Six days in, his appendages and eyelashes are frozen, his clothes are wet and won’t dry, his back aches. His level of exhaustion is nearing the danger zone. Even his Garmin has stopped working due to the extreme subarctic conditions.

There are moments of beauty that permeate the desolation and discomfort, like the aurora borealis glimmering overhead in their ghostly beauty. But after 366 kilometres on the course, Crowe can’t deny the reality: the relentless cold is putting his safety at serious risk.

The 54-year-old Calgarian and tech-company executive was one of 46 racers in the 2025 Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra, held February 2 to 14. Participants of this race, billed as the world’s coldest ultramarathon, battle across 640 kilometres of undulating landscape through snow, ice and cold. They follow an old sled-dog route that joins the communities of Teslin and Faro. The wilderness is remote—the conditions brutal.

“I could feel that things were starting to come undone,” Crowe remembers. “I could barely stand upright… I had to think about my safety. How far am I going to push this? When is enough, enough?”

He concluded it was time to exit the race and return to his family.

Leaving a race early is tough for an endurance athlete like Crowe because they devote their lives to setting and reaching goals and challenging themselves physically and mentally.

“There is something really powerful about doing things that you think you can’t do and building that muscle around self-belief—of overcoming doubt, of overcoming obstacles, of calling on your tenacity and your courage,”

he explains. “They’re all muscles; you need to build them… When you [do], your life will be so much more fulfilled.”

There is something really powerful about doing things that you think you can’t do and building that muscle around self-belief.

After leaving the race, Crowe learned that more than 30 people exited before he did. A few had been rescued by helicopters;
some were recovering in hospital from frostbite. Only three runners finished the Yukon Ultra this year.

Crowe was disappointed in not finishing, but not just because he fell short of his goal. He wanted to fulfill a promise to the friend who’d inspired him to run in the first place.

In 2010, Crowe’s good friend, Ryan Westerman, was just 37 years old when he succumbed to brain cancer. It was in his memory that Crowe founded Give a Mile, a non-profit that helps people fly to visit loved ones who are terminally ill so they can say goodbye. With charity status and operations in both Canada and the United States, Give a Mile has, since its founding in 2013, flown more than 1,300 family members to or from 151 countries using 61,275,771 miles.

Crowe hoped to raise another 37 flights—Westerman’s age at his passing—by becoming the first person to complete two monumental challenges in the Yukon in one year: stand-up paddleboarding 715 kilometres on the Yukon River Quest and finishing the Yukon Ultra.

In June 2024, he completed the Yukon River Quest challenge, voyaging from Whitehorse to Dawson City in the world’s longest annual paddling race. He not only completed the race; he earned a bronze medal and his first podium finish as an endurance athlete.

The Yukon Ultra, however, is the one that got away.

It was to cope with the grief of Westerman’s illness that Crowe started running to begin with. Watching his friend at the end of life, Crowe was motivated to do things he’d dreamed of but hadn’t done—like running a marathon.

Watching Westerman, Crowe concluded, “You want to be deliberate about the time you use. There’s only so much of it, so be very awake to how you’re using that time… Decide, ‘These are the things I want to do. I’m doing them because they are important to me.’”

A month after Westerman passed in 2010, Crowe completed his first marathon and has piled on the mileage ever since. He is committed to not putting off goals, even when facing his own challenges, like a serious health issue that resulted in hospitalization in 2022.

Six weeks after Crowe left the frigid Yukon Ultra, he travelled to another extreme temperature zone and completed the Arizona Monster 300, a 304-mile journey through southern Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, a rugged and challenging route through backcountry terrain and high elevation mountains.

He felt he owed it to his supporters who helped him raise the 37 flights in Westerman’s name to complete an ultra.

“It was incredible to get to the finish line, to overcome that self-doubt [after the Yukon Ultra]. It felt like I was on top of the world,” he says.

“If you’re right now sitting on a couch reading this, and you think you can’t even run a 5K, you can. Believe in yourself. Put the work in, and you will do it. You’re going to feel amazing at the end.” 

Photography: Graham McKerrell
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Read This Story in Our 2025 Summer Outdoor Travel Issue
IMPACT Magazine Summer Outdoor Travel Issue 2025 featuring Shanda Hill, a Canadian Ultra Triathlete who is redefining the sport. Run on some epic trails in our own backyard or join a run club. Eat your way for Mental Clarity, fueling while travelling, seasonal eating and some kitchen must haves. Become strong and fit in only 20 minutes a day, and enjoy some tasty drinks guilt free and so much more.

The 43-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., had started running two years before. The streak, announced to her 300 followers on Instagram, was a way to prove to herself that she could set an ambitious objective and achieve it.

“I was somebody who didn’t finish anything like projects or my university education. I quit,” she reflects.

