What This is all About

One of my favourite pleasures in life is running. There is nothing better than grabbing my IPod and my dog and heading out for a run. Or driving to the Running Room to meet my running friends and going for long, therapeutic runs, in which we have time to share everything about our daily lives: from the clothes that we got during the weekend, to our favourite, well recommended books. Last running clinic we almost had a book club on Fifty Shades of Gray. All of the 6 women of the group had read it, so we spent running hours discussing every single chapter, while the two only men listened “distractedly”, as if they did not care, but never ran too far away from us either. Last year I ran two half marathon races: ScottiaBank and Vancouver Historic Half. This year my goal is to run five half marathon races: Fort Langley Half, BMO, ScottiaBank, Burnaby Lake and Vancouver Historic Half. But this time I want to add an extra ingredient to my running and my racing. I want running to be more meaningful and special. I want it to become a great excuse to spread the love for animals that I have. I am an animal advocate. I have been vegetarian for 15 years and vegan for 9. I have rescued stray dogs (my two dogs being some of them); I have fought against bullfighting and irresponsible breeding. I believe that animals are our younger siblings, so it is our responsibility to take care of them as we would do with our human family.

To be able to put these two passions together, I decided to join “PETA PACK”. This is a group of runners that use their running as a way to advocate for animals through fundraising. If you feel like supporting my cause (which means I will love you forever!), I have opened a fundraiser donations account at http://www.crowdrise.com/theokirunner in which you can directly deposit the money. All the money that you put in there will go directly to PETA. I will also be selling some delicious vegan muffins and vegan cookies (that some of you have already tried). I will be making beautiful crochet scarfs and I will host a couple of exquisite vegan dinners. I really hope you join me on this cause. You have a whole year to let your heart melt for the animal cause. No one can speak for them but us. We are their voice, so please, let’s use it.