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LU athletic department moving ahead with second indoor marathon

With more than 35 years of experience in the mental health field, Tom Walters believes good mental health is the foundation for an overall healthy lifestyle.
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Lakehead University's athletic director Tom Warden. (Jodi Lundmark, tbnewswatch.com)
With more than 35 years of experience in the mental health field, Tom Walters believes good mental health is the foundation for an overall healthy lifestyle.

“We all know that if you’re going to be physically healthy, you have to have a good mental attitude towards that,” said the executive director of the Children’s Centre Thunder Bay. “They’re all entwined.”

This belief is why the Children’s Centre approached Lakehead University’s athletic department last year with the idea for an indoor marathon to raise money for the centre’s foundation. Last year’s event raised $7,000 and they’re hoping to raise more money this year by teaming up again.

“It’s just a great partnership with LU,” Walters said. “”We give people the opportunity promote the physical health and at the same time we draw attention to their mental health and remind them they can take care of that just as they can the physical health.”

The marathon, set for Jan. 23 at the LU Hangar, will raise money to help the Children’s Centre not only raise awareness of their cause but also help them improve access to care, provide public education and prevention initiatives and support their walk-in counselling clinic they run in conjunction with the Thunder Bay Counselling Centre.

Lakehead’s athletic director Tom Warden said the partnership seems quite logical.

“We have a very strong running community in Thunder Bay and now with our track team and…all these other tie-ins in our building, it just made a lot of sense,” he said. “There are a lot of dinners, a lot of golf tournaments. There’s a lot of different things; there really isn’t an indoor marathon that raise money for a good cause. There was a bit of a window and we seemed to fit right in there.”

Warden said the decision to hold the marathon for a second year was a no-brainer.

“It’s a great cause and a cause that needs profile and also needs the financial help this will assist them with,” he said.

For people not wanting to take on the full 211 laps of the full marathon, they can register for the half or relay marathon or a 10-kilometre run. Registration is $35 per person and the deadline is Jan. 18.

For more information visit www.thunderwolves.ca/indoormarathon.
 




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