“I needed my own School of Hard Knocks, so I created it for myself.”

Today, more than 2,200 runs later, Mikulic’s streak continues, and with countless kilometres under her belt, her capacity has expanded exponentially. In 2024, she ran two 100-kilometre ultramarathons; this year, she is training for one at 100 miles.

Commitment to the streak changed Mikulic’s life. Though she continues to work full-time as a financial advisor at a bank, her 300 Instagram followers ballooned to more than 100,000. She publishes a magazine, Run Your Life, for runners of all shapes, sizes and abilities. She hosts empowering travel retreats for women, designed for people who, according to the website, love to “hike a 5K and then indulge in a donut.”
“When you ask me why I do this, it’s because I keep proving to myself that I can,” says Mikulic. “I can create a magazine.

I can create life-changing retreats for women that women will love. I can complete a 100-kilometre race.”

When you ask me why I do this, it’s because I keep provingto myself that I can.

What running hasn’t done is change Mikulic’s size—and that’s okay with her. At 5’11’’, the 50-year-old runner weighs in at 250 pounds. Unlike many people so strongly committed to fitness, Mikulic is not motivated by weight loss.

She knows what she needs to do to lose the weight, but doing so isn’t her objective.

“Before, I thought I couldn’t do any of these things, and I would walk around with these self-debilitating thoughts in my head that were so damaging,” she explains, noting she’s faced mental health challenges throughout her life—childhood trauma, postpartum depression and anxiety.

“Despite being 250 pounds, I’ve proven over and over again that you do not need to be small to complete things; you do not need to be smaller to finish an ultramarathon. You don’t. It’s just about consistency and building up muscle memory in your body so that your body knows, ‘we do this.’”

Often photographed in bright pink running gear with her long brown hair in a floppy bun atop her head, Mikulic says her perception of what a runner should look like has changed since she started logging kilometres every day. She celebrates what a body can do without aiming for thinness.

“Running is about enjoying the movement of your body,” she says.

Her focus on the body’s potential appeals to her followers, who are of diverse sizes—from 0 to 10 to 18 and beyond.

She is motivated by “the Sandras sitting in their living room, wondering ‘will I ever be able to do that? Will I ever be able to be on that start line and do I deserve to be? Do I deserve to cross the finish line?’

“Yes, you do!” she states definitively.

This year, Mikulic will host three Run Your Life retreats, including two in Croatia, where she lived before immigrating to Canada as a child with her family. Her four adult children will join her along with a sold-out group in Dubrovnik in April.

The North American retreat will take place in Arizona in October, the week before she runs the Javelina Jundred (pronounced “Havelina Hundred”), a 100-mile race through McDowell Mountain Regional Park, north of Phoenix. She’s scheduled a few recovery days between the retreat and the ultramarathon to prepare herself to face her longest distance yet.

The habits she formed and maintains through her streak have helped her complete lengthy and challenging training runs, some lasting 30 hours with rests in between.

“You are the only person who’s going to get you through 100 miles while you’re in the dark in the desert,” she explains.

What makes long-distance running particularly amazing to Mikulic is that she—a middle-aged, plus-size financial analyst—will run the same course as elite athletes.

“There’s no other sport where you could actually cross paths by running a loop and see that person who’s pacing for first place,” she says. “You cannot be on the same start line as an Olympic gymnast; you don’t even get to the gymnasium.

You can’t be on the same start line as an Olympic 100-metre runner.”

“That’s the beauty of this sport,” she continues. “I share the same dirt as the winners. Our sweat falls in the same dirt. There are still gatekeepers, but the gates are slowly falling down. Don’t wait to start tomorrow. Start with what you have today.” 

Photography: Stephanie Lucile Photography

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Read This Story in Our 2025 Running Issue
IMPACT Magazine Running Issue 2025 featuring some incredible Canadian women ultrarunners who are on the rise on the world trail stage. Run your way around the world to earn your six star Abbott World Marathon Majors commemorative medal. Train for 10 km right up to a marathon – plus a 50 km trail run and 70.3 program. Strength workouts for runners, carb load with these pasta recipes and so much more.

“Whether you’re able-bodied or disabled, I think we’re always trying to figure out who we are,” Stewart says. “I think I’m on this earth to create support, to create a sense of belonging. To help people recognize that no matter who they are or what their outcomes are, they are good enough.”

The 38-year-old from Kamloops has stood out from the crowd his whole life. He was born without the lower part of his left arm, making him eligible to compete in the F46 classification in para sports. But it’s not his arm that Stewart considers his disability.

“To me, a disability is something that impacts you on a daily basis and impacts the environment around you,” he says, adding there’s very little he can’t do with one arm. “My disability is my height. I can’t go anywhere without ducking under a doorway, without people staring at me. There are so many things about my height that impact me daily.”

