The 2nd Annual Golden Shoe Awards

Whether they’re raising money for clean drinking water in Ethiopia, running around the world for medical research or just plain running fast, these seven Golden Shoe Award winners made us all proud to be part of a vibrant, socially and physically active Canadian running community.

Norma Bastidas: Visionary

By Crystal Rhyno

Calgarian Norma Bastidas is living proof a mother would run the world and back for her children. In July 2009, she completed the 777 Run for Sight, becoming the first female and second person in history to run seven ultramarathons on seven continents in seven months. Bastidas, 41, admits if she had been running simply for herself, she would have quit long before the halfway point. When she hit the 100-mile mark with 35 miles to go at a race in Brazil, she sat down, exhausted. “I remember sitting thinking, if it were for personal reasons now would be a perfect time to go home,” Bastidas says.

In 2006, Bastidas’s eldest son was diagnosed with cone rod dystrophy, a progressive degenerative eye condition with no cure. At the same time, she lost her job, and found her life was quickly spinning out of control. Bastidas turned to running, which the single mother of two says helped her on many levels. “It changed my life. It switched my focus. Instead of being negative, I went from, ‘I don’t know if I can do it’ to ‘Yes, I can.'”

The next year, Bastidas ran the 2007 Calgary Marathon in 3:40:20, qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which she planned to run with her best friend, Nadia Larsson. She finished the 2008 Boston Marathon in 3:28:40, and later that year completed the Alberta Ultra Series, where she was the leading female and finished in second place overall. Bastidas says running helped her feel better about life, but it also allowed her to raise awareness about visual impairment and funds for three charities: Operation Eyesight Universal, the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the CNIB.

Tackling the 777 Run for Sight challenged Bastidas both mentally and physically – and that’s what she needed to push through her stresses. To date, she has raised more than $140,000. After the 777 run, Bastidas hasn’t taken a break. In fact, she may have picked it up a notch on a different level. In August, she ran the TransRockies Run in Colorado with her friend, who had never run further than a marathon. And now she’s out to smash another world record: she wants to become the first female to climb the highest summits on all seven continents and also to break the current speed record of two years and 68 days by completing the seven climbs in under a year. Before setting off on this adventure, Bastidas will race Calgary school kids on a treadmill, raising funds for three children who are going blind and need to attend a special school. The students will collect pledges.

Born in Mazatlan, Mexico, Bastidas moved to Canada in 2003 from the United States with her two sons. Growing up, Bastidas says she bought into the idea that “you shouldn’t run because it was bad for your knees.” Not to mention, she was in conservative Mexico, where women were not exactly in it for the long run.

Next year, Bastidas wants to compete in the Badwater Ultramarathon and might run another marathon in Canada. She plans to run less and be the first to cross the finish line.