Cross-Canada Runner Surpasses $100k for Heart & Stroke Foundation
From June 15th, 2024
Ryan Keeping, a 27-year-old from Halifax, has been running across Canada for more than 70 days to raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada.
What he expects from himself is to make it across the country in 99 days, running 75 km every day for a total of 7,386 km from coast to coast. On April 1st Ryan started his run from St. Johns, Newfoundland and on June 6th he passed through Winnipeg.
Since childhood Ryan has been inspired by Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope. After seeing what Terry was able to accomplish despite having lost his leg to cancer, and battling cancer while he ran as far as he could across Canada, Ryan decided he too was going to run across this great country.
While Ryan is inspired in large part by Terry Fox he has his own personal inspiration to run for. While Terry raised money for Cancer research (which continues posthumously), Ryan is inspired to run for his loved ones confronting the consequences of heart disease. Heart disease hits close to home for Ryan, whose father, grandfathers, and both siblings are affected. On his website Ryan says he wants to help his own and other families who are dealing with heart disease.
Ryan is accompanied on the road by his friend Josh Pinfold and his dad Scott Keeping. His team is small but the run wouldn’t be possible without their support, helping plan the day, preparing meals and booking hotel stays among other jobs. While he’s running his family comes to mind often. The thought of them and the good his fundraising is doing help him to take on this Herculean task.
“Terry fox did it because he had cancer…So I thought okay what’s something that runs in our family? It’s heart disease.”
Ryan has been inspired by Terry Fox since he was a kid.
“For him to be able to do that at that age with cancer, with one leg, I can never complain about any of this.”
Stories like Fox and thoughts of his family are part of what keep Ryan inspired on the road.
“There’s a couple Youtube videos [about Terry Fox] I always go to. There’s a line in one that ‘the determination of Terry Fox is making believers out of the skeptics.’ I like that line.”
Another major driver for Ryan is a personal obsession of seeing just how far he can push himself.
“I’m just obsessed with seeing how far I can push things, and my limits, because really I don’t believe that we have any. Of course people have limits, I couldn’t go run 500k right now. But whenever you push yourself your limit goes farther and farther each day.”
Ryan believes the right mindset can conquer any situation and overcome any obstacle.
“Self belief is the most important thing you can have. It’s really almost like a drug to believe in yourself, like the effects of it. I’d say I have supreme self confidence. I believe if someone else has done something, I can do it. I might need a lot of time but you can always do it. That’s the mindset I take. Believe in myself to the fullest.”
Ryan had been preparing for months to take on this massive run. He took to training three times a day which is similar to the three 25-kilometre chunks he breaks his daily runs into. It was only a year and a half ago he began running, entering multiple ultra-marathons within days and weeks of each other. He realized what he was capable of and began training specifically for this journey.
“From the time I started running a year and a half ago I was preparing a lot and it really ramped up for probably four or five months. I quit my job, I took a line of credit, bought a van, I trained full time and now we’re here.”
In order to make his daily 75km mark Ryan runs at a pace between a walk and a run.
“Sometimes it’s almost harder to run like this because it’s in between a run and a walk. It’s just that ultra-marathon pace. But yeah, we just do this all day.”
While he runs Ryan keeps a smile on his face, talking enthusiastically with whoever wants to join him for however long. Some vehicles passing by would honk and wave or pump a fist and Ryan acknowledged every one of them while he carried on running. The run has become a daily routine where days start “at 5, start running around 6. A late day would be finishing at 10. It’s a double full-time job pretty much.”
“The first two weeks were the hardest because your body is getting used to it…Day four or five was probably my hardest day but I knew it would be so I didn’t get scared. I just embraced it and just kept going. Really, I don’t care how long it takes me in a day or how hard it is or how much pain I’m in, the 75 k is gonna get done. So, why wouldn’t I do it the best I can and feel good while I’m doing it.”
On his social media Ryan has a phrase you hear fairly often: Flip the Switch. While he puts 75km underfoot every day Ryan wants to let others know the value of making the change they’ve wanted to make, pursuing their dreams and making their best life become reality.
“Go out and do in your life what you know you have to do. Everybody has a dream life that they want to live and not that many people live it. I tell people the world’s a better place when more people chase their passions. So just get out and do what you know you’ve got to do, whatever it is. Don’t care if people don’t like it or don’t understand it. Just go do it. And also just be a nice person. It’s pretty easy to just be nice to people.”
It was a year and a half ago Ryan Flipped the Switch in his own life.
“I was just at a point in my life where I knew I wanted to do more. I wasn’t really happy with what I was doing and I kinda just said screw it. There’s no worst case scenario. You go chase your dreams and maybe it doesn’t happen right away but you just keep going until you get it. Worst thing you can do is not try.”
By the end of the day we met he had run 67 consecutive days and surpassed 5,000km. He has since surpassed 70 days and 5,500km.
Ryan’s run is unsponsored, relying on donations and his personal savings. Of the money donated to Ryan’s run, 80 per cent goes directly to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada to be used “towards improving diagnosis, care, and support for heart disease patients.”
20 per cent of the money raised will be used to cover expenses of the run.
Those who cannot afford to donate are encouraged to spread the word of what Ryan is doing, and share the link to his donation page. Ryan has thus far raised nearly $110,000.