At age 14, Stewart was six feet, eight inches tall, making him a shoo-in for the sports at which tall people frequently excel—basketball and volleyball. While completing a degree in human resources, he joined the WolfPack at Thompson Rivers University and played five years of U Sports basketball. He was twice selected Canada West Defensive Player of the Year, in 2010 and 2011. Stewart also played on Canada’s national para volleyball teams, both standing and seated, for nearly 12 years. On the latter team, he won three world titles.

Despite his success in team sports, Stewart says he struggled to feel fulfilled, which, upon reflection years later, he attributes to not truly knowing who he was. He needed to reckon with himself. In his mid-20s, he embarked on a personal journey of discovery and acceptance, working with a counsellor to assist his growth and healing. It was during this time that he came to see himself as disabled, something he had never fully accepted. The acknowledgement of his disability was a positive step.

“I am disabled,” he says, “and that’s perfect. [Being disabled] is a portion of me, a part of me.”

It was after this newfound acceptance that the opportunity to throw shotput presented itself, when Stewart was 30 years old. A conversation at a Christmas party prompted him to begin training with Dylan Armstrong, Canadian Olympic bronze medallist, who coaches athletics in Kamloops.

My disability is my height. I can’t go anywhere without
ducking under a doorway, without people staring at me.

Success came quickly. In Stewart’s rookie season in 2018, he was ranked number one in the world in F46 shotput. The following year, he set a Canadian record and won silver at the IPC World Championships. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games, he clinched the gold and a world record with a massive 16.75-metre throw.

Then Stewart announced his retirement. He was physically sore and hurt, and after more than a decade of competitive sport, he wanted a change. But sport is in his blood, and retiring didn’t stick. He returned to the field, and in the 2024 season won silver at the World Para Athletics Championship in Kobe, Japan, and Paralympic gold in Paris, becoming the only Canadian shot putter to win back-to-back golds in the Olympic or Paralympic games.

In this new era of competition, his goals have shifted, Stewart says. Certainly, he wants to continue to excel and push the boundary of his abilities, but he also wants to use “the platform [of competitive sport] to support other people.”

He left his business in the automotive recycling field and now works as a motivational speaker and workshop facilitator, inspiring people with his vulnerability.

“I’m a 7-foot-2, 360-pound disabled man,” he says. “I can walk into a room and own it without even opening my mouth. I think because of that, and because I’m willing to talk about vulnerability, I can create an incredible platform to support people.”

In May 2024, he released an autobiographical children’s book co-written with author Sean Campbell. The book—Stand Out: The True Story of Paralympic Gold Medallist Greg Stewart—chronicles his story and delivers an inspirational message about the strength that comes from believing in yourself.

“I think we’re so caught up on what a winner looks like, that we don’t actually see the whole picture,” he says. “The reality is we’re all winners, as cliché as that sounds. Your best is your best.” 

Photography by Allan McVicar

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Read This Story in Our 2024 Fall Fitness Issue
IMPACT Magazine Fall Fitness Issue 2024 featuring Canadian figure skating icon Elladj Baldé, Paralympic shot putter Greg Stewart, Indigenous rights trail running Anita Cardinal. Adventure travel with some amazing winter getaways, strengthen your back and hips, find the art of joyful movement, Inclusivity in the fitness industry and so much more!

The teacher who witnessed Vucsics’s propitious jump at his Calgary high school in 2018 suggested the grade 12 student try out for the track and field team. After just six weeks of training, Vucsics competed in his first–and only–high school city sports championship. He made a 20-foot jump, earning him a bronze medal.

I want to do what might seem impossible to others and inspire them—to show them what is possible.

Noah Vucsics

Vucsics’s podium finish wasn’t the first time he’d outperformed expectations. Born in Haiti, he was adopted at five months of age into the Vucsics family. As a child, the now 24-year-old was diagnosed with an intellectual disability that affected his reading and writing. He was placed in a special education program in his high school, one that frequently, in its attempt to help participants, kept them from mingling with their peers in the standard program.

Resisting the imposed isolation, Vucsics lobbied to be part of the core high school community. He received permission to audition for and take part in a production of Peter Pan; he joined leadership groups; and he practiced public speaking at events like talent shows. In 2018, he was chosen as class valedictorian, becoming the first student from a special education program at his high school to hold the convocation honour.

“I wanted to be involved and feel a part of the school,” he says. “I made it my mission to seek opportunities and get involved.”

It was only after graduation, while training with Calgary Track and Field Athletic Association, that he learned there is a class (T20) in para-athletics for people with intellectual disabilities. To compete, he would need to be classified internationally to verify his skill and competence, as well as prove his disability. In early 2020, Vucsics was preparing to travel to Dubai for the first step of the two-pronged classification process when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted plans. His classification was delayed for two years, which meant he could not qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Vucsics, now officially classified, believes the delay was not a setback but an advantage.

