Mike Strange, a former Olympic boxer, was not a runner before he decided to take on the 3,149 km marathon.
By Melanie Epp
Photos by Christine Hess
Before Masterson Realty sales rep Mike Strange decided to run a marathon a day for 80 consecutive days, he’d never run a marathon in his life. In fact, the Niagara Falls, Ont. Realtor wasn’t much of a runner at all. He was, however, a three-time Olympic boxer who had competed in the 1992, 1998 and 2000 Olympics, which meant that he was no stranger to hard work and training.
Strange’s goal? To honour Terry Fox while raising money for Childhood Cancer Canada. He would call the ambitious adventure, totalling some 3,149 km, Box Run.
In 2008, just before Strange and his friend Bob Lavelle, better known as ‘Heater,’ were getting ready to head to Beijing to watch the Olympics, Lavelle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had to cancel. Lavelle was an important person in Strange’s life. In his earlier years, Lavelle had helped him find a trainer in Toronto and even supported him financially when things got tough.
A year later, when Lavelle passed away, Strange felt compelled to do something. He founded a charity – Heater’s Heroes – to help raise money for kids with terminal illnesses or life-altering ailments. The charity raised money, which was later used to fulfill children’s wishes. It was at this time that Strange met Kelsey Hill, a young lady battling terminal cancer. They formed a friendship and later, after he had pushed Hill in a buggy at the annual Terry Fox run, he came up with a crazy idea.
“There was a quote from Terry Fox, who said, ‘If I don’t finish, I need others to continue. It’s got to continue without me,’” says Strange. “And that kind of stuck with me.” So on Nov. 1, 2011, he started training. He wasn’t sure he was going to do it, but knew that if he did, the road ahead would be long and hilly. It wasn’t until he heard about the death of Kelsey Hill that he firmly decided to go ahead with the plan.
“I was devastated, and at the same time, it just kind of added fire to the spark,” Strange says. “From being not sure if I was going to do this, I was 100-per-cent sure I was going to do this now.”
Strange knew that running across Canada would require a support team, so he asked a number of friends to join him, including long-time friend Tim Geddes.
“He said, ‘Mike, of course. In fact, my son’s friend, Matteo Mancini is going through the same cancer as Terry Fox right now and he’s having his leg amputated in two days.’ It was like I was meant to do this.”
From there, the plan evolved to include Matteo, who would travel to strategic points throughout the run, acting as a poster child for Box Run.
“What we wanted to do was have Matteo come start the run, then come to Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and end in Victoria at mile 0 and have his leg dipped in the ocean, like Terry Fox did 32 years before,” says Strange. “That was our dream for Matteo.”
On April 12, 2012 Strange and Geddes drove their RV to Thunder Bay to begin the run. Most people don’t know this, but Terry Fox never actually made it to Thunder Bay. He made it as far as Shunia, Ont., where, if you look hard enough, you’ll find a little monument showing his mileage and his end date – Sept. 1, 1980.
Strange is a sales rep with Masterson Realty in Niagara Falls, Ont.
And so began the journey – 80 days of 42.2 km, for a total of 3,149 km. As Strange ran, the project gained momentum. People donated money and the demands on Strange’s time started getting more tiring. What had started out to be five to six-hour days was slowly turning into 12-hour days.
“I got to about Brandon, Man. and it started to get really mentally tough just because I was just running by myself,” Strange says. “It was really lonely at times. It was almost too much time to think. Every day felt like Christmas after you finished the run.”
One day, with only six km left in his run, Strange entered the RV and asked his buddy, Jack Robson, to join him. From that day forward, Robson started running five to six km with him.
In Regina, Strange got some bad news. Matteo would be unable to finish the run with him. His cancer had spread from his leg to his lungs, which was, ironically, the exact same thing that happened to Terry Fox. Matteo died on May 8 of this year, two days before his 13th birthday.
As hard as it was, and against the odds, Strange made the decision to continue the run.
“When I got to Victoria, basically I had run 80 days in a row – a marathon a day, 80 days in a row,” says Strange, almost in disbelief. Arriving on July 3, he left flowers at the foot of the Terry Fox statue, and then dipped his legs into the Pacific Ocean twice – once for himself, and once for little Matteo.
“It was a great journey – a tough one,” he says.
Box Run raised over $100,000 for Childhood Cancer Canada, with much of the money coming from the real estate community, including brokerages he did not work for.
“It was really nice having people from different real estate companies working for the same cause,” he says. “It was pretty cool.”
The lessons Strange learned translated well in his career – and in all parts of his life, he says. “I think you get what you put into it. Just like the run, just like anything. I enjoy real estate. I try my best and I try my hardest to please my clients,” says Strange.
“You deal with different roadblocks all the time, whether it’s running or if it’s part of your career in real estate. You know, stuff is always going to happen. It isn’t the end of the world,” he says. “You should realize what you’ve got right now.”
