Darius Sam, the young man who captured the attention, and the hearts, of people all across the province when he pledged to run 100 miles in June to raise money for the Nicola Valley Food Bank, is going to be hitting the pavement yet again.
“I went for a drive from where I left, the boat launch at Nicola Lake, and I headed out to where I know I stopped in Spences Bridge and where I came back and stopped on Hwy. 8 because I had some difficulties,” said Sam.
“And it only came out to 89 miles. After I figured that out it has been eating at me, that last eleven that I couldn’t complete. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking a lot of soul searching, a lot of hard training and I want to do it again. I’m going to do it again.”
After raising over $70,000 for the food bank, Sam says the purpose of this run isn’t to raise funds, but to raise awareness.
“I don’t want to raise any money, I’d like to call it the ‘Run Against the Addiction’,” said Sam, who noted that he has lost many people to the disease.
“It’s not just addiction in substance abuse, lots of people my age battle addiction with their cell phones and social media. A lot of young men battle addiction with pornography. There’s so many different things, food, alcohol. There are so many addictions out there and it’s taken over so many lives, and a lot of people have lost their purpose, lost their drive. A lot of great people have vanished in substance abuse.”
Sam plans to run the same route that he did in June, from the Nicola Lake boat launch to Spences Bridge and back. This time he will be battling not only fatigue, but the cold, as he will be setting out Dec. 5, when winter has come to the Nicola Valley.
“It will be tougher, it will be more challenging, but I’ve been training twice as hard,” said Sam.
“You have to take it seriously. It’s not a joke going out there. People can get seriously injured or seriously jeopardize their health.”
