're giving me
a little bit of your time to talk with me.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Yeah, thanks for having me Terry.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, so let's talk about the pandemic here. You were
going to race across Canada and what happened.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, life got turned on its head within a seventy
two hour period of time. So yeah, No, I've been
planning the last couple of years trans Canadian speed record attempt.
I was going to run one hundred and five kilometers
every day for sixty seven days across Canada. Canada is
really big and break the trans Canadian speed record and
raise over a million dollars in awareness and advocacy for
(01:21):
rare disease. My son a eleven year old boy, he's
got a rare disease. But you know, like everybody in
the world, their lives got turned upside down and every
major event, race, public gathering, workplaces, everything's been canceled and
people are now quarantining and to stay to stay healthy
(01:43):
and safe. So unfortunately, we've ended up having to postpone
to run across Canada what we call out run Rare
until the summer of twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Wow, So everybody knows what COVID nineteen is by now,
and if you don't, you've been living in a hole
for a really long time.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
When did you first hear about COVID.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Nineteen and when did you realize like, yeah, okay, it's
just another virus whatever, not a big deal too, Okay,
this is going to have an impact. When what happened?
When did you first hear about it? And when did
that perspective shift?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yeah, you know, we we've heard about a number of
different viruses starting up in China and Southeast Asia, and
they tend to not go too far or you know,
go far enough, and then and then and then science
gets on top of it. But you know, it just
seemed like it spread very very quickly to other countries
like Italy and France, and and and and I believe
(02:40):
it was it was Iraq or Iran, and things got
out of control really quickly. You know, I think that
we could look at those other countries and say, okay,
we know what's coming. You know, it's like when a
major downpour happens out in the mountains and the towns
along the way are getting flooded, and you go, oh
my goodness, those towns are getting well, you're in your next,
(03:01):
if you're downstream, your next. And so we we should
have all seen this coming. But when the when the virus,
when COVID nineteen started coming and arriving in our countries, uh,
the United States and you know, I live in Canada,
it came and it really scared everybody just because you know,
our medical offices were telling us just really how how
(03:24):
how terrible this is, and and including myself, my my
my son, he's he's got a complex medical history, and
you know, if you were to get sick, this would
be very very bad for him. And so we as
a family, we have to take this even more seriously.
And so it just seemed like every organization and every
family was in crisis and we all needed to make
(03:46):
very difficult decisions within a few days of hearing these
things because it just wasn't well, it wasn't responsible for
anybody to to go out and do these public events.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So when did it actually hit home that, okay, this
is going to be something bigger than most viruses to you.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
I think again, it was about three and a half
weeks ago or four weeks ago, and yeah, it started
coming upon where you know, people would start staying at home,
you or our regional governments and provincial governments and federal governments.
We're all stating, you know, different things in order to
(04:29):
really you know, make people self quarantine without them putting
regulations in place. But we knew the regulations were going
to be coming, right, So it was interesting a couple
of days before, you know, I wasn't allowed I'm not
allowed to go to work right now, I'm quarantining in
my house with my family up here in Canada, and
I was going into work, and I was thinking, what
(04:49):
am I doing? Because I know when three or four
or five days the government's going to stamp in and
say you're not allowed to go to work? So what
am I doing putting my family at risk? Knowing very
well that hey, the virus is here in my city
and I might be coming in contact with it today.
I'm just going to go and stay at home. So
it's it's a it's an alarming feeling. It's not a
good feeling, and it makes you surius, your your loved ones.
(05:16):
You know you're you're medically vulnerable, you know, the elderly
in your community, like my parents. Yeah, it makes you
want to hold them a bit closer.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
So I think right along this time, we started hearing
that Boston was canceled or postponed rather and then almost
it was like almost overnight, hundreds of almost thousands, but
probably in that thousands of races, including marathons, half marathons,
ironman events, ultra distance events, canceled, postponed.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Not happening. And how did this leave you feeling?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Because I know me personally, like that's a big part
of who I am and what I do and how
was How was that for you?
Speaker 3 (06:03):
It really hurt. You know, I ended up having to
make the decision because you know, I put in tons
of ton and effort and my my whole life in
the last many years into my Outrun Rare project to
run across Canada in order to you know, create a
voice for for rare disease support and access in Canada.
