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The Accidental Team Diabetes Marathoner
“It was my own fault, completely,” Catherine Dickson admits. The Summerside,
PEI resident had planned to do a 10k walk with Team Diabetes at the Athens Classic
Marathon in Greece, but after a mix-up with the bus to the start line, she ended up at the
start of the full marathon.
“I’m thinking, ‘what in the name of God am I going to do?,’” the 47-year-old event
planner recalls. She tried not to panic, thinking that she could just ask the bus driver to
take her to the 10k start, but the driver gave her an adamant “No!” She got off the bus and
tried to get a hold of the Team Diabetes leader of the 10k walk, but no one had a cellphone.
Dickson had raised $6,100 in memory of her sister and mother, who both died of diabetes,
and knew that she couldn’t just quit the event, so she decided her only choice was to run
the marathon. Dickson’s roommate in Athens, Ottawa personal trainer Hilda Siegel, was
running the marathon and agreed to accompany her. They hatched a plan to leave an hour
before the official race start, since the course was already open to power walkers.
“I told myself, ‘this is easier than childbirth – people do this all the time,” Dickson, a
mother of four, says. In the panic before the start, both women forgot to drop off their
race bags at the bag check and had to run the whole race wearing them. At one point,
Siegel’s bag broke, so she transferred her gear into Dickson’s pack. Their goal was to get
to 10k before the Kenyans – and they did. Dickson says when the leaders went by, “it was
incredible to see. My heart was in my throat. I was, like, wow – that’s running.”
When she and Siegel hit 20k, Dickson told her friend to go on ahead, but Siegel stuck
with her. Near the end of the race, the pain set in and Dickson thought of her mom and
sister. “The last 4k, the sun was out and I just knew my and sister were with me.” She
and Siegel sprinted the last 500m to the finish in 6:48. A man walked by and noticed
Dickson’s legs were bleeding from chafing. “He told me, ‘Are you bleeding? Then you’re
a true marathoner.’” Dickson says, laughing.
Dickson says she’s hooked on running, and plans to run another marathon in May in
Nova Scotia – this time with training.–MK
Author, Michal Kapral. Used by permission, Canadian Running magazine.
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