“I was not ready to play for a medal in 2021,” he says, noting long jumpers usually peak at around 28 years of age. “Now I’m on a much higher level, physically and mentally, and ready to go to Paris and compete for a medal.”

Since becoming classified, Vucsics has participated in two major international competitions, earning a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Paris and a bronze in the Parapan American Games in Chile, both in 2023.

In Paris, he landed a jump of 735 centimetres, just five centimetres behind the gold medallist and current world record holder from Malaysia. His podium finish at the Worlds opened a qualifying spot for this year’s Paralympics in Paris—a spot he intends to fill. Vucsics is focused on September 7, 2024: the day of the Paralympic long jump final. “If I can fix the few things [I’ve been working on], then I can get from 735 centimetres to 750 centimetres and challenge for a medal,” he notes. Vucsics’s track journey has been relatively short, which he attributes to a lack of awareness about the Paralympics.

“When I discovered [long jump] and then discovered the intellectual impairment class, it really did change my life,” he says. And now he hopes to change the lives of others. In parallel with his track ambitions, Vucsics is striving to be an ambassador for people with intellectual disabilities. “There was a time when I thought, what good could come out of having an intellectual disability?” he explains. “I want to do things out of the norm to inspire others,” he adds, noting the support of his parents and older sister have been integral to his achievements.

Throughout his life, it’s frequently been suggested to him that certain things are out of reach. For example, it was recommended to him that he set his sights lower than the job he wanted—technician at the Apple Store. It took eight interviews, but Vucsics eventually earned the position and worked at Apple for three years before leaving to train full-time at the University of Calgary.
“I don’t want to settle,” he says.

Vucsics has begun speaking to schools and groups, telling his story to demonstrate all that is possible for people with disabilities when they are given opportunities to succeed. “We’re learning that IQ is a piece of paper. It doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story,” he explains. “I want to do what might seem impossible to others and inspire them—to show them what
is possible.” 

Photography by Trudie Lee Photography

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Read This Story in Our 2024 Summer Outdoor & Travel Issue
Featuring Canadian Taekwondo Olympian, Skylar Park. Must-visit adventure destinations across Canada. Your best trail running season ever with FAQs and threshold training plans. How (and why) gravel biking can rule your summer. Essential preparation to stay injury-free during hikes. Zero-waste your hiking and camping trips like a pro. Treat yourself with a Rustic Strawberry Chocolate Tart or Dairy-Free Vanilla Ice Cream, and so much more.

Willis, a Texan who calls Lexington, Virginia home, completed the run on International Women’s Day, following the route of the original New York City Marathon in 1970.The mattress was eye-catching. Fashioned into a backpack, it featured a large, hand-painted phoenix of bright orange and red. Overtop of the mythical creature were the words “carrying weight for s[exual] a[ssault] survivors.” Willis herself was dressed in black, symbolic of the phoenix’s ashes, her skin painted in gold glitter.

During her four loops around Central Park, runners fell into step to hear her message; walkers sped up to learn how they could contribute to the cause; bikers slowed to keep pace, listening to her story and sharing their own.

Dialogue was what Willis sought when planning the feat; the mattress was the conversation starter.

Ten years ago, at age 19, Willis was sexually assaulted while she was a student of English at the University of Texas at Austin. Her mattress run—one of 29 marathons she will complete in her 29th year—was designed to get people talking.

“No one likes to talk about sexual assault, but one in six women in the United States are assaulted,” says Willis. “I wanted to bear the weight of sexual assault… I want everything I’m doing to focus on the strength of women…Even though we carry that weight, we’re still capable of doing amazing, extraordinary things.”

Through her 29 runs, Willis is raising funds for the non-profit she founded, Strength Through Strides. The organization will help survivors of sexual assault recover and thrive by providing free coaching with licensed clinicians. Initially, support services will be offered in California, Texas and Virginia.

“I wanted the marathons to have a mission,” she explains. “[Sexual assault] took years away from my life… I don’t want other women to have to go through that.”

Willis’s runs are inspired by Julie Weiss, another fundraising marathoner. In 2012–13, Weiss, the “marathon goddess,” ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise funds for pancreatic cancer.

Last summer, Willis struggled through a difficult time. She was experiencing symptoms of post-partum depression after the birth of her second son; then, she and her husband had six family members pass away in six months. She had an epiphany the morning after reading about Weiss: “My first thought when I woke up was, when I turn 29, I’m going to run 29 marathons,” she recalls.

Willis was not a runner when she set her ambitious goal.

“It took me quite a while to get to one mile and then three,” she laughs. “I really didn’t know how I would get past three, but eventually the miles started adding up.”

She kicked off her 29 marathons in October, a month after her birthday, and ran three marathons in three days.