(06:24):
And to to have to to stop it and to
have to say, Okay, this isn't happening, it broke my heart,
It really did. It was. It was a very very
difficult time in my my life. And you know, I
came to realize that, you know, it's it's not just
me who's feeling this way. It's a lot of other
people as well too, when they've put their heart and
(06:45):
soul into something and it's been taken away from them
or hasn't been taken away. But it was it was
an active God that that this happened. And and now
we have to pivot. We have to we have to
we have to do something with our emotions and thoughts
and feelings. And and so my coach, Travis Schuler Brown
ended up texting me that night after we canceled and
he said, hey, so Dave, what do you think of
(07:07):
this idea? If we were to end up going and
creating a free event and we call it Quarantine Backyard
And immediately it was like, we need to talk. And
so I think I gave him a call within a
half an hour, and by that time the next day
we had ended up having all of our outrun or
volunteers to run across Canada. We took those volunteers, we pivoted,
(07:29):
and we pivoted and we created an event that we
wanted to bring a global community something to look forward to.
Also understanding that there was no sports entertainment. There's no NBA,
there's no football, there's nothing happening in the world, and
this is the only sporting event that's happening in the world.
And so what we wanted to do is we wanted
(07:50):
to create a virtual race in which all the runners,
you know, click on a zoom link you could see
a video from their living rooms or their treadmills or
their front doors, and they would go out and run
a six point seven kilometer loop every hour on the hour,
the backyard style Lazarus like down in Big Doug's backyard
Ultra is event. We can end up going and creating
(08:13):
a pretty rad event, like like a global event that
anybody and everybody can do, because your goal might be
to do two laps, or your goal might be to
do one hundred. And so what we decided is is, Okay,
let's go and create a really big global event and
let's just go and hit all the different points. So
what we did was we took our disappointment with canceling
(08:35):
our run across Canada and we put that into an
excitement of what, you know, this is how I feel,
this is how hurt I feel. How excited could I
make somebody else feel by creating something great? And so
what I did first was I told Travis Nash, I said,
hold on one second, I'm going to send out an email.
And even during our first meeting, I said, guys, by
(08:56):
the end of this meeting, I'm going to send click
and I'm going to send an invite out to the
twenty five World's Beast Must Day runners. And I did
that and within a couple hours we got a handful
of runners that were like, dude, I'm in So I also, I.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Mean this included Courney de Walker, who's won UTMB and
Mike Cordain and Maggie who won Big Backyard last year.
Basically the who's who of Ultra running was on this.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Right absolutely, and then even from that after that twenty
five there were people that were jumping forward were like,
oh shoot, I forgot to put that guy in the list,
but yeah, he's wanting in right. So it wasn't the
top twenty five, it was the top fifty, right. And
what I also did with that emails I made sure
I didn't put a BCC on it, so I wanted
them all to see that all the other guys were
on the list. And I know because they all were
(09:46):
texting me and they were like texting one another, They're like, hey, dude,
if you're doing it, I'm doing it. Oh hey, I
heard so and so is doing it, so I'm going
to do this too. And you know, before we able
to put up registration the next day, we had I
think it was twelve or fifteen really strong elites were saying, hey, guys,
we're going to do this. Lazarus Lake's on board and
as well to check out all these names, and then
(10:08):
immediately yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, so, how did I'm gonna interpe you there. How
did Laz find out and what was his first impression
of it?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I give him a call, and so Las and I
have become quite good friends. He's he's a pretty amazing
human being. And so I called him and Sandra and
I said, hey, Las, I got an idea. And he
just started laughing, you know that laugh that everybody knows.
And he was like, well, that's not that bad of
an idea, And so he was going on. He says,
you know, Dave, I would love to be involved, but
I don't know how to sort up this internet thing.
(10:38):
And so I said, no, you know what we're gonna
I'll get a guy to give you a call. He'll
walk your hand through and walk your walk you through this.
So you know, he was on board right away. And
he was just such a big supporter as well. He
said it gave him something to do. He's been quarantining himself.
He's taking this COVID nineteen in business really seriously, as
(10:59):
he should.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Yeah, I mean, and so I was supposed to do
his race the strolling gym in May and that guy.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I mean, I'm basically saying it's canceled.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I mean, it's not gonna It's not gonna happen this year,
but hopefully I can go out there next year. So
he gets involved and then all these emails start going around.
When does it actually say, you know, this is actually
gonna be a lot bigger than just twenty five fifty people.
