KAGAWONG – Harrison Noble of Kagawong has his sights set on running a marathon, hopefully this year, and has retained the help of well-known coach Gerry Holliday for his efforts.
“Harrison is a new athlete that I have been coaching for about five weeks, and who is getting ready to eventually run a marathon,” said Mr. Holliday. “He is an adult runner and had texted me explaining that his goal was to run a marathon and asked if I would help.”
“Harrison is very dedicated. He’s pretty excited about the whole thing,” said Mr. Holliday, who pointed out, “he certainly isn’t scared of working hard. In fact, I have to slow him down a bit, and remind him to eventually run in a marathon, the whole process is a journey.”
“I used to run in high school and competed in OFSAA every year on the school (Manitoulin Secondary School) team in cross-country and track,” Mr. Noble told the Recorder.
“I mean, it has been a long time that I have run to compete,” said Mr. Noble. He told the Recorder he had contacted Mr. Holliday at the beginning of the year and he told him he wanted to run a marathon. “He asked me how serious I was and I told him this is what I wanted to do.”
“Gerry is a great coach and he whipped up a program for me to go through. I’ve started the seventh week of training,” said Mr. Noble. “He put together a 12 to 14-week program, and although I can’t run a marathon right now (in part due to COVID-19 restrictions) I’m building myself up to that. I’m definitely not in the same shape I was in high school. But each week I am getting closer to my goal.”
“I feel better about my running each week,” said Mr. Noble, who pointed out he recently completed a 10-mile run, “and this week I will attempt a 12-mile run.”
“Hopefully by the time things get back to normal and my training continues well, I will be able to run a marathon,” said Mr. Noble. He said he has the right guy to help coach him through all of this and attain his goals. “He (Gerry) is the champ, and I wouldn’t be as far along in my running program as I am if it wasn’t for him.”
The Recorder will update readers periodically on where Mr. Noble stands as far as attaining his goal, until he reaches that milestone and competes in a full marathon.
