ELORA – A young Ponsonby-area speed skater is going for a run. That’s not an unusual activity for an athlete, but Nate Sutherland is going the distance as he plans to run from his home to a Toronto-area hospital to raise money and awareness for autoimmune disease research.
On May 19, Sutherland, 19, will start at his home on Eighth Line and run all day to Mount Sinai Hospital on a route that happens to be exactly 100 kilometres or the length of an ultra marathon.
In a phone interview, Sutherland said he’s known a lot of friends and family members diagnosed with autoimmune diseases and wanted to bring awareness to an issue he sees as one that doesn’t get enough attention.
“I feel like they’re not something that gets spoken about very much,” Sutherland said. “They’re a thing that can come on at any age to anybody and they’re also invisible. The person may look strong and capable but they may be suffering with it.”
Sutherland has been a competitive speed skater for nine years, even moving out to Calgary to pursue it full time, and has been doing distance running for a few years as well.
He’s done a marathon but never ran as far as this which he expects will take about 12 hours.
Training is simply a matter of getting a lot of “miles on the road” and getting comfortable with the stress it puts on his joints, tendons and body in general. Recently he did a three-hour run and will do another five-hour run next week alongside shorter runs and strength training.
“It’s also training just mentally that you’re getting tougher that you’re able to keep going because obviously it gets boring, repetitive, painful so you’re going to want to stop but just training that you are able to overcome that,” Sutherland said.
He has people who will be joining him for certain parts of the run and will not be alone through this journey.
Sutherland will leave his home at 5 a.m. on May 19 for the run.
He has an Instagram account that will share people’s stories about living with autoimmune disease and also has a GoFundMe raising money to go towards Mount Sinai Hospital’s Department of Medicine Research Fund.