This is actually going to be one of the biggest
ultra marathons in the world. When how did that progress?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Probably within two days we had five hundred. It was
like you what? And then it was pretty kind of cool.
It was pretty cool to see all those elites, you know,
signing up and then putting it out on their social
media platforms that hey, guys, guess what I'm doing and
you could do it too, and it was freeing my goal.
Oh yeah, it was free.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So the goal is, you know, is your goal? Five loops?
Is your goal? Twenty five loops?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
You know?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
But get out there and do it and and all
you need is zoom. All you need is to watch.
All you need is to try to do what you
can and do based on the country that you're in
and regulations that that that that are that are that
you have to have to have to have to work with.
But yeah, within dates, we were like, oh right, like
it was like five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred people.
(12:15):
I think in the end we we talked out at
two thousand, seven hundred. But keep in mind as well too,
these are people that registered. I know a ton of
people that ended up not registering and just doing it
at hawk right. So what what was the ultimate number
of people that did it? I don't know. We don't know,
but I know we I think we had two thousand,
seven hundred registrants. And on race day it terrified me,
(12:39):
to be honest with you, I have no idea about zoom,
you know, YouTube, any of that. I had to have
my handheld throughout all this. But you know Travis and
Ashley with with personal Peak and you know all the volunteers,
they they did extraordinarily well building this platform. Yeah overnight. Yeah,
(13:01):
and yeah we had issues right now. Knowing what we know,
we would do things very differently. Now there's different platforms
to use. One of the big issues is on YouTube.
If you're if somebody there, their their ring tone goes
off and I'd say it's a popular Bruno Mars song,
the whole cut thing will be cut. So we had
four YouTube feeds and each one of them got cut
(13:23):
one by one down the road and you're like, oh, okay,
we're running out of YouTube feeds. But luckily enough enough
runners were dropping out that we could squeeze them into
the other ones, and so it was really it was,
it was it worked out really well. I know a
lot of runners who their longest run that they've ever
run was twenty kilometers and then they were running over
one hundred cilometers that day. I mean, we created for
(13:46):
those people a truly meaningful experience they'll remember for a lifetime.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I mean I'm down here in Texas and like I
found out about this and I'm like, okay, I'm set
mac Ox, like I'm going to be up watching this.
Like I Mike was in there, Mike wor Day and
he won the fifty k at Marine Corps marathon last year,
and we played chess all the time, like because we're
both herds. But I mean, it's it's so many people
(14:12):
that I know that we're doing this. I'm like, Okay,
this is gonna be really fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Right, No, absolutely, And it was, and it was fun.
You know, you know on the Elite feed, you know,
Courtney to Walter ended up you know, giving these you know,
terribly wonderful but terrible jokes every hour, you know, these
dad jokes or whatever you would want to call them.
You know, almost immediately, there was this guy from Dubai
(14:38):
who ended up getting you know, strung into the elite
field because everybody was voting for him because he was
he was he was he was trending on the internet
as a living room guy.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
He was a Russian living in Dubai and he's running
loops around his living room and it's I think his
three year old four year old boy ended up running
more than he did because he was dressed up as
like a traffic control officer and he was like, you know,
you know, telling his dad what to do, and it
was just awesome. It was you know, there's so many
amazing stories. There was Anna Carlson who end up I
think got third or fourth I think, but yeah, but
(15:09):
she ended up running around the frozen lake in northern Sweden. Yeah, yeah, Sweden,
Northern Sweden and so just hardcore. I think that she
ended up getting like eighth place or sixth place or
something rather last year at Biggs. Just a beast, she's
but even a better person than even a runner. So
(15:30):
it was full of incredible stories, right, and and and
I think that you know, everybody focuses right now on
the controversy at the end. I would like to suggest
everybody calm down. You know, you know, we we love,
we love to be critics, right, but let's face it.
You know, we got this done within two weeks. And yeah,
(15:52):
what could have been handled better at the end? Yeah, yeah,
of course, but you know, let's let's focus on the
good that happened. And there was a true end this
amount of good. And and I would suggest everybody it's like, okay, yeah,
you know what, we created a free event and and yeah,
let's let's leave it at that. Let's be let's be
(16:12):
grateful for the things that we have instead of arguing
the things that that happened.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, so you dropped out at thirty one. But let's
kind of back up a little bit. What was it
like for you to start the first loop with everybody
else knowing that this is about to really happen, with
twenty seven hundred other people around the world.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Well, it was so fun because I was on the
elite field and you know, you're you look at the
starting corral and you see all those names and you're like,
who like that? That's pretty intense.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Part of me was thinking, oh, technology, hold up, you know,
because that it could just fail and I don't know
enough about it to know that, you know what, what
what would I do? But like anything, you know, you
you you you, all you do is like any race,
all you do is you go and do the first loop.