“It was really hard,” she confesses. “But at the end of it, I thought, what else am I capable of?”

The mattress marathon isn’t the only memorable run on her list. In February, she ran the Austin Marathon, returning to the city in which she was assaulted. A week after her Central Park run, she ran the LA Marathon wearing a series of Barbie-inspired costumes and finishing the last mile in heels and a pink sequin gown. For her grand finale in the fall, she’s joining a group running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, starting in Novo, Antarctica and concluding in Miami.

She has no plans to quit running when the year is up; she’s set her sights on the stars: Irish extreme runner Richard Donovan is planning a race in space in 2026, and Willis wants to join him.

“I want to raise hope,” she says. “Ordinary people can do extraordinary things.” 

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Read This Story in Our 2024 Running Issue
Featuring Canadian Olympic, National & North American Marathon Record holder Cameron Levins. Run your way around the world with some cool, quirky and unconventional races. Train for 10 km right up to a marathon – plus a 25 km trail run and 70.3 program. Strength workouts for runners, spice it up to improve your performance and so much more.

The 20-year-old from Calgary had been planning the trip to Fort Simpson, N.W.T., for a few years, ever since his grandmother who lived there told him a small youth snowboarding community had formed in the village of 1,200.

Fresh from his 2022 Olympic appearance, Gill—the only Indigenous male athlete to represent Canada in Beijing—flew to Yellowknife for a three-stop tour, including a visit to his band in Fort Simpson, the Łíídlıı Kųę First Nation, which he had not visited since he was a child.

“I got to share my Olympic experience with the kids… then ride with them and just have fun,” Gill says. “That was even more special.”

The conditions were a far cry from the halfpipe he had ridden the week previous at Genting Resort Secret Garden in Hebei province, China. With the sport just gaining traction in Fort Simpson, facilities and infrastructure are non-existent; there are no chairlifts, no T-bars and no washrooms.

“They snowboard in the bush,” Gill says. “The whole time we were running up and down the hill.”

He recognizes he was lucky to have grown up a 15 minutes’ drive from WinSport (Canada Olympic Park) in Calgary. His parents put him on skis before his third birthday; by four, he was on a snowboard like his dad. Living so close to the facility, he boarded before and after school, honing his skills at one of the best high-performance training facilities in the nation, a legacy of the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

Seeing the joy of the Fort Simpson youth on their boards, Gill wanted them to experience the sport they loved on a grand scale—in the Rocky Mountains.

Hopefully, what I do inspires others to be good people.

“Snowboarding is special in the way it spoke to me,” he says. “I wanted these kids to experience it, with no financial strings attached.”

The Gill family began to plan how they could bring youth from Fort Simpson to Calgary.

The idea took shape when Banff Sunshine Village offered to assist; then, Olympics Canada awarded Gill a legacy grant in support of the project’s mission to empower youth through positive, healthy activity.

With additional funding from the Northwest Territories government and a group of Gill’s fellow snowboarders enthusiastically agreeing to volunteer their time, Liam and Friends was born.

The inaugural event took place in May 2023. Fort Simpson counsellors and teachers from the local high school selected six youths to attend the all-expenses-paid trip. They were flown to Calgary and given room and board, lift passes and snowboard instruction. Liam and Friends provided goggles and gloves as a welcome gift, and each youth was gifted a brand-new snowboard.

For one glorious week, it was all snowboarding, all day long.

The group was at home in the mountains, despite never having experienced anything of that scale, Gill remembers. Fearless, the youth explored Sunshine’s 120 runs in the heart of the Canadian Rockies.

“I couldn’t keep up with these kids,” Gill laughs. “They were just so non-stop.”

Coincidentally, a snowboard club Gill had visited in Fort Smith, N.W.T., was in Alberta on a tour at the same time. The group of 18 young snowboarders joined Liam and Friends for two days.

Throughout the event, Indigenous identity was celebrated; the group made bannock and had a tobacco ceremony. The youth showed pride in who they are.

Gill had many mentors growing up on the mountain, but no Indigenous snowboarders to look up to. It’s an honour to “be a role model for [the youth]. Hopefully, what I do inspires others to be good people,” he says.

Gill’s professional goals are very specific: he wants to reach the top 10 in the world, and he wants to attend the 2026 Turin Olympics and improve his 23rd-place finish in halfpipe.

On the other hand, his hopes for Liam and Friends are limitless.

“Liam and Friends is just as important as my snowboarding career,” he says, noting planning is underway for the 2024 event. “This idea is working. We’re going to keep on going, for years and years, with different kids. We’ll try and expand it every year.”

He remembers one snowboarder who, on the last day of the event, did everything she could to extend the experience.

It was snowing hard, he recalls, but she wouldn’t come off the mountain. On what should have been her final run, she purposely ended at the wrong lift, meaning she’d have to go up one last time.

