Families and runners in Terrace can gear up for another Terry Fox Run on Sunday, Sept. 18, on the Grand Trunk Pathway along Hwy 16.
“It worked really well last year, people seemed really happy with the route,” said Kim MacDougall, race organizer and program supervisor for the City of Terrace.
Prior to 2015, runners took various routes among the blocks downtown, in the horseshoe and on the bench, but people would often lose their way and the runners were always very spread out.
“This is better for traffic, and nobody gets lost,” MacDougall said, adding that it also allows groups to stick together more. “If you’re doing 1K, 5K or 10K, you are all together on the same route.”
McDougall added that it is also more visual — making a statement and drawing attention — to have a crowd of runners together on the pathway.
Open to anybody, the walk/run will start at George Little House, with a mark at 2.5 kilometres for those who want to do a 5K loop there and back. Those who run to Frank St. will master 6.2K, and for those who want to run 10K they can run the 5K loop twice, said MacDougall.
One mother-daughter team from Terrace has already been working hard to gather pledges for the cause.
Roxanne Woods and her 11-year-old daughter Olivia have gathered the most donations every year since 2014, doing door-to-door and visiting public places to ask for donations.
“It gave us something to do together,” said Roxanne of why they started collecting pledges.
“I remember doing the Terry Fox when I was younger… I’m trying to teach my kids that we should help those who need it, and teach them about cancer and other sicknesses,” she said.
But supporting the Terry Fox cause of cancer research also hits close to home for Roxanne, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was 16 and told she couldn’t have children.
But they found it early enough, treated it, and Roxanne was able to have her first daughter Justice. Later the cancer came back, was treated again, and she was blessed to have a second daughter Olivia.
Now as they collect pledges for to support cancer research through the Terry Fox Foundation, they call themselves Team Just-live Loving.
“It’s because my one daughter is Justice and my other daughter is Olivia, and I just live to love them,” Roxanne laughed.
Along with help from Olivia’s friends and cousins, the team raised over $600 for the cause last year.
This year they have collected $763 so far in pledges, and are aiming to reach $1,000.
That family team is part of a steadily growing crowd participating in the local Terry Fox Run.
MacDougall said 112 people ran in the 2014 Terry Fox, and 130 ran last year, tallying $3,015 in donations.
Though turnout is always weather dependant, MacDougall said participation has been on an incline since 2009, when the race was at the library and coincided with a Terrace Hockeyville event at George Little Park.
“It got a lot of exposure there, and ever since then it just seems to be steadily growing,” said MacDougall. “I think we just really needed that big kick so that people knew that it happened every year.”
MacDougall says she hopes it will have an even bigger crowd this year, thanks to the exposure last year from running by the highway, and it is a great event for anybody to take part in.
“You can ride your bike, you can walk, you can run, or you can bring your pet as long as they are on a leash,” said MacDougall.
The race is Sept. 18 at the George Little House and registration is at 12:30 p.m., with the walk/run taking off at 1 p.m. There are t-shirts for sale to support the cause.