feature Marathon of Health A never-ending journey, one step at a time H Dr. Ed Chicoine is a 2003 graduate of CMCC and operates two clinics in the Gatineau Hills of Quebec, one in Wakefield and one in Maniwaki. He is accustomed to family ad-ventures. In 1997, he and his wife drove, in a van, from Canada to the bottom of South America and back with their six young children. They were gone for more than three years. During that time, he helped to pioneer chiropractic in Chile. ow far would you go to get your message of health and wellness across to others? My family’s answer: 15,000 kilometres on foot across two countries. On May 9, 2011, my wife Gaye, our six children and I started our journey to raise awareness on health, prevention and wellness in Vancouver. We ran in relay fashion across Canada to St. John’s, N.L., then continued down the eastern seaboard to New York City, on to Dallas and across the United States to finish in Los Angeles on Nov. 29. My dream of running across the country began in 1980 when I was in my second year at CMCC and saw Terry Fox run on Highway 69, just North of Sudbury. Thirty-one years later, on the Sunday before Christmas 2010, when I announced to the family that I intend-ed to make my goal a reality by running across Canada, the children said they also wanted to take part in this adventure. Because our family would run in relay fashion, we made the decision to include the United States so we could impact a larger group of people. GET READY . . . Getting everything organized for our run across two countries was an adventure in itself as we had only three months to prepare. We found two chiropractors to work in each clinic and a manager to oversee the oper-ation of the convenience/health food store that we own in Wakefield. And we purchased a motor home. The boys, Ben and Jake, own their own construction company building custom homes – so they had to complete their projects before they could leave. Karina, who just finished her first year at McGill University, received permission to take her second year off. Whitney, who was in her last year of high school, completed most of her credits before we left. The other two girls, Tanya and Dayna, took time off of their work. As if preparing for the Marathon of Health weren’t enough, our family organized the first annual Wakefield Covered Bridge run, which took place two weeks before we left. It was a 5K and 10K race through which we raised $12,000 to improve our local recre-ational facilities. Ironically, once the decision to run across two countries was made, we did not have much time to train and run long distances. In fact, for the majority of the kids, leaving www.canadianchiropractor.ca Ed Chicoine, DC 40 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | FEBRUARY 2012
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