The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is on Sunday, October 14th this year, and Peter Hadzipetros is running and raising money for Daily Bread Food Bank as his charity of choice. Didn’t know you could run for the good of your health and your community? You can! And it’s not too late either. There are still spots in the half marathon and full marathon. Register by clicking here . Our Top 10 fundraisers will receive a refund on their registration ($90 value). If running isn’t your thing, then support someone who is running for Daily Bread! Click here to donate to Peter’s fundraising page.
Shorter days and cooler air mean only one thing to those of us who love to lace up the sneakers and get out for “just” a 10K run.
It’s race season. And for the past few years – for me – it’s meant toe the line with 10,000 of my closest friends at the ScotiaBank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, as part of the media charity challenge.
Some of us are serious, some like to get a little exercise – but all of us really want to out-fundraise the teams from competing media outlets. Maybe even run a little faster than our professional colleagues
And not just for bragging rights. Scotiabank will kick in some cash for a runner’s charity of choice if they finish in the top three among media challenge runners. Not a bad incentive.
I’ve run for a few charities in the past. This is the first time I picked the Daily Bread Food Bank – although it’s far from my first association with Daily Bread
Way back in the early days of my radio news career at CBC Toronto, we started a Christmas open house where we encouraged the audience to come on down and watch live radio get produced. The only catch: bring a donation for the Daily Bread Food Bank.
That open house is closing in on 30 years old – and it’s still bringing in lots of food and money for the food bank.
Earlier this year, Shaw Media, my new employer at Globalnews.ca, held a month-long company-wide initiative to collect food and money for food banks across the country.
So when this year’s Waterfront Marathon media challenge was announced, the obvious choice was Daily Bread. It’s like coming home.
My plan was to run the marathon – the 25th in the past 10 years. Not bad for a guy whose idea of exercise was to stand behind the plate, toss the ball back to the pitcher for seven innings and then go off and drink beer and eat chicken wings.
I still like beer and have chicken wings once in a while, but they don’t go straight to my hips anymore.
You don’t have to be a marathon runner to be fit and healthy. But it is a big reason I’ve run two dozen of the things in my life. Even bigger is challenging myself: going from thinking “what the hell am I doing” as I cross the start line to the emotional rush of crossing the finish line 42.2 kilometres later.
And sometimes raising a little money for a good cause.
