Inspiring a community to become more active

There is an incredible energy that ripples through the crowd at Maritime Race Weekend and it’s inspired a number of spectators to become more active.

When Maritime Race Weekend started in 2012, Mat Sabinski lived in Eastern Passage, N.S.. He’d come out to cheer on our community’s marathon with his family, but he was not a runner. Watching the race in 2015 was a game changer for Mat. His wife Geniveve was running our half-marathon. As he cheered for her along the route, Mat spontaneously decided to run the last 3.5K with his wife. He hadn’t run since high school and was wearing an old pair of basketball shoes. He experienced such an incredible adrenaline rush, that later when he saw his friend Wanda in the marathon, he decided to run the last 3K with her too. Normally, I frown upon race bandits – but it was a life-changing moment for Mat (so all is forgiven).

After his unplanned 6.5K, Mat regularly joined his wife on her runs. He decided to run for a reason, fundraising with Team in Training. Then he created a run club in our community, lost 30 lb, and finally, bought a real pair of running shoes (Brooks, of course). He now volunteers at Maritime Race Weekend and has completed our half-marathon and marathon. He’s hired a running coach. Plus, he became a race director for the Moose Run 25K.

If that wasn’t enough, Mat started a running streak. Last Sunday was his 365th consecutive day of running. I was invited to see him complete this major milestone. During Mat’s streak, he ran 2,946K in all sorts of weather. On his one-year anniversary – it was a snow storm. Bad weather didn’t stop Mat. Actually, he described the snow as icing on the cake! Being there to celebrate with Mat was just the boost that I needed as we ramp up planning for 2018.