Canadian Forces members are on double-time pace to raise awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder and cash for Wounded Warriors Canada.
The team of six runners and its support crew started from Port Hardy Monday and will finish this year’s 600-kilometre Wounded Warrior B.C. Run in Victoria Sunday (Feb. 28). The run stops in Nanaimo Friday.
The event is a relay in which participants run 12km and rest while the other half of the team runs the next 12km.
Jeff Kibble, team spokesman, said the runners had cool, crisp, sunny weather for the leg from Woss to Sayward Tuesday.
“In the past there was snow and clouds and all kinds of stuff. For February it was pretty awesome,” Kibble said. “The runners are starting to get a bit sore. It’s the second day of running, but we’re also getting into the rhythm and the pace of the run.”
The most important thing, Kibble said, is connecting with people in the communities they visit, especially first responders who can also be affected by PTSD.
“Sharing information with first responders is really important because those guys deal with a lot of crap, too,” Kibble said.
The inaugural B.C. run in 2014 was co-founded by Allan Kobayashi, the team’s lead runner and Armed Forces member diagnosed with PTSD and operational stress disorder in 2006, and Dan Bodden, a search and rescue technician working to change attitudes about stress disorders.
The Wounded Warrior B.C. Run team will stop at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 257 (Lantzville) at 1:42 p.m. for 20 minutes, at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 256, 1630 East Wellington Rd. at 5:05 p.m. for 30 minutes and finish the day at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 10 (Harewood) at 6 p.m.
To learn more about Wounded Warriors Canadan, please visit www.woundedwarriorrunbc.com.
Donations can also be made at any Island Savings Credit Union branch.
Follow the runners’ progress down the Island on an online run tracker at bit.ly/1Ro8niS.