Gill smiles as he recounts the story. “It reminded me of myself when I was a kid. Anything to just get one more run.” 

Photography by Mike Yoshida
Photography by Chris Witwicki

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Read This Story in Our 2024 Inspiration Issue
Read about our 2024 Canada’s Top Fitness Trainers – our top 30 from across Canada! How to Hire a Personal Trainer, The Dangers of Overtraining, Return to Running After Illness, Easy Vegan Garlic Noodles and more!

It was her first bodybuilding competition, but the Dundas, Ont., native took home the top prize in the bikini category for her class at the 2023 TorontoPro Supershow.

The fact she could walk across the stage—let alone walk it in four-inch heels—was a milestone achievement.

In 2017, at the age of 25, Rakowski suffered third degrees burns to her feet on a trip to Iceland. An intrepid traveller—she’s visited more than 60 countries—she and two friends hiked to the geothermal area in Reykjadalur (“Steam”) Valley, a 50-kilometre drive southeast of the capital Reykjavíc. The valley’s hot-water river is one of Iceland’s renowned natural attractions; every year, around 150,000 locals and tourists hike 3.8 kilometres to bathe in 40-degree water warmed by geothermal activity from Hengill, a nearby volcanic system.

As Rakowski approached the hot water riverbank, the ground beneath her gave way. Her feet started sinking in hot, bubbling, acidic mud.

Her shouts of agony drew immediate help. Her friends and several passers-by rushed to pull her out. She remembers seeing two black curtains close in front of her eyes before she finally lost consciousness.

Volunteers took turns carrying Rakowski’s five-foot, eight-inch frame back through the valley to the trailhead, an hour’s hike from the hot river. A few people ran ahead to find cellular service and call an ambulance.

“It was a sense of community that brought individuals together to help make the rescue mission happen,” Rakowski says. After receiving initial burn care in Iceland, she flew home to continue treatment at Hamilton Health Sciences, the hospital system where she has worked since 2016, currently as a patient experience specialist.

“I was told at first that I may never be able to walk again,” she recalls. “It was absolutely devastating and heartbreaking.”

For a life-long athlete—she played field hockey and soccer, ran track and field and road races, and wakeboarded—the prospect of losing the ability to walk, plus her athletic activities, was “absolutely gut-wrenching,” she says.

After several painful procedures and daily physical therapy, Rakowski stood on her feet for the first time one month after the accident.

Pushing through the acute nerve pain caused by the lightest touch—even air fanned on her blistered skin was excruciating—she persisted with her exercises and therapy and eventually could balance, then walk, first with a walker, then crutches, and then on her own, defying her prognosis.

Though her feet were healing better than expected, Rakowski next faced a series of severe vision issues caused by years of playing contact sports, issues that put her at risk of vision loss. She underwent surgery for three retinal detachments, plus a vitrectomy—a surgery to counteract permanent vision loss and reduce the likelihood of eventual blindness.

Her days of contact sports were over.

But sport is a “central and a defining aspect of who I am,” she says. She would need to find a new way to engage in sport.

“I had to change my paradigm and my focus,” she adds.

She could walk, she could see, and she could lift weights. Rakowski began weight training, first for her own strength and fitness, but after a few years, she realized she could redirect her drive for athletic competition and need for team camaraderie into bodybuilding.

“With bodybuilding I was able to re-establish that sense of purpose and identity again,” she recalls. “I was able to see myself as valuable with a different set of athletic abilities.”

With several bodybuilding competitions under her belt, she is an athlete once again, with sponsors and a world-renowned coach, Serbian bodybuilder and former Mr. Universe Milos Sarcev. She hopes to obtain her pro card this fall.

The bodybuilder also has brains—Rakowski is in the fourth year of her PhD in health policy and management at McMaster University’s DeGroot School of Business. Her research examines health engagement policies and strategies, such as digital health technologies, that may improve health and reverse complex chronic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. She hopes her research will help people use fitness to overcome hurdles.

“We all go through various things in our life that may prevent us from succeeding, but success is not a final destination,” she reflects. “Success, I see as the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”

“I told myself [after the accident in Iceland], I can’t quit; I have to suffer through the pain and live the rest of my life how I would have wanted to live with no regrets.”

“The only way to define limits is by going beyond them.” 

Photography by – Stephanie Michalicka

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Read This Story in Our 2023 Fall Fitness & Food Issue
Featuring this year’s winners of the Amazing Race Canada, Ty Smith and Kat Kastner on our cover. Inside our latest issue, you’ll find all the inspiration you need to carry you through the autumn season. From delicious high-protein recipes and how to resist the crunch of potato chips to running through the high peaks of the Colorado Rockies and the latest in nutrition and fitness, these pages are packed with expert knowledge and advice.

