Photography by Claudia Katz
Most of us run, some inspire.
 Lucky Number Seven
Ultramarathon runner Norma Bastidas, of Calgary, Alberta, plans to cover a lot of ground in 2009. Between the end of January and mid-June, she will race in seven ultramarathons on all seven continents in the course of seven months, a fund-raising adventure that she has dubbed the 777 Run for Sight.
Bastidas hopes to raise $100,000 for the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), and Operation Eyesight Universal by running more than 1,400 kilometres over seven races. In 2006, Bastidas’s fourteen-year-old son was diagnosed with Cone Rod Dystrophy, a progressive condition leading to severe vision impairment or blindness.
That’s when Bastidas took up running with a passion. At first, she ran a few kilometres at a time in the early morning hours as an outlet for a mother’s worry and anxiety. Soon, her early-morning trips around the block turned into ambitious goals to teach her children that they could do anything they put their minds to. That year she ran a half-marathon and then a marathon.
“Once you find what you want to do, it’s amazing how easy it becomes,” she says.
And then she set the bar higher.
In 2007, Bastidas completed four ultras in Alberta, the Boston Marathon in a time of 3:28:11, and the Sahara Marathon, a six-day endurance race in the Sahara Desert.
Still, Bastidas insists that she’s just an ordinary person. Glancing around at her competitors at the campsite in the Sahara, she thought, “What am I doing here? I’m not cool—I drive a minivan!”
Cool or not, as of the date this article went to press Bastidas had completed two of the seven planned ultras: the Brazil 135 Ultra-Marathon and the Antarctica Ultramarathon, which she ran back to back on January 23-25 and then January 28.
If she completes all seven events, Bastidas will be the first person to do so in the world.
“The more difficult the challenge, the more attention for the charity,” she says. See www.normabastidas.ca for more information.
 Fitness Portfolio
At sixty-one, most people who haven’t already retired are beginning to think about working less, travelling, spending more time with their grandchildren, and finally getting around to neglected projects around the house.
Ken Hill, on the other hand, is planning another packed schedule of marathon racing.
In 2008, Hill ran four road marathons and skied two Nordic marathons (fifty-five kilometres), a feat he dubbed “Six in Sixty.” But Hill, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, wasn’t content to just complete six marathons; he achieved a personal best in four of the six races, finishing the Royal Victoria Marathon, the sixth of the year, in a time of 3:29:17. Over the course of the year, Hill’s marathon time improved by twenty-five minutes.
Hill took up running at fifty-five and now devotes ten per cent of his available time to fitness. He likens it to an investment toward his health in later years in the same way he would look after his financial investments for his retirement.
A great-grandfather who still works full time, Hill shows no signs of slowing down. He plans to break 3:20 at the Boston Marathon in April 2009, in addition to racing another half-dozen marathons throughout the year.
Hill inspires friends, family, and now total strangers through a blog he maintains at www.sixinsixty.ca.
 "Running Saved My Life"
In 2002, Jan Bieber suffered a terrible auto accident when a semi crossed the highway median to avoid a rapidly slowing vehicle and ran head on into Bieber’s truck. Bieber’s injuries were severe. His rehabilitation was long and difficult, involving months of inactivity. He lost his twelve-year career as a B.C. diver and diving instructor; he was lucky he escaped with his life.
Bieber entered a cycle of depression and weight gain, and his problems compounded. His wife left him. He lost his house. Eventually, he found himself in 2006, underemployed in the oil patch, living out of his pickup truck, and tipping the scales at 340 pounds.
And one morning it hit him: he would die of a heart attack—fat, homeless, and alone—if he didn’t take control of his life.
Bieber joined a gym, started eating better, and achieved what most people would regard as a miracle: he lost 137 pounds in nine and a half months.
How did he do it?
“I realized I couldn’t blame anyone for what happened to me,” Bieber says. “My life was my responsibility, no one else’s.”
He also had a goal: A half Ironman in the summer of 2007.
Another highway accident set him back a year, but he achieved that goal in the summer of 2008 at the Sylvan Lake Half Ironman and then went on to run a the Royal Victoria Marathon in the fall.
Now, Bieber has set his sights even higher. He plans to run from Victoria, B.C., to Calgary, Alberta, in sixty days, beginning June 2009. He plans on raising $100,000 for charities to be announced and is currently seeking corporate sponsorship. His plan is outlined at www.runningforyourlife.ca.
About the Photographer
Claudia Katz contributed photography for “Amazing Runners.” Katz believes that teaching others helps one learn, lack of sleep is good for losing youthful skin, and ruffling feathers in all the wrong places yields stories only Hollywood could dream up. Visit her work at www.claudiakatzphotography.com.
"Running Inspirations" was originally published in IMPACT Magazine's March/April 2009 Running Issue.
|
