Runner goes the distance for charities

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This article was published 27/12/2020 (1765 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you stopped by The Forks on Saturday any time after 4 a.m., you may have seen a man in red shorts running in a loop again, and again, and again.

Junel Malapad has hit a huge milestone — the ultramarathon runner has run 50 kilometres 50 times this year, to celebrate the milestone of turning 50 in June and to raise money for good causes.

The Sisler High School head caretaker has clocked at least 50 kilometres every Saturday this year to fundraise for 12 different charities and ran his final 100 kilometres in around 181/2 hours in support of Siloam Mission Saturday, completing his 2020 goal.

“I feel good about it. It’s a huge accomplishment,” he said. “It was a rough year for all different reasons, and I guess I made it rougher by doing this, but I’ve been running a long time and my body’s a little bit used to it. But it was tough.”

Boxing Day has been a big running day for Malapad for years — he’s hosted an ultramarathon named “Change Boxing Day to Running Day” in support of Siloam Mission since 2015, and completed a 150-mile (241.4-km) run in 56 hours on Boxing Day two years ago — he was set on continuing the tradition while also fundraising this year.

“For me, to help out, I can volunteer, but I can also do something I like to do to give back,” he said. “That’s my motivation.”

Malapad ran a 3.3-km loop 30 times to hit his goal this year, from Inn at The Forks, running counter-clockwise around Main Street, Tache Avenue, the Esplanade Riel Footbridge, then past the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and back again.

While this run raised just over $7,300 for Siloam Mission, Malapad guesses he’s raised just over $30,000 in total over the last four years. He’s also raised over $14,000 combined for eleven other organizations this year, including Cancer Care Manitoba and St. Boniface Hospital.

He typically runs with friends joining him at different spots, but COVID-19 has made it impossible to do so safely — rather, fellow runners joined over Zoom and some took ran separately in support of his initiative.

“As a runner, that’s the most special thing, to be out doing something that you love to do with some great friends, so who wouldn’t want to do that,” he said.

Malapad immigrated to Winnipeg from the Philippines with his family as a child and lost his mother at a young age. His father suffered with health problems, and after a doctor warned Malapad his high cholesterol could send him down the same path, he began running. His inspiration to keep running, Malapad said, comes from seeing the way charitable organizations in Winnipeg provide for his community.

“It’s been a crazy journey with whatever’s happening in the real world, and my world has been pretty crazy also, but I’ve been sticking it out and I’ve been motivated by some friends and family and these organizations I’m doing it for,” he said. “I’m happy to have a little bit of pain for what I’m doing.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_