Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
Normally at this time of the year, my good friend Larry Mellott, the esteemed play by play announcer for the Guelph Storm, and I would be making our final preparations for the Half Marathon at the annual Bayshore Race.
But, like most activities in 2020, the Bayshore Race scheduled for August 30th and all its distance categories, including the half marathon, have been cancelled.
However, there is a half marathon being conducted this weekend and in the spirit of social distancing and isolation, it will be a one man event.
You might have heard Jesse Walker with The Great Paul Hill last week on CFOS, talking about his run this Saturday which will take him from Big Bay to the Balmy Beach Road.
Going the distance is not foreign to the 16 year old Walker.
As a 14 year old, Jesse Walker was diagnosed with a medulla blastoma. The sequence of procedures and operations which included radiation, chemotherapy, morphine, marijuana pills, transfusions and extended hospital stays makes you wince just reading it.
But today, outside of fairly skinny shoulders for a mid-teenager, you’d never guess there had been a health issue and his half marathon could be somewhat of a metaphor for running away from those procedures and leaving cancer well behind.
Jesse Walker’s journey is inspiring and has motivated him to push himself into Saturday’s solo half marathon, not necessarily for himself, but for childhood cancer research, for his uncle, John Spence, and for one of his colleagues, Nick Garrett.
At last check, Jesse Walker’s half marathon, from a fundraising standpoint, had bypassed the $ 10,000 mark and from a competitive standpoint, his stated goal is to crack the 2 hour barrier Saturday.
I’m Fred Wallace