Duane Hicks
By all estimates, it takes 2.1 million steps to travel by foot around the perimeter of Lake Superior.
Not a task for the faint-hearted.
But Bill Michl, past district governor for Lions District 5M10, is stepping up to the challenge to make the 1,985-km (1,300-mile) trek in 82 days this summer.
The “Making Superior Lions Run” will begin July 8 and take until Sept. 28 to raise awareness–and funds–for the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF).
The 62-year-old member of the Fort Frances Voyageur Lions Club, who’s been running for the past 14 years, conceived the idea for the run.
“I knew the Lions’ 100th anniversary was coming up and I thought, ‘I’ll do something really big personally because I think Lions is the best charity in the world,'” he remarked.
“They help everybody,” he noted. “They don’t have government or religious backing–they just go and help.
“In my personal life, I like to help everybody that needs it, and I just thought to myself, ‘What can I do that would stand out?'”
Michl considered running from one end of Ontario to the other but then considered that he belongs to District 5M10, which includes Northwestern Ontario, Minnesota, and Manitoba.
“What’s more international than the Great Lakes?” he reasoned.
“I know I couldn’t run around all five of them, but I thought I’d start with the big one and see what happens,” he chuckled.
As far as he knows, Michl will be the only runner making the entire trek around Lake Superior.
But he’s hoping to get Lions Clubs along the route to plan events or otherwise recognize the “Making Superior Lions Run” as he passes through.
Michl also expects some fellow runners to join him for a couple of miles, but added it would not be a good idea for large groups of people to run along with him because it becomes a safety issue.
As well, he has asked Lions from clubs in the Lake Superior area to volunteer to drive a support vehicle and accompany him.
Michl noted he’s been getting support from Lions clubs in Thunder Bay, as well as in Wisconsin and Michigan.
“I think it will all fall in place by the time I’m ready to leave,” he remarked.
Training challenge
While Michl has participated in many runs and marathons over the years, he said this is his most ambitious by far.
“My longest run to date was the hospital run I did about 10 years ago from Rainy River to Fort,” he recalled.
“That’s the longest one-day run I’ve ever done.”
Michl’s 60-mile “Run for the Scan”–more than the equivalent of two full marathons–was held to kick off the “Care Close to Home 2: Just Imagine” campaign to raise $1.5 million locally for a CT scanner at La Verendrye Hospital in Fort Frances.
In order to prepare for this much greater challenge, Michl has refrained from running competitively and instead focused strictly on training.
“I’ve been structuring my training more or less to this long run, increasing mileage and stuff like that,” he explained.
“My normal running routine was four days a week–Monday, speed run; Tuesday, hill run; take a day off; then a speed run; take a day off; then a long slow run on a Saturday,” he noted.
“Then as I got closer to this date, I’ve started running every day because when I do run around Lake Superior, I’ll be running every day,” said Michl.
“So I started with something I could handle–six or seven miles a day–and am gradually working my way up to 12-13 miles a day.”
Michl said he will be striving to run 15 miles a day once he finally runs in July, adding his aim is to train without getting any injuries.
How to donate
Every day, the LCIF supports the efforts of Lions around the world to improve their communities, noted Michl.
Since being founded in 1968, it has given out more than $1 billion (U.S.) in grants, whether they were for tsunami, flood, or hurricane relief, or programs to eradicate measles and “river blindness” in Third World countries.
“Even when our little town was flooding out here a few years ago, we were on standby,” said Michl, adding if anybody had to be evacuated, the LCIF would have issued cheques to help evacuees.
“It’s something that’s close to my heart, the way they work,” he stressed. “That’s why I do it.”
While Michl is not collecting pledges personally, he is asking the public to donate to the LCIF in the name of his run.
www.facebook.com/MakingSuperiorLions/For additional information on the LCIF, visit www.lcif.org
