Mike Strange Goes the Distance

A former champion boxer takes off his gloves and pounds the pavement across Canada in the fight against cancer.

With several boxing titles and two Commonwealth Games  gold medals, Mike Strange is well acquainted with suffering.  Yet, none of his training could prepare this former three-time  Olympian for the physical and mental anguish he would endure  as he ran across Canada in the fight against cancer. Strange went  from never having run a marathon to completing one a day for  81 days straight.

Strange’s journey began after he met Kelsey Hill, a 12-year old  girl battling a malignant brain tumour. The Niagara Falls,  Ont. native was inspired by her strength in the face of such  adversity and created the Box Run to raise money for childhood  cancer research. Strange admits that his ignorance about distance  running was a blessing in disguise. “It’s a good thing I didn’t  know how hard a marathon was to get through,” says Strange.  “Or I may not have done it.”

Word quickly spread about Strange’s ambitious goal and noble  cause. He was introduced to Matteo Mancini, an 11-year-old  boy fighting osteosarcoma, the same bone cancer that ravaged  Strange’s hero, Terry Fox. Strange felt that meeting Matteo was a  sign that the Box Run was for the right reasons. “Some children  have been given a life sentence; they are true heroes,” he says.

On April 12, 2012, Strange took his first strides in Thunder  Bay, Ont. There were many complications along the way. At one  point, he grew tired of the playlist on his iPod and found himself  exhausted and frustrated as he plodded along the side of the  highway, followed by his team in a recreational vehicle. “From  my training runs and 140-song playlist, I knew I was running  longer than necessary,” explains Strange. They soon realized that  the borrowed RV was American and the odometer was calculating  miles, not kilometres.

Motivation was tough at the best of times. In Regina, Strange  was devastated after hearing news that Matteo Mancini’s cancer  had spread to his lungs. “I just wanted to give up, but then phone  calls, letters and videos from back home reminded me this was  the reason for the Box Run. Cancer touches everyone,” he says.

Running along the shoulder of the Trans-Canada Highway  provided a stark contrast of experiences for Strange. In a single  run he’d go from marvelling at the beauty of a Prairie sunrise to  having to leap over roadkill. “Most days I didn’t want to go back  out there,” Strange confesses. “I just wanted to eat and go to  sleep.” But he was kept on task by local runners that heard about  the Box Run and joined him for stretches, serving as a valuable  distraction from the treacherous weather conditions and increasingly  challenging terrain as he headed west.

Strange didn’t give his body sufficient time to rest between  runs, and exhaustion, shin splints and knee pain began to plague  him. By the time he crossed over into British Columbia, he’d lost  25 lb. and was popping three Advil a day for pain. After running  a total of 3,139k, Strange completed the Box Run on July 3, 2012,  in Victoria.

Strange says he now has a new appreciation for marathon  runners. And even after running dozens of marathons and  pushing his body to its limit, he says that he can no longer  remember the pain and anguish he felt out on the road. “Over  $100,000 was raised for childhood cancer research and I would  do it again in a heartbeat,” says Strange. It was not a surprise then  that Strange recently announced that he will hit the road again in  May, 2014. He says that he’s doing round two of the Box Run in  the memory of Matteo Mancini, who lost his battle with cancer  last May.

– Jill Tham