Three hours north of Los Angeles, the site’s 250,000 acres boast rolling hills, ridges, ravines, dried pond beds and the infamous San Andreas Fault.

The pair’s reward for their spontaneous hike is etched in Cloud’s memory: 360-degree views of breathtaking purple, yellow, orange and green superblooms.

Little Leaf, pink bow between her ears, rolled, jumped, and bounced among the Great Valley phacelia, hillside daisies, fiddle necks, and baby blue eyes.

For the last three years, Cloud and Little Leaf have been travelling across the United States, hiking untold trails and exploring nature, a woman and her goat.

“Every night, our backyard is somewhere different,” Cloud explains. 

Cloud’s adventure began when her daughter moved out of their home in Washington State for college. An empty nester, Cloud decided to explore the country on foot.

She hiked the 4,265-kilometre Pacific Crest Trail and the 3,540-kilometre Appalachian Trail and was planning on completing the 4,873-kilometre Continental Divide Trail to earn her Triple Crown of hiking, but returned to Washington to wait out the COVID-19 pandemic.

While there, she met the runt of the litter at a goat farm. The kid was clinging to life and not expected to survive. 

Something about the goat with the leaflike patch of white hair moved Cloud, who nursed the aptly named Little Leaf to health.

“I made her a promise. If you fight for your life, so will I, and I will make your life full of adventure.”

Kate Cloud

Both fulfilled their side of the bargain. Together, they’ve hiked tens of thousands of kilometres of trails in more than 40 states.

Their story inspires fitness in others too; more than 25,000 people follow their travels on YouTube and Instagram. Cloud has heard from followers who hiked a certain trail or attempted a new activity because Little Leaf had done it first.

“When they see a goat doing it, then they think ‘I can do it,’’ Cloud says. This summer, Cloud plans to change things up and bike cross-country on the Great American Rail-Trail with Little Leaf riding in front in a bucket.

“Freedom, adventure, the things I’ve seen and experienced—they’re so much more satisfying than material things,” she reflects. “Why would you want anything else?”

To follow Cloud and Little Leaf’s adventures, follow them on Instagram @little_leaf_goat.

Photography by Dream Team Photography

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Read This Story in Our 2023 Summer Outdoor & Travel Issue
Featuring Alison Jackson, Canadian cyclist and only North American male or female to win the famed Paris Roubaix. Travel the country’s most stunning hot spots by campervan. Become a better trail running by improving your ascents and descents—plus, train outdoors with Canada’s Top Fitness Trainers. Enjoy plant-based summer recipes and so much more.

The inner-city route winds past all manner of complex societal issues on display—poverty, homelessness, substance use, mental illness, crime. Politicians have called the area hell on earth.

But for the 22 kids at Streetfront, an alternative education program, this neighbourhood is home. It’s where they live and go to school and where, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 10:45 a.m., they slip on donated running shoes and develop confidence, commitment and perseverance step by step.

“Running is a perfect vehicle for life,” says Trevor Stokes, Streetfront’s teacher and department head. “Maybe you can only run 1 kilometre when you start, but if you keep at it, you’ll get to 4 kilometres, 7 kilometres, 12 kilometres, 15 kilometres.

Launched in 1977, Streetfront offers a school program for grades eight to 10 that incorporates physical activity into 40 per cent of the day. It caters to 10- to 13-year-olds who’ve had disruption to their education. Some haven’t been attending school; many are facing social, emotional and behavioural issues.

“Some programs use running as punishment,” Stokes explains. “’You’ve done something wrong; go out and run some laps.’ It couldn’t be more opposite to us. It’s therapy.”

For 20 years, Streetfront has had the same three staff—Stokes along with Barry Skillin the teacher support, and Gord Howey, a school counsellor, who retired in January 2023. The three have participated in every training run alongside the kids.

The students, many of whom are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour), log 300 to 500 kilometres a year. Over and above that mileage, they enter marathons, half-marathons, and 10 kms, thanks to support from the community, which allows Streetfront to cover costs for students.

In May, Streetfront will have 40 people running the Vancouver Marathon and 20 running the half-marathon. The school purchases extra entries for alumni who return to run under the Streetfront banner. Often, these alumni have not been actively training, but they are drawn to the practice that helped them during their early teen years.

“They’ll lace up those sneakers, and they’ll run 32, and they’ll die on the course before they give up,” Stokes says. “Five hours later, they’ll be crossing the finish line like the freaking champions they are.”

There are alumni with good-news stories—for example, one teaches in the Vancouver school district, another has run 26 marathons and 35 half-marathons—and there are others who face the challenges prevalent in the Downtown Eastside: poverty, addiction, trauma.

Stokes knows Streetfront can’t transform every aspect of the students’ lives, but he hopes the experience gives them the tools and vision to put in effort when they need to.

