New Balance Canadian runner of the week: Francoise Gilbert

When Francoise Gilbert’s daughter, Julie, was assigned a project in her gym class, the two started running together. Five years later, they have raced six half-marathons and continue to run on vacation.

Five years ago, Francoise Gilbert’s daughter, Julie Bates, was assigned a month-long project for her physical education class. For the duration of May, she was to track all of her physical activity and mark it down in a log. “We decided to buy running shoes,” says her mother. At the store, they thought about making it a joint project. “We decided to buy a pair for her and a pair for me,” says Gilbert. She was 50 at the time.

The pair lives with their family in the small town of Inverary, Ont., just north of Kingston. It’s a fairly quiet area to run in. When Gilbert and her daughter started the spring challenge, they started off slow. “We decided to run just a kilometre and then walk back home,” she says. “Then we did this every day. After one month, we decided to continue this. At the end of August, we were able to do a 5K loop.” Gilbert says continuing the running after the project was over was rewarding for both of them. Bates had tried a variety of sports as a child but running was the first one that both of them actually enjoyed.

That was gradual progress. At first the two would run to the stop sign, one kilometre from home. Then they picked it up to the second stop sign and continued to extend it bit by bit. By October, they entered a 5K race together. It was the first of many. While they started running for the May assignment, seeing the rewards ensured that it would continue. “We did this together and I feel more healthy than before,” says Gilbert. “I lost quite a few pounds. It wasn’t my goal but it came with the running.” She says that her only regret is not starting to run sooner.

The health benefits of running is something that particularly hits home. Gilbert grew up in Belgium. Getting kids active at school just wasn’t part of the culture the same way it has been for her daughter. She was not so active growing up since athletic programs weren’t a staple in schools. Before Bates’s project, Gilbert’s lifestyle was fairly inactive. She would go for walks and bike occasionally and didn’t have issues with weight, but she wasn’t fit either. Getting into running makes her feel confident in her health. Her mother didn’t have that same reassurance. Seven years ago, her mother died. “She wasn’t fit. Because I run, I know I’m healthier,” she says. “When I race, I’m thinking of my mother.”

When Gilbert and Bates started that grade nine fitness project for the month of May, they had no idea where it would take them. They continued to run past the stop sign and past the next one too. They did their 5K loop and now have routes that are 5.6K, 7.2K, 9K and above. They run when they can despite the fact that Julie has moved from the town of Inverary to go to school at the University of Ottawa. Her two brothers have always been active. One also attends the school and has run cross-country. Gilbert is lucky that all of the interest in running has spread to her husband. He now joins her for the occasional run and goes out on his own.

The two have even kept it up on vacations running on beaches in North Carolina, early in the mornings before breakfast in France and through forests in Belgium. They have completed six half-marathons so far and Bates hopes to make the cross-country team in fall.

Sometimes, they run into the grade nine physical education teacher who got them started on this lifestyle. “[Julie] was the only student who took the project seriously,” says Gilbert. “At least she changed one student’s life and my life too.”