Joanne Baker and I dedicated our 4 km walk this morning to Sandy Musson and her inspiration and support since we started as the originals back in October 1997. Sandy had just completed her Personal Trainer certification and offered a class where we walked for a half hour and trained for a half hour. She probably can still remember the whining over the walking lunges. Who knew that a ten week session would turn into years of running races (often followed by eating), biking (often followed by eating) and even vacations centred around fitness (and eating). We started running from pole to pole and progressed to 5 km, 10 km, 21.1 km, 30 km and 42.2 km. Sandy taught us to never say never. Sandy had faith in us and we knew if we listened to her and trained properly, we could do it. So many runs. We were there for her first Resolution run, and first Fat Ass with about 20 or 30 people. We were on the first Surf and Turf team. She took us to our first race -- the Avon Run in Toronto! We started out in 1999 with a 10 km and it was overwhelming! But we did it and for the first time in some of our lives we felt like athletes!! She eventually took us to Disney, Philadelphia, the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC. She introduced us to ATB, and Run for the Toad (the best trail run ever). For some of us it became a family activity, right Heather ClementPaulin? There were so many many races and lots have been mentioned by others. Joanne and I said on our walk this morning - We didn't realize when we signed up for those ten weeks of working out how life changing they would be for us. Thanks Sandy.
