Wrapping up his 10th long-distance trek in the name of Terry Fox, local resident Ed Katona returned home Sunday morning from his 600-mile journey to Minneapolis and back.
“We had a good ride,” said Katona, who made the trip with fellow cycling enthusiast Arnie Johnsrud, a former Stratton resident.
“The roads were very good, the traffic was considerate, and people were nice,” he added.
The pair, who last year cycled from Fort Frances to Kenora, Dryden, and back to raise money for cancer research, had left here on the morning of Sept. 14.
While most of the trip saw decent weather, noted Katona, the temperature was a little hot—31 C (88 F)—on Tuesday as they headed into Minneapolis. This resulted in them taking a one-day stay-over in the Twin Cities.
On the way in, Johnsrud, who now lives in Lorette, Man., also suffered a few mechanical problems with his bike, including three broken spokes, a couple of flat tires, and his kickstand falling off.
And on their way back on Thursday, rain, wind, and lightning cut short their ride to just 80 miles. If it weren’t for that, they would have been home Saturday as originally planned, Katona said.
The pair also had a slight problem Saturday as they biked between Deerwood and Big Falls, Mn.
“We couldn’t find a place to stay,” the 60-year-old Katona chuckled. “With all the hunters, everywhere was booked up. And we couldn’t exactly make reservations—we didn’t know where we would be ahead of time.”
But he noted they were aided by a store owner near Big Falls, who helped them find a place—and even offered his own house if those arrangements didn’t work out.
Another factor for Katona on the first few days of the trek was his “diabetic” regimen as a participant in the local Canadian Diabetes Association’s “Celebrity Challenge.”
While all the other celebrities did the challenge Sept. 13-19, Katona started checking his blood sugar level twice a day, giving his teddy bear “insulin shots,” and following his special meal plan Sept. 9.
That’s because he wanted to minimize the time spent worrying about the diet and giving the bear shots.
Still, he carried the bear everywhere he went, and for the first three days of the trip only ate according to the meal plan devised by Jodis McCaine, a registered dietitian with the Valley Diabetes Education Centre.
Katona—a self-proclaimed fitness buff who follows an alternating schedule of running, cycling, and in-line skating, and has participated in every Terry Fox Run in some capacity since its inception—said he intends to keep on going places for Terry Fox, but hasn’t quite decided what he’ll do next year.
“I’m not sure how much farther abroad I can go,” he laughed.
Katona, who is the town’s tax collector, contacted friends and acquaintances, as well as fellow town employees, for pledges, and still is tabulating how much he’ll turn over to the local Volunteer Bureau, which once again organized this year’s Terry Fox “Marathon of Hope” here.
He’s expecting to raise about the same amount as last year—between $1,300-1,500.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
