Three Queen’s students will be taking part in a self-organized ultramarathon they’ve referred to as “Laps for Life” on Saturday in an effort to raise funds for cancer research.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The three students – Aidan Milne, Noal Keuken, and Nic Roussel – are aiming to run laps for 12 hours straight around Queen’s Tindal Field, kicking off at 6 AM and finishing at 6 PM.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the three thought a physical task like this to raise money could be a good fit, but said that before deciding to embark on this challenge, running really wasn’t a big part of their lives.<\/p>\n
Noal Keuken said they’ll be pushing themselves to the brink for this run and they’re hopeful that might make people want to donate more to the cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don’t think any of us are big runners, but we were all athletes growing up and love doing hard things and pushing ourselves to the limit,” Keuken said.<\/p>\n
“We all thought [the run] would be really cool to do but we are not long-distance runners by any means which I think makes it kind of a a bigger effect because people are more likely to donate when they can see we’re doing something that’s kind of out of our comfort zone.”<\/p>\n
Milne, Keuken and Roussel met through and are currently members of the Queen’s club Cure Cancer Classic, which boasts flagship events like the Commerce vs Engineering rivalry game that typically sees a sellout crowd at Slush Puppie Place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nic Roussel said that the club is always happy to support smaller ideas for fundraising from team members, and they wanted to take the opportunity to do something themselves.<\/p>\n
“We’re always looking for new initiatives as a club and we’re looking for people to step up and start new events and try to contribute to our final fundraising total as much as possible,” Roussel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Nobody took us seriously at the start everyone thought we were crazy and that we weren’t actually gonna do it but then once they saw that we got a bit of traction we got the website up and running and all that they started taking us more seriously.”<\/p>\n
Not typically being runners, and only coming up with the idea a little over a month ago, the three students say they’ve been just “trying to get out on their feet” as much as possible – including competing in half marathons and 5 and 10 KM runs over the past couple months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aidan Milne short training process has been been eye opening for the impact running can have on the body, but that they’re getting used to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“None of us have really dealt with this this type of impact before,” Milne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“it’s pretty cool your body does adapt to it and it’s kind of open the doors and we’ve realized how much our bodies can really withstand. So it’s just a mental game on Saturday.”<\/p>\n