Run For One Planet Blog

That was the scene Thanksgiving weekend, October 11^th up here in Canada. We spent the weekend chasing Steph’s sister around on her 1^st ever Marathon, feasted with my aunt Jane & uncle Frank and a collection of family & friends at their annual Thanksgiving feast. At the end felt like we’d run a double (tour-like) marathon ourselves after riding mountain bikes around the course chasing said marathoner, with my uncle as route director! And to make the weekend even more special, we were made aware that everyone received the promotion material for next year’s TC10K, with yours truly front and center on all the posters and race pack leaflets! Thanks to all who made our weekend incredible and congrats to Steph’s sister Ash, for smoking the course in just under 4 ½ hours! And she’s little like the sister, so “small steps” continue to be the theme adding up.

I am proud to share with all our readers we have just been formally invited to be lululemon’s newest “Run Ambassador’s” at their flagship location, West 4^th Avenue, here in Kitsilano, BC. This fulfills a 3-year dream we’ve had, to represent our community with a company who shares the same values as we do. So thanks lulu, we are honored to be part of your community and excited to build the Run For One Planet presence in our home neighborhood! Stay tuned everyone for exciting developments as we create our R41P Legacy! I can’t tell you just yet, but think, “running for the Planet and building community”. That’s going to have to suffice for now.

On the speaking front, we are grateful to be sharing our tour story and presentations to many groups, asking to have us. Last week we spent a really powerful hour with a young group of UBC students at their “entrepreneur weekend”. This weekend we are speaking at the BC Youth Leadership Conference doing 3 one-hour presentations back to back! Feels like being back on tour (slightly).

And then November 7^th, we have been asked to speak at the Olympic Oval in Richmond BC, for a group of BC Athletes about to make the leap to the National teams and Olympic prospect groupings. If we do a good job, we might even get to see the speed skating track and lace up! Stay tuned.

I would like to finish by saying how amazing it is to be able to continue to share with you, our community all we have happening. It is a testament to tenacity and vision and also, a testament to the power of the human spirit. I say this because it has been you, our loyal supporters, who have kept commenting on “what’s happening” and “let me know if I can be of service to the Legacy”, and this keeps us energized and eager to move forward with the exciting plans we have.

So thank you from our feet and hearts, for believing in this amazing Run For One Planet dream. I know we are building a Legacy strong with foundation and passionate energy (from you and our incredible Board of Directors), to help guide us into the future and the kind of world we desire to create right here where we all live, Planet Earth.

Please see this movie (http://www.youtube.com/homeproject) and share the link with all you know. It is one that has the power to change us.

Take care everyone and look forward to seeing some of you and hearing from the rest!

Matt & Steph

By Matt Hill & Stephanie Tait for GreenMapleWellness.net

Our names are Stephanie Brooke Tait and Matt Hill. We Co-founded this dream together from a collective desire to give back and step out of our comfort zones to use running as the vehicle to deliver the message of simple daily actions all adding up for our Planet’s health. The idea was conceived while on a flight to Detroit as I had been asking for many years, what was my life purpose and how can I use my love of running, people, the planet, and now Steph, to make a big difference. So when the captain said we’d reached our cruising altitude of 27,000 feet above the surface of our big blue Planet, the answer came rushing in like a torrent of water, freshly released from a long held dam.

So exactly three weeks after, as we ran along one of our favorite urban trails, Steph said “let’s build this together and we made a pact to each other, that stated “if we decide to go for it, we’ll never look back and we’ll do everything in our power to make it a success. And as the final miles tick away under our blistered feet and tired bodies, we’ll smile in the knowing because we left it all out there on the pavement, left no stone unturned and we will have nothing left. We will truly be spent”.

Thus ensued 18 months of the biggest, most stretching, largest life learning’s we could have ever signed up for, willingly. 80-hour weeks of training, planning and team building were the norm. We had a tour fundraiser Barn Burner that raised well over 25,000 dollars, supported by our personal “army of peeps and peep’ettes” from the four corners of our lives.

We spent a year securing a 28-foot diesel powered RV (affectionately named Racy Verna) and retro-fitted her with as much and as many Earth friendly alternatives as we could, to make a lighter foot print for the tour and to show people what they can also do in their own lives and homes, to make a lighter foot print.

On May 4th, 2008 we hit the ground running along with our world class team of R41P volunteers (30+) and in 369 tour days, Steph and I ran about 215 marathons each, presented to over 30,000 people (mostly elementary school kids), in 200 presentations, burned roughly 1.5 million calories each, destroying 14 pairs of Asics running shoes in the process.

The kids we presented to and met in each town and city became our “army of pint-sized eco warriors”, 30,000 and growing and was the wind beneath our feet, especially when the days got long and miles ran deep. They met us with 100% ebullient enthusiasm, eagerness to commit to change and became the main mission of our tour’s message as we constantly presented and connected with the real leaders of our NOW, not just our future. Kids don’t make an appointment in their day timers to think about eliminating plastic bags, they just say, “ok I’ll do it” and it’s done.