On average, it’s 55,000 strides to finish a marathon, he explains. “I always tell the kids, that’s 55,000 opportunities to quit. Imagine how much affirmation you get when you don’t quit 55,000 times?”

The alumni know they are welcome to visit Streetfront for an infusion of care and support anytime. And, they can join a run to remind them of their capacity to endure, to weather storms, to believe in themselves.

Three years ago, a struggling alumnus ran the Vancouver Marathon out of the blue. He said he wanted his young daughter to see him cross the finish line, and she did.

“It makes me so f***ing proud,” Stokes says. “That’s the story of Streetfront.” 

Photography by Christopher Morris

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Read This Story in Our 2023 Running Issue
Featuring Rory Linkletter, Canadian long-distance runner. Add to your bucket list with the top Destination Marathons Around the World. Train for 10 km right up to a marathon – plus a 70.3 program. Increase your strength and work your core with Canada’s Top Fitness Trainers. Enjoy plant-based, post-run breakfasts and so much more.

Like Terry and their two younger siblings, Fox had been athletic since his youth in the lower mainland of British Columbia, running cross-country and playing basketball, soccer, and baseball. But he hadn’t run the distance his brother, just 14 months younger, was famous for running—the distance his brother ran every day for 143 consecutive days, starting in St. John’s Newfoundland and clocking over 5,300 kilometers with his artificial leg until cancer spread to his lungs, forcing him to give up his cross-Canada odyssey in Thunder Bay.

Fox remembers his first marathon in 1991 well. It was a hot, sunny day in Seattle in July. He finished the race, he recalls, but he suffered through the last five miles.

“The whole time through that marathon, Terry was on my mind,” he says. “You really got a bit of an idea of what he must have been going through every day.”

More than 30 years later, running is still part of the 65-year-old’s fitness routine. You will find him hitting the pavement near his home in Maple Ridge, B.C., 12 months a year, six days a week, usually in the morning around 6 a.m.

“I think you’re the first person I’ve ever said this to,” Fox tells me, “but I think of myself as a bit of a late bloomer when it comes to fitness. As I’ve got older, I think I’ve become stronger in my perseverance and my will to get things done when it comes to running.”

It’s been amazing how people have responded all these years later, how new generations are responding to what Terry did in 1980.

Athletic pursuits feature prominently in his life. He cycles long distances, curls competitively, lawn bowls (the newest addition to his fitness regime), and hikes regularly with his two golden retrievers, Scout and Harper, named in honour of his favourite book, To Kill a Mockingbird.

And of course, he runs.

He last ran a marathon in Eugene, Oregon, when he turned 60 in 2017. He will run the same marathon again in April 2023, to commemorate his 65th year.

Running has helped him stay connected to his brother as well as continue Terry’s important work of raising money for cancer research.

The inaugural Terry Fox Run was held in September 1981, three months after Terry’s passing. This year’s will take place on September 18, after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fred hasn’t missed a run in the event’s 42 years.

Each year, around 650 Terry Fox Runs take place in communities across the country, and more than 10,000 schools host a run, all with the aim of furthering Terry’s goal: to raise money for cancer research and improve the outcome of a cancer diagnosis.

Since its founding, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised more than $850 million through fundraising initiatives like the Terry Fox Run. At a pace of about $25 million every year, Fox estimates they’ll hit the $1 billion mark in five or six years.

“It’s amazing,” says Fox, who serves on the executive leadership of the foundation. “None of it happens without so many people over 42 years, so many volunteers, supporters, and donors. It’s been amazing how people have responded all these years later, how new generations are responding to what Terry did in 1980.”

The funds raised have helped medical researchers make strides in finding a cure for cancer, giving hope to many cancer patients. Significantly, the Terry Fox Foundation brings experts together to collaborate on research through the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network.

“That’s the biggest impact Terry had: bringing some of the best researchers in the world together to make new discoveries to find a cure for cancer,” Fox explains.

Terry has always been known for bringing people together. He rallied a country during his Marathon of Hope; he brings communities together for Terry Fox Runs; and he unites people in the hope that there will be cure for cancer.

His story embodies his core message that “anything is possible if you try.”

It’s that willpower of Terry’s that sticks with Fox through every dollar he helps raise, every step he takes.

“I think the biggest thing that we’ve been able to accomplish over the years is keeping Terry’s message current,” he explains.

“He’s an inspiration every day. When you’re out there for a run, and you’re running up a hill, and you don’t know if you’re going to be able to finish it, Terry’s always on your mind.” 

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Photography by The Collective You

Read This Story in Our 2022 Fall Fitness & Food Digital Edition

Featuring Brendan Brazier, athlete and pioneer in the plant-based sports nutrition industry. Trail Running 101 – plus this year’s Trail Running Shoe Review. Travel around the world to the top vegan-friendly destinations, recipes and much more!