That's all you can really be responsible for. And then
(17:06):
you do it and and you do what you need
to do in that loop in order to get out
of the next one, and you're responsible for that one,
and so you really it's a lot of living within
the now and instead of being fearful of Okay, I'm
going to be running thirty forty fifty sixty hours later.
Anybody who thinks that is you would we would be
crippled in fear. You can't think that. All you can
(17:27):
do is is, okay, what am I eating right now?
What am I drinking right now? How's how am I
taking care of that knee thing? That's that's that's acting up?
So yeah, no, it's it's it's it's a really cool
event these backyards because really it's just a focus in
a living within the now and and not being too
worried about the future and in the past.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, so, I know a lot of people have asked,
and I've seen it asked one hundred times all over
the internet.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
When is the next one? Have yall thought about doing
another one?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah? But yeah, See that's the thing is that, you know,
I would like to say, hey, let's pause for a second,
But then on the other hand, everybody's asking, and so yeah,
I don't know, I really don't know. I know that
there's a lot of chatter from within the volunteer committee.
I know, I know we can make it better. I
(18:22):
know that, I know that there's so many opportunities to
give back to a community that really needs something right now.
So planning another event for twelve months down the road,
we need to plan something here soon. But yeah, what
it's going to look like. Is it going to be
the exact same format? I can't say. But there's a
(18:43):
lot of really good ideas that are coming through and
a lot of really good people are coming on board.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Yeah. Well, I mean I think it's awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
I mean, just from my point of view, it's the
only supporting event that I've seen in the last two months,
and I think a lot of people are on the
same page with that. Uh, the last the last real
race I saw was Roman City point three Compechet and
after that that was it. Like that was the last
race and now it's just move it on. So let's
(19:18):
talk about your motivation and your mental health right now?
How is that and has it changed with the quarantining,
You know, it.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Sure has, Like I I don't know, I you know,
I'm living in quarantine with my family right now. I'm
gambled to get in some good miles and you know,
I didn't push it to the limit with with with
quarantine backyard. I was definitely fit enough for you know,
sixty seventy seventy five hours, and so I'm feeling like
I end up having a back issue and it wouldn't
(19:48):
resolve and I don't care. That was the end of
that of thirty one hours. So I'm back, you know,
training again. Mentally, you know, my big focus is is
you know, the big one is twenty one run across Canada,
and that's going to be that's going to be at
the forefront of everything that I do at this point.
But then number two is BIG's backyard. Which is going
(20:10):
to be in October. Hopefully we're back at things come October,
and I think we might be, but I just don't know.
But really, all, you know, with this quarantine that's happening
right now with COVID nineteen, I find it it makes
everybody just kind of collapse a little bit back into
(20:33):
themselves and they start realizing what's most important. And so
I have to admit that I was putting training and
other things at times over top of family and in
my children and my wife. And what I've come to
realize lately is that's that's crap. And you know, all,
I can get up early in the morning or stay
(20:54):
up later at night to get that training in, but
I'll never get these moments back because with this quarantine
as well too, we're all given the gift of time
to spend with our families and and and and be
be closer and more caring for them. And so, yeah,
I think that there's a lot of negative and there's
a lot of you know, mental things we could talk about,
(21:17):
but I think there's a lot of positives we can
end up taking from something like this. Number One, my
family isn't sick, we don't have COVID nineteen at this point,
and number two, I'm just going to hold them closer
while I can.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I mean, and honestly, you have to take some credit
for thinking and organizing this event like this was, in
my mind, a historic event that united pretty much every
country in the world in some way or another with
running and running in the most ridiculous way. I mean
(21:53):
going around a coffee shop a thousand times, or a
living room, or a frozen lake, or treadmills or like Mike,
I think his loop was a half mile, so he
had to do ten loops something crazy.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Well, I think it really comes down togetherness. And you know,
I I challenge everybody out there, you know, to define
what's your community, because you know, I think it's normal
for me to think, Okay, I'm going to my community.
