Hundreds of kids from northern communities race in marathon event

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This article was published 16/06/2018 (2287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There were no bear tracks on the 10-kilometre race course – an unusual occurrence for a Brochet School “marathon club” runner such as Turrell Cook.

“We always get bears at our dump and it’s very close to the road that we run through,” said Cook, a 13-year-old student and member of Brochet First Nation who ran in the Manitoba Marathon’s 10-km race Sunday.

There are few options when it comes to training for a race in Brochet – an isolated community 1,000 km northwest of Winnipeg where the major landmarks include a lake, band office and school. If the lake is still frozen (ice-fishing season just ended last month), the runners have to do laps in the school gym. When it warms up, Cook and his classmates lace up and head to the community’s poorly pruned forest paths.

“We actually have one of the kid’s grandparents drive ahead of us on a four-wheeler,” said Tim Giannotti, the running coach and gym teacher at Brochet School. “He scouts and makes sure there’s nothing ahead.” Giannotti has been coaching the club for the last four years and said he and his students had to turn around during a practice a few years ago because there was a pack of wolves on the path.

Cook said it can be scary because of all the animals, but “it’s fun to run.” He joined the club for that simple reason and since starting in late March, he can run three times the distance he could three months ago. The 13-year-old finished 10 km in 1:27:01.2.

“He’s been, by far, the most improved runner from when we started,” his coach said.

Cook is one of 300 students from 11 schools in the Frontier School Board who travelled hours from one of the province’s most northern communities to compete in a Manitoba Marathon event Sunday. He, his classmates and two chaperones flew to Thompson and met up with students and staff from Gillam School and Oscar Blackburn School (South Indian Lake) to sit on a bus for more than seven hours to get to Winnipeg last Wednesday.

Don McCaskill, a superintendent at the board, said the students fundraise all year to help pay for the travel costs. It cost between $15,000 to $20,000 for the 13 Brochet School students and two chaperones to come down, he said.

The school board has been helping send students to the event from different running clubs in northern Manitoba for more than a decade and the kids look forward to the event all year, every year, coach Giannotti said.

Elena Paun, a marathon club coach in South Indian Lake and Grade 5 and 6 teacher, said two of her students, 11-year-old twins Kimberlyn and Kennedy Saultier, have been asking her about the marathon tryouts since September.

“Kimberlyn actually made it on the team, and then she got injured,” she said. “And she’s been recovering and she’s still so devoted. She wanted to be on the team so bad and she came up to me, and was asking me, ‘Please, Ms. Paun, I hope that my knee injury doesn’t take away from the fact that I want to participate.’”

It didn’t.

The girls, who are members of South Indian Lake First Nation, set an original goal to complete the Super Run event – just over 4 km – in 40 minutes. They both finished after 32 minutes.

Kennedy said she and her sister are going to hang up their running bibs on one of their bedroom walls when they get home Monday night. As for Sunday night, she said she plans to celebrate with a treat – either a candy apple or popcorn – at the Red River Ex.

This might just be the first and last time many of the students get to explore Winnipeg, Giannotti said.

“The hardest thing is just the lack of opportunities because we’re so isolated,” Giannotti said, adding that the opportunity to participate in the program not only makes kids healthier and more focused in the classroom, but it’s also encouraged high attendance because the kids don’t want to miss practices.

As much as the program benefits the student participants, Paun said it also benefits the larger community.

Whenever she takes the Oscar Blackburn School team out for a run, she said community members cheer them on.

“People walk out out from the band office and are like ‘Yeah, good job guys,’” she said.

“The kids really like that, it’s awesome. It’s a positive impact for the whole community that way.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @macintoshmaggie