Canadian runner: 7 provinces down, 3 to go

TORONTO, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- David McGuire, Canada's "marathon a day" runner, entered his eighth of 10 provinces Sunday, having covered 3,500 miles to raise awareness about brain injuries.

McGuire, 38, has been running 25 miles a day since April 1, going from Newfoundland to British Columbia, where he expects to end his effort in late November.

Sunday, he left Manitoba and entered Saskatchewan, accompanied by run manager Melissa Wild of the non-profit Braintrust Canada of British Columbia.

With his hair kept very short to show the large looping scar on the left side of his head where doctors removed part of his skull to alleviate swelling after a stroke in 2005, McGuire has been stopping along the way to speak at schools, amateur and professional sporting events and community groups to raise awareness about the severity -- and avoidability -- of head injuries, particularly among youth.

In Canada and the United States, there is growing attention to the long-term effects of concussions among professional athletes, which McGuire told UPI is bolstering his message to children and teens involved in sports.

"Kids don't want to look weak when they get hit on the head," he said. "In the past, they'd just 'shake it off' and get back to playing as soon as they could."

When he speaks to youth, McGuire shows the scar on his head, describes coming out of a coma after days and shocks many of them by describing the severe impairment to his short-term memory.

He uses humor in describing how he's managed to keep his morale up after running nearly every day since April 1.

"We figure I can run every day because I forgot that I ran the day before," he said. He also jokes that "there's no such thing as TV reruns for me."

Wild, McGuire's run manager, has many jobs, including keeping David informed and reminded of progress and public appearances. She also alternates trailing him in a donated car and motor home. and also acts as media liaison.

Asked last week if she had ever felt discouraged in the first six months on the road, she laughed.

"At least five times we've asked each other 'What are we doing?'" she told UPI. "But it's all good -- we've established a rhythm."

McGuire acknowledged that many days running through the remote portions of northern Ontario into Manitoba were lonely. Sometimes a small town would reinvigorate him.

"Out of the blue, an entire school would overwhelm us with welcomes," he said.

Wild coaches McGuire on statistics before each of his appearances, such as brain injury kills more Canadian children under the age of 20 than anything else and men from 16-24 are most likely to suffer from a traumatic head injury.

The run is mostly on target to wind up in Victoria, British Columbia, in late November, some 7,230 kilometers -- 4,492 miles -- from its start.

Meanwhile, the fundraising effort is behind schedule. Magda Kapp, Braintrust's director of communications, said despite a growing number of corporate sponsors and individual donors, donations have not yet covered the estimated $150,000 cost of the project.

The www.runtoremember.com Web site not only shows how to make tax-deductible donations for Canadians, but features a daily blog by McGuire. For fellow marathon runners, a location tab also lists McGuire's daily running heart rate, weather and wind conditions and elevation.