Dave Proctor arrives in Calgary to a hero’s welcome after 11 days of running
Hundreds greet ultrarunner at Calgary whistlestop on cross-Canada speed record journey
After 11 straight days on the road, ultrarunner Dave Proctor and his support crew arrived in Calgary yesterday. Proctor is running across Canada with two large goals in mind: to raise over $1 million for the Rare Disease Foundation, and to beat the cross-Canada speed record set by Al Howie in 1991.
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Proctor, who is from Okotoks, Alberta (south of Calgary), is a highly accomplished and decorated ultrarunner who holds various records in ultrarunning. He was met by a crowd of several hundred people at a local Staples store, who joined him in a 5K as his journey continued eastward.
Hanging out @StaplesCanada store #250 to take in the @rarediseasefdn event! Lots of supporting orange shirts 'round here! Good turnout! Also spotted an "Olympian"! #raredisease #yyc @OutrunRare ???? pic.twitter.com/fRHgg146yQ
— verbrugs (@GVerbrugs) July 7, 2018
Proctor must average 108K per day in order to meet his goal of getting to the east coast in 66 days. (Howie’s run took 72 days.)
Proctor’s 9-year-old son, Sam, has a rare disease (RECA–relapsing encephalopathy with cerebellar ataxia) that affects his movement and motor skills. Though rare diseases may affect only a handful of people in the world, there are thousands of such diseases, which means thousands of Canadians are affected, and is why funding for research is so important. It took six years and multiple hospitalizations before the family received a diagnosis.
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Readers can follow Dave’s progress on Twitter (@OutrunRare) or Instagram (daveoutrunsrare).