Thunder Bay Marathon “awesome” for Wunnumin runners

Wunnumin’s Lazarus Angees and Evelyn Gliddy completed their first full marathons on Sept. 22 at the Thunder Bay Marathon with times of 3:50:38 and 4:23:42.
“It was great — it was challenging for the first time,” said Gliddy, who had previously run two Thunder Bay half marathons. “It was smooth. The problem was my feet; I got new shoes.”
Although Gliddy’s new shoes bothered her toenails as she was running the 42.195 kilometre (26.2 mile) distance, she wants to bring more runners from Wunnumin for next year’s Thunder Bay Marathon.
“I’m planning to bring my son too for the 10K,” Gliddy said.
Gliddy trained for the marathon by running every day at a variety of distances, including 10, 15 and 20 kilometre runs.
“And my short runs were 30 minutes a day,” Gliddy said. “And I ran with my son too.”
Angees said the Thunder Bay Marathon was a good experience for his first marathon.
“I did it,” Angees said. “I feel awesome.”
Angees said he felt good until about the 16 mile distance.
“After about 16 miles, my legs started to feel so sore,” Angees said. “But I still ran, though.”
Once he got to about the 20 mile distance in the Centennial Park area, Angees said the course was “pretty hard,” noting the hills were difficult.
“It was a pretty good experience to see other runners,” Angees said. “The other runners were faster.”
Angees usually ran every second day to train for the marathon.
“I ran all summer,” Angees said. “I do like 10 kilometres, 20 kilometres.”
Although he suffered from shin splints at the beginning of his training, Angees said it is no longer a problem.
Three other Wunnumin runners completed a number of events at the Thunder Bay Marathon, with Archie Mekanak finishing the half marathon in 2:35:37, Doug Semple finishing the half marathon walk in 3:20:36 and Virginia Childforever finishing the 10 kilometre run in 1:15:37.
Mekanak ran in honour of a person he knew to have a good healthy life.
“This was my first (half) marathon,” Mekanak said, noting he ran every second day for his training runs. “I didn’t run in the mornings, I ran in the evenings because I’m working, so it was kind of different.”
Mekanak encouraged First Nations people to participate in marathons and other running events.
“I encourage other people to run and have a good healthy lifestyle,” Mekanak said. “Up north we have diabetics and heart problems.”
Mekanak plans to participate in another run next month in Thunder Bay.
Ginoogaming’s Peter Rasevych finished the marathon in 4:34:45 while Sandy Lake’s Chad
Linklater, Racheal Anishinabie and Ralph Bekintis and Whitesand’s Yolanda Wanakamik finished the half marathon in 1:45:18, 1:50:47 and 2:25:51 and 2:18:24.
Fort William runners Kyle Anderson, Aaron Pervais, Liesa Wynn and Jolene Banning finished the 10 kilometre run in 1:01:20, 1:06:50, 1:06:51 and 1:15:52.