Day 1 - April 12th

km: 30      to date: 30
End point: Mount Pearl area

bottles/cans: 87        to date: 87

Money spent: $42    to date: $42
(Not counting initial costs, tent, shoes, etc)

Temp: 0 C , cloudy, westerly winds

4 hours sleep and a light breakfast of cereal and tea before heading down to the Terry Fox Memorial downtown for 9am.
About 30 local runners showed up on a run of their own. Participating in the 'Celebration of the Marathon of Hope' a Canada wide event put on by the Running Room stores across the country.

(I just found out about it late last night and decided to begin by running up to the local Running Room to dedicate my first 42km and a  $42 donation).

Always planned on this starting day and location as I knew it was 35 years ago to the day when Terry began his run. Recently finished the book 'Terry Fox - His Story' and brought it along to read again while on the road.

After a few pictures, many high fives, handshakes and well wishes from the awesome group of runners, they were off and on their way. Next came the telephone interview with CBC radio  (local Weekend AM show). Thanks to the Host and producers and to Ben Dalton for talking me into reaching out to the media but I'm not much of a press guy I guess. Terrible at public speaking and have mixed feelings about most forms media... especially when it comes to anything that concerns the environment. Will leave it at that for now.

Funny side note: when wrapping up the interview the host mentioned to the listeners that they can follow me on my Million Dollar Pledge Facebook page. I get that a lot.

A few more pictures with a more local runners and it was time to head up the road. Up a steep hill at first but then leveled out a few blocks away from the water. Some snow flurries on the way to Running Room but only lasted a few minutes.

At the running room I went inside to sign up my planned 42km and to make my donation. Word had spread and a lady asked if I was the one running back across Canada. When I said yes she introduced me to the Fox family. I was near speechless. After my donation I hesitated but eventually worked up the nerve to ask for a picture with them. Glad I did. Definitely a lasting impression.

Feeling great I continued on and asked a gentleman for directions to the highway. Trying to save on power, I'm hoping not to use my phone to much for things like GPS, Google Maps, Facebook and anything else that requires a signal. The cold weather really affects the life of the battery and the use of my solar charger. Drawback is not being able to constantly confirm directions. Perhaps still caught up in emotion from the morning meetings I  took a wrong turn somewhere and ran about 5km in the wrong direction. Seeing the downtown and bay getting closer I finally broke down and used my phone for a few minutes to get myself on track

A tough climb up Avondale rd and it was past noon before I got on the TCH
I could tell it wasn't going to be easy as a strong cold wind blew was in my face. I stopped for a lunch break (apple, muffin and protein bar) plus a half hour of stretching.

Continuing on for another 10km I may have ran the uphills a little too much but didn't want to take any walking breaks. Eventually some pain in my right quad forced me to do just that. More stretching helped a bit but I knew my running was nearing an end for day 1.  Of course walking breaks just made me feel colder and I was a little worried about a sore throat and cough that had developed in the afternoon.

Decided to call it quits around 4. Wanted to set the tent up before it got too close to evening. New tent took almost 30 minutes to set up with cold hands and the wind blowing hard. Finally got inside and in the sleeping bag shivering. Changed into dry clothes and did some stretching, reading and reflecting on the day. Tomorrow will be better. Each day should get warmer and sunnier for awhile.

Dinner consisted of four chewable vitamin C. Might regret that later but it's all I felt like eating. Made two family  phone calls and started this blog. 10:00 now and time for bed.

Today's few pictures and posts drained my first battery completely and has the second one at about 60%. Not sure how much warm sunshine I'll see over the next few days so really need to cut back. 

Only managed to clean up 87 bottles and cans today. Will also improve on that.