Is my family, my wife and my three kids, and
I'm going to keep them safe and I'm going to
look after them. But okay, it's my community, my neighborhood,
(22:31):
and what about my my family, my parents, my brother
and sister. But beyond that is my community, my province,
or my country. I look out for other Canadians. This
is why we have borders, right but then what about
a global community, what about runners within all over the world,
And really that's where at the very forefront of of
(22:54):
what we what we try to accomplish with the personal
peak quarantine backyard, was we try to view. You know,
the global community is our community, and that's who we
need to be looking for right now, because we're all
in this, in this together. You know, we all have
quarantine issues, we all have races that have been canceled.
(23:17):
We all feel hurt and damaged because of where we
all are right now. And I can't imagine any one
other thing that's ever happened in the last ten, twenty
thirty forty years that's really united the entire world because
we're all in this together.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Right because you know, I mean, the way I like
to explain it is, you know, we all are putting
forth a lot of time, energy, effort, money, resources, phone calls, anxiety,
sacrificing time with family, time at work, time, sleeping, all
because we want to do well on one day that
(23:59):
one is going to matter a lot to us. And
now then all those events for everyone across the world
canceled m hm, and now we're all feeling that same
of Okay, well, what what do we do now?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Right right, and and and and this this this pandemic
and this and this this this is universal trauma has
really united us because we're all in this together. Because
you know, in the United States, we're in in the Congo,
nobody is better off and nobody is worse off. When
you get sick with the coronavirus and your lungs collapse,
(24:37):
you're you're in trouble and there's going to be loss.
And if a family loses a family member in Zimbabwe,
or a family member uses a family member in Sweden,
it's a loss. It's a loss to a community, and
we all need to protect and look out for one another.
But I think that by creating community events in a safe,
reasonable way, we're all giving back to thing and remembering that, hey,
(25:04):
you know what, instead of me looking out for myself
and going and buying all the toilet paper in the stores,
that's not helpful. But you know what is helpful is
me thinking outside of myself and going and creating a
community event where I can make somebody else, just one
other persons smile. And I think that's exactly what we
try to do with quarantine. Backyard is we try to
(25:24):
create meaningful experiences for countless other strangers, and I feel
extraordinarily proud about that.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Good.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
So let's just wrap up a little bit here that
we have a little bit of time left. You've done
a lot of races around the world. What races are
still in your bucket list?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Man? Yeah, Spartathlon is a big one. I'm typically a
twenty four hour specialist of two hundred and sixty kilometers
in twenty four hours, So you know, I think that
I could do quite well at Spartathon. And you know,
what a cool course, what a cool historic race. I've
always always wanted to do that. Comrades. I think just
(26:09):
going and and and and seeing and being and feeling
and and and and towing the line of Comrades would
just be an epic, an epic thing, you know. But
number one, you know, I got to run across this country,
you know, to be able to put everything, every single
foot down, and to get from point A to point B.
(26:31):
You know one of my good friends Pete Costelneck who's
run across America, and then of course Key to Key.
You know, there's a very there's a very wonderful feeling,
and I can't think of the word, but it's it's
a very it's fulfilling to be able to to transform
your body, you know, to get your body across a
(26:54):
massive space and say, I've traveled on foot across America
and or from here to here, or and you know,
I'm a Canadian and I love my country and I
want to experience my country in a very unique way
that that that that's very unique.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
To me and whatever you do want to do that
across Canada. Are you going to try to do the
same routes that Terry Fox did?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yes, Yeah, so we're definitely gonna We're starting off in
Saint John's and going to make our way to Victoria's
seven hundred kilometers.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
And that's gonna be you doing that.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Oh huge. I mean, Terry Fox is my my hero.
You know, there's that saying it's it's not how far
Terry Fox got, it's how far he got outs. Since
his passing, Terry Fox, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised
eight hundred and fifty million dollars and really put cancer
on the map in Canada and has saved countless lives.
(27:53):
And so, you know, sometimes people need something to get
behind and to rally behind and I think that people
like Terry Fox are very unique breed that could end
up being that person that that that that that they
see themselves emulated in. You know, we look at these
superhero movies, you know, the Captain of America, Incredible Hulk,
(28:18):
and I think we see the good in in in
that and we want to be that. But what about
those real life people, right what about the Terry Foxes
and the countless others who who are really you know,
kind of you know, the superheroes. And right now, going
back to the pandemic, it's you know, I've ended up.