We received letters from teachers and parents saying things like, “know that you changed these children’s lives and ours. Why? Because since you were here, they’re now always reminding us to turn off our cars and please turn off the water and the lights when we leave a room”. This confirmed to us as we ran each day, that people just need to feel inspired to care and to change because it makes them feel good, not because they feel guilty. This was why kids made the tour so special, because they look for fun in the moment and believe in their own power to do the right thing.

The big kids (adults aplenty) were also a huge source of inspiration along the winding, twisting, ever changing, ever exciting, Run for One Planet highway. We would have been lost without the hundreds of “local hero’s” everywhere, lending their expertise, sweat equity and connections within their local communities to ensure we made an impact everywhere we ran through. The power of the human spirit is alive and thriving as we were always welcomed in like old friends and treated like family everywhere we went.

Some of the tour highlights would be:

• Having the privilege of running your dream with your partner at your side.
• Witnessing change happening right before your eyes as people become empowered by their goodness.
• Running 26.2 miles everyday, watching the miracle of sunrises and sunsets that leave you speechless.
• Realizing just how BIG Canada really is.
• Experiencing that “Maritimer spirit”.
• Receiving the gifts of “Southern Hospitality” and actually gaining weight in the process. Standing in the exact spot where your childhood hero “Terry Fox” had to leave the pavement and know what it took to get there having two legs.
• Standing in the exact spot where your childhood hero “Terry Fox” had to leave the pavement and not knowing what it took to get there, having one leg and cancer in your lungs.
• Seeing the beautiful blue Pacific again after 10 months and running into a southern California sunset.
• Knowing we made a difference by just continuing to go “one small step at a time”. Having a 14-day homecoming celebration as we hit Canada again on April 24th 2009 at the ferry dock in Victoria and made a run for home up Vancouver Island and had some our most treasured experiences as a result.
• That same homecoming back into to Canada day, seeing the faces of the two beautiful souls who gave us life, our Moms.
• Feeling totally complete in our mission as we ran the final tour day #369 under full Police motorcycle escort as we were brought across the Lions Gate Bridge in our own lane and greeted by a collection of family, friends and hundreds of supporters to unlace at the Epic Expo and change the “miles ran” to read: 11,000.

Never underestimate how powerful just one single step can be. It was the sole reason we eventually completed 11,000 miles, covering two countries. It’s the same with environmental action and the core reason we decided to ask people all along our journey, to just commit to doing 1 single daily step from our website’s list of top 10 action steps.

In closing, we’d like to end with one very worn, very old, and VERY truthful quote from Indian Leader, Mahatma Gandhi as he led his country’s men and women peacefully headlong to meet the British Army, vastly out numbered and outgunned.

“Be The Change You Would like to See in The World”.And our quote, as we reflect on our odyssey to heaven, to hell and back because our journey was hard, was fraught with a few disasters and we were very much out numbered (especially by cars passing us on the highways and a business as usual from many). But like Mr. Gandhi, who continued to ask his people to go peacefully and know that even though they were hugely outnumbered, the fire in their hearts for change would be all the power they would need, if they stuck together.

So we ask you, “What’s your marathon a day”?

Bio’s: Stephanie: With training from Coach University, she now operates her own business coaching company called Visions Without Borders Coaching. Her entrepreneurial spirit and determination has helped her stand out in her field with accolades that distinguish her as an emerging leader, including a Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award presented by Prince Edward. Aside from her coaching business, Steph speaks to thousands of first year students at universities across North America every year with Playfair.Although the epic run is now over, Steph’s passion to inspire meaningful change in the world still drives her as she serves as the Co-Director for the Run for One Planet’s Legacy Fund.

Matt:

Matt and Terry Fox didn’t just share the love of running, but they both also dreamt of doing something that would make a difference in the world. Matt’s dream started when he was 12, watching Terry run across Canada and would take another 28 years to fulfill. But he never let go of that dream. During those 28 years, Matt enjoyed a successful career as an actor in both film and television. Some of his noteworthy roles were in films like Titanic, Shanghai Knights, Watchers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III where underneath the green turtle suit he played Raphael. Matt has always related to kids, perhaps it’s because they share his unguarded enthusiasm for life. It isn’t too surprising that Matt has done a great deal of voiceover work on dozens of cartoon series and movies, where he has voiced the characters of “Raphael” in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, “Korey” in Being Ian, and “Ed” on the hit cartoon Ed, Edd and Eddy – watched by about 33 million kids every day.All of this time, Matt didn’t stop running. He tried his hand at triathlon and eventually completed the Ironman seven times. Then his passion for the Planet, people and running took hold and along with his partner in crime, Stephanie Tait, co-founded Run For One Planet and ran 11,000 miles round North America fuelled by Blueberry protein shakes and the burning desire to fulfill his dream of making a difference.

Although the run is now over, Matt’s passion to inspire Fit Kids on a Fit Planet continues as he serves as Co- Director for the Run for One Planet’s Legacy Fund.

Run For One Planet, visit us.
(http://www.runforoneplanet.org/actionchallenge.php)