albeit I had no focused goal.
What followed was a new appreciation for the sport and an understanding that running is far more dynamic than I’ d previously given it credit for. I began to see other areas of my life that running augmented, and I fell in love with the sport all over again.
There is the ability that running has to bring people together and foster a genuine sense of community the world over. I’ ve got friends all over the world that I met through running and who share a similar passion for the bonds that running creates.
Running has also offered the opportunity to travel and to appreciate the places and spaces I visit in a much deeper way. Marcel Proust once said:“ The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”, and running has provided me with new perspectives and“ new” adventures.
While I enjoyed many personal successes in my“ physical season” of running, I can say with certainty that the most incredible and rewarding moments that I’ ve enjoyed through the sport have been in seasons that were focused on things other than my physical performance.
In 2019, you and a friend came up with an idea for an ultrarelay you called Escape to New York – which seems to encompass community and adventure seasons above. Tell us more about the idea and what it entailed. In 2018 I participated in an ultra-relay race from Toronto to Montreal in Canada. It was the inaugural race and I had put together one of the two first teams to compete. While my team and I enjoyed some aspects of the run, we quickly saw things that we’ d do differently. One of my team mates, Andrew Abley, got injured just before the race but came along for the run anyway, and we spent much of the 650km talking about what we might do differently if we were to organise a similar event.
While we were celebrating our teams finish, and given Andrew hadn’ t run a lick and had some unfinished business, he checked the distance between Toronto and New York City and smiled at me across the table. The two of us went away and secretly spent the next several months plotting and scheming. Escape to New York was the result.
What was unique about Escape to New York was that we had friends from a run crew in New York City( The Bridge Runners), and we felt like leaning into how the relay could bridge and celebrate our two communities. We also decided that if we were going to run 850km nonstop from Toronto to NYC, we’ d need a super celebration at the finish – and what better celebration than the New York City Marathon?
You’ ve since done Escape to Chicago, Escape to Boston, and Escape to Paris. All of which sound really interesting … The only hiccup with Escape to New York was that a month before the run I tore my Achilles playing basketball. I’ d planned this run for a year but was unable to run it and went along just to help manage the experience. I was also unable to run the New York City
“ THE REAL FOCUS IS HOW DOES THIS VERY DIVERSE GROUP OF RUNNING SUPERHEROES NAVIGATE THIS MAMMOTH DISTANCE COLLECTIVELY”
Marathon as a victory lap which broke my heart after trying to get in for over a decade. While we had no intention of doing another Escape after NYC, being injured for that trip( like Andrew in Montreal) meant we had to circle back.
We decided that while rinsingand-repeating New York would be easier, there was something exciting about running somewhere new and something beautiful about celebrating another running community that we were tied to. We organised Escape to Chicago and this time we ran to Chicago AND ran the Chicago Marathon a few days later.
Escape to Boston was our follow-up to Chicago and also an opportunity to say that we had run to all of the World Marathon Majors in North America. While we didn’ t run the Boston Marathon on arriving, we joined in on the Boston Marathon cheer antics to celebrate such an epic race.
Escape to Paris was the first time we licenced the Escape brand for a campaign, and also the first time we took Escape to another continent. The global athletic brand lululemon was the official 2024 Team Canada Olympic sponsor and we used our Escape magic to curate a campaign bringing love and sentiments jotted on a flag from Canada all the way to our athletes in Paris for the Summer Olympics.
How do runners join an Escape journey? Is it something anyone can sign up for, or do you have to be invited to participate? Perhaps you can also explain how the relay works – how far does each runner have to run? We like to say that Escape is like Fight Club. There is no registration. In fact, people are“ tapped” to participate based on who they are and what they pour into their respective running communities. While there is most definitely a level of fitness required, we have always incorporated a very diverse group of runners. Escape is not a race, so the real focus is how does this very diverse group of running superheroes navigate this mammoth distance collectively. The magic is in the way they pull together to cover the task at hand.
The route is broken up into approximately 10km segments and runners are assigned to segments based on their mileage ability, strengths and weaknesses. Some of our more seasoned runners will aim to run well over 150km over 3 – 4 days, while others may get close to 100km. The effort is relative and collective. It’ s worth noting that in our experience, the running( even copious amounts of it), is the easy part. Lack of sleep throughout this ever-agitated circus is by far the hardest thing to prepare for and overcome. Again, this is not a
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