I have a friend who's who's a doctor, and he's
(28:39):
he's he's not seeing his family right now, but every
night before his children go to bed, he goes over
and he stands outside the window and he kisses his children,
you know, and then this is his sacrifice. He's a
true life hero. And these are all the medical staff
and the frontline workers that are going to be working
COVID nineteen for the next many months. And these are
(29:01):
the real heroes in our lives at this moment. I
believe in heroes.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So I mean, if you could actually like predict when
do you think everything will get back to somewhat.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Normal probably October. Yeah, I don't think that we're going
to see our peak in Canada for probably another five
six weeks, is what our medical professionals are telling us.
It's going to get worse and worse and worse before
it gets any better.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Still, I see people, you know, getting together and doing
public gatherings, not taking certain precautions when when at the
grocery store or whatever, and they keep thinking, Okay, come on, guys,
like I know that there are certain people out there
that are saying, hey, it's no big deal. You know,
the governments it's conspiracy or whatever. You guys are putting
(29:50):
people like my son at risk. And we need to
temper this as soon as possible because you know, if
I were to get it, okay, I would probably get
quite sick, cause you know, respiratory issues for life. But
if my son were to get sick, it would be
a very different story. And I need to protect him
(30:11):
and and I need to spread a positive message about
please everybody reconsider who's your community and help out my
son and help other other people who are more vulnerable.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Right, So we have to mention Sam's disease and I
happen to be honest, I don't know how to say
it correctly.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I don't either. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, some of my son,
he's got a rare disease called relapsing encephalopathy with aarabella
a taxia, so we call RecA ore e c A,
and it's a it's a it's a it's a genetic
disease in which he's a taxic, so it means lack
of balancing coordination. So he walks around and moves around
(30:55):
like he's about to fall over all the time. He
struggles to feed himself and get dressed in the morning,
and you see, you see it in his speech, and
so you know, he's an eleven year old boy who's
just he loves superhero movies, he loves he's he's just
a really good kid, super smart, all those different things.
But yeah, he struggles with basic movements. Unfortunately, he gets triggered.
(31:18):
His rare disease gets triggered by a specific virus and
a number of specific viruses that also come on as
as fevers. So if Sam were to get a fever,
he basically starts off with basically jomp berth, so he
loses the ability to move, turn his head, to be
able to breathe on his own, to be able to
(31:38):
do anything, to even blink his eyes or swallow, and
so he needs to be put on the respirator and
he needs support. So what terrifies me is this fever.
This virus, the corona nineteen of the coronavirus is a fever.
And so if he were to contract this as well too,
it collapses your lungs, it basically brings upon pneumonia. He would,
(32:02):
of course need a respirator. We're running out of respirators
in Canada, everywhere in the world is and even on
a respirator, I'm not so sure. And so it it
scares the hell out of me. But if it didn't
scare the hell out of me, I wouldn't be a
good dad.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Man.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah, it's a lot to take in. So, uh we
can just go ahead and uh tell people where to
follow you. I know you are at run Proctor and
you also have an Instagram for uh Dave outruns Rare,
and you also have a website which is outrun rare
dot com. Right, so is there anywhere else people can
(32:46):
follow you?
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I'm I'm, i'm, I'm, I'm on Facebook, I just opened
a TikTok account with my daughter yesterday, and so we're
making some fun you know, quarantine TikTok that I'm a
terrible dancer. Man, it's not good, but it's fun. You know,
we're having We're having a blast with it. So yeah,
so yeah, go go check out Instagram, you know, follow
us on Facebook and uh yeah, we're going to have
(33:11):
more and more and more news leading up into the
run across Canden next year.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Well, I have to say thank you again so much
for taking a few minutes to chat with me. I've
enjoyed this and Dave, I look forward to fawning you
in the future. This is something amazing that I've been
following for at least eight months now, and I look
forward to follwing you even more.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Man, thanks a lot terry that means a lot.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
You're welcome. You have a good day, Okay, got you too, Man.
Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you're able to
learn something from today's episode. If you enjoy the show,
please take a man to leave a review on iTunes
or share it with a friend. Be sure to subscribe
so you never miss an episode. If you'd like to
see pictures from this athlete's race. Learn more about who
I am, what I'm doing, or be on the show yourself.
To share your story, check out my website at coach
(33:53):
Terry Wilson dot com. Until next time, continue to pursue
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