By Martin Parnell
Special to the Cochrane Eagle
As 2019 comes to an end so the clock ticks over into 2020. With this comes the end of a decade: 10 years / 3652 days. It seems like a heartbeat ago that I was standing on a road outside of Cochrane at 9 a.m. on January 1, 2010 at the start line of Marathon Quest 250.
When we arrived at Highway 1A and Horse Creek Road, a group of friends from the Cochrane Red Rock Running & Tri Club were there waiting for me. They had decided to run the first marathon with me, it was -30 C and I was pleased to see that the temperature hadn't stopped them. Mayor Truper McBride and some other town councillors were also there, as were news reporters from the Cochrane Times and Eagle and crews from CTV and CBC.
Mayor McBride said a few words and Sue took some photos. In one of them, my five running mates and I smiled madly for the camera. My friends were smiling because they had one marathon to run and were feeling excited at the start line. I was smiling because that is what you do when someone says, "Say cheese!" Even now, when I look at that photo, I remember what I was really thinking: "What the hell am I doing?"
So let’s see what happened between then and now with “The Decade by the Numbers”:
1 Grandchild: Matthew, age 5
2 Health scares: a clot on the brain and a stroke
3 Books: Marathon Quest, Running to the Edge and The Secret Marathon
4 Film Festivals: Cinefest, Edmonton, Zonta and Calgary Underground
5 Guinness World Records in Netball, Lacrosse, Indoor Soccer, Ice and Ball Hockey
6 Afghan women and girls running the 2016 Marathon of Afghanistan
10 Year end Events: Right To Play, a Playground, Free to Run and Boys and Girls
17 Countries participated in The Secret Marathon 3K in 2019
19 Minutes in The Ageless Athlete documentary
21 Hours to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet)
64 Years old on December 19, 2019
77 Minutes in The Secret Marathon documentary
250 Marathons run in one year
1,014 kilometres run along the coast of England in 25 days
27,340 Children given the gift of hope from the $1.3M raised for Right To Play.
28,218 Kilometres run in 10 years (7.73 kms / day)
As the next decade begins I’m looking ahead to see what’s coming next. On April 20th I’m running the Boston Marathon so it’s time to crank up the training program. This means heading out on a new journey, one step at a time.
© 2020 Martin Parnell [email protected] www.martinparnell.com
