A Rosswood resident hopes that a first-ever Terrace to Rosswood marathon she organized on May 23 will become an annual event.
Kimberly Girard was one of a handful of runners who participated and one of just two who ran the full 42 kilometres. Experienced local runner Brent Webb was the other runner completing the distance while Girard’s husband, Stephan, ran half, and one more runner joined for the final 12 kilometres.
The route began at Coast Mountain College and ended at the Girards’ home in Rosswood. It was a casual event, but the runners gave it a title because they hope to do it again next year — perhaps in the other direction.
Kimberly Girard said she had been thinking of running from Terrace to Rosswood since last year.
“I couldn’t run that far then, but it’s amazing what you can do when you just chip away at it.”
She began marathon training in December for a separate, official race, but it was cancelled in response to the pandemic. That’s when she started planning the Terrace to Rosswood run.
“All of our races were cancelled. It’s kind of like, what do you do with the training that you have?” she said.
At first, she planned to do the run alone.
“I was like, I don’t know, it might be better to suffer alone,” she said with a laugh.
Then Webb offered to join.
“He’s run, I don’t know, like 10 marathons or something,” Girard said. “He can run much faster than I can, so he was there purely to support me.”
She finished the run in 3 hours and 48 minutes. Nothing spectacular, she said, but she was pleased with the result. Conditions were ideal for the run, Girard said.
“It was awesome, not too hot. I thought it was going be even cooler and rainy, but it wasn’t,” she said.
Girard said she used to run about 15 years ago, before having children. She got back into running a year ago, when she and her husband participated in the Skeena River Relay. She had done weight training and felt fit, but hadn’t trained for running.
“I was trying to prove that my fitness would transfer over to running, which it really doesn’t, at all, because [the relay] was very painful. I finished [the relay] but, yeah, it wasn’t pretty,” she laughed. “Ever since then I’ve just been hooked on running further.”
The Terrace to Rosswood marathon was exactly one year after her return to running.
jake.wray@terracestandard.com
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