Stories of Survivors: MSN Article
AWESOME article in MSN! Check it out here or read below:
http://healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca/Meet+Matt+Hill++Stephanie+Tait/stories_of_survivors/articles/sos_june09.htm?isfa=1
Meet Matt Hill & Stephanie Tait
By Flannery Dean
Last month, this impassioned duo completed a yearlong trek through North America that saw them run a marathon a day for one year.
A workout can go a long way. Running enthusiasts and founders of Run for One Planet (www.runforoneplanet.com) Matt Hill and Stephanie Tait merged their love of running with their love of the planet, and in doing so took the marathon to a whole new level. In May, the impassioned duo completed a yearlong trek through North America that saw them run a marathon a day for one year—they clocked more than 17,000 kilometres—to raise awareness of environmental issues.
How do you decide that running a marathon a day in support of the environment is a good idea? For Tait, a business development coach, it was a question of timing.
“Matt and I were really asking ourselves the bigger life questions: Am I really doing the best I can? Am I doing the best for others? We were both doing fine in life. It’s not that we were trying to escape anything; we just wanted to live a bigger life and give back more. “
It was Hill, an actor, who came up with the idea. Fittingly he filled her in during a trail run.
“While he was saying it, I just knew it. It wasn’t a decision; it was just known,” explains Tait.
After nearly two years of training—at one point they were running up to 140 miles a week—they left Vancouver on May 4, 2008. It was a pretty bold move in more ways than one. Only two years earlier, Tait’s longest run was 10K.
Describing herself as an “average runner”, Tait is surprised she was able to take on such a brutal physical and mental challenge. But she credits her environmental conviction with keeping her going.
“I’m less amazed at what the human body can do—I’m no different than anybody else—I’m more amazed at what the human body can do when the human mind is inspired. Because I really can’t see the possibility of me being able to train for this, let alone do it, without a big massive goal and inspired by a cause.”
That inspiration not only carried them both through all kinds of weather conditions in the US and Canada, including hail, sleet, snow and rain, but it also gave them the energy to speak to more than 15,000 school kids about environmental causes.
Oddly enough, the enthusiasm of the kids wound up inspiring Tait.
“The power of kids, that’s definitely something I’ve learned throughout the course of this experience. I had no idea that they’d be such a huge part of the tour.”
The duo began their yearlong run with some pretty ambitious goals: to raise $1 million and to inspire one million environmental actions. And though they’ve fallen well short of those aims, Tait isn’t disappointed.
“As the tour has gone on, it’s not that we forgot about those goals but it became less about those goals and more about the interaction—the quality experiences we had with people. If we talk to one child and we know that that one child is changed from our experiences then maybe that would count as one action and maybe that kid only donated two dollars but that one kid is going to go home and talk to their mum and talk to their dad and their friends; that is going to spur on a wave of change.”
The pair has raised nearly $100,000, however. That money will go into the Legacy of Action, which will not only encourage more green education for kids, but will also help kids get started with environmentally sound projects of their own.
“It’s all going to go back to kids. We realize the power of young children and mobilizing them. If they want to do green projects they can apply to the Legacy of Action and receive a grant to do it.”
Tait and Hill have big plans. They are hoping to write a book about the environment for kids and one for adults. They’ve also shot a documentary of their journey.
And you can count on more running. They’ll be sponsoring kids at Earth Runs around the world under the Run for One Planet banner.
“We’re going to be mobilizing kids to be a part of that team and raise funds for the legacy,” shares Tait.
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