By the numbers, we’re all still running (TC10k blog)
by rumon
30
Thirty years ago the Monday before last, on April 12th, 1980, 22-year-old Terry Fox began his Marathon of Hope. I was 5 years old. For reasons I can’t explain, I have spotty memories of my childhood. I can’t tell you I remember taking notice when Terry dipped his toe in the Atlantic near St. John’s, Newfoundland, to start his run. I have no recollection of following his progress as he ran his daily marathons from the east coast to Thunder Bay. If I was going to remember anything, it would be the nation’s dismay at the news that Terry’s cancer had spread to his lungs and he was going to have to stop his Marathon, or, too-soon later, that we had lost our national inspiration to a disease with which we were all only barely coming to grips. I don’t. I can’t conjure any first-hand memories of those moments of wonder, solidarity and anguish. All I have of those months is the fuzzy image from a mind’s eye’s peripheral vision – I want to remember it all, but mostly I’m left with a feeling, the intuition that this young man changed my life, as he changed many others. [...]