Cross-Canada run touts fitness, plight of indigenous

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This article was published 27/07/2016 (3340 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What does a crack addict who could outrun police do when he gets clean and sober? If you’re Caribou Legs, you become an ultra-marathoner on a mission.

Brad Firth, a.k.a. Caribou Legs, is running across Canada to raise awareness for murdered and missing indigenous women and to promote healthy minds and bodies.

“My breakthrough moment was in 1999,” Firth said from the Trans-Canada Highway west of Brandon Tuesday. “I got released from jail, and one of the police officers suggested I start running in a good way.”

Seventeen years later and clean and sober, the 46-year-old is running alone on the Trans-Canada Highway. With a painted face and no support vehicle or signage introducing him, the Gwich’in man from Inuvik, N.W.T., is getting a lot of looks from motorists.

“I get honked at, I get people still curious about my looks,” said Firth, who’s seen worse since he left Vancouver May 8. He was spit at twice near Regina and had a water bottle thrown at him before that. In Manitoba, so far, he’s just turning heads, making friends and sharing his story of hope and healing.

“(Monday) in Virden, I had people actually turned around in their seats wondering what the hell is going on there.” On Tuesday, he was invited by four First Nations in southwestern Manitoba to speak at a prescription-drug awareness event. “I’m hanging out with some beautiful people today and fighting pill-popping on the reserve,” he said. “When I was addicted, I was selling pills, popping pills — I know all about pills.” Firth said he first became addicted to crack when he moved to Vancouver for trade school in his early 20s. “I got into crack and became unemployable and unreliable as a carpenter — I couldn’t show up on time, and my priorities were backward.” He sold his tools for drug money until it ran out. “I was stealing and wrecking opportunity after opportunity and became a full-fledged, hard-core street addict.”

In 1999, after his HIV-positive brother died and Firth was infected with hepatitis C, he was ready to get clean. An elder bolstered the cop’s advice — he told Firth he needed to get back to doing what he did as a kid for fun, for a natural high — running. In 2004, he graduated from the Run for Change on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to elite running with the Falcons Athletic Club. He ran ultra-marathons, and a cousin in Fort Smith, N.W.T., nicknamed him Caribou Legs. In 2012, during one of those long runs, he was hit by a semi and ended up in hospital. He had a revelation during his recovery.

“I need to share my running with people,” he said. In his addiction, he took from and hurt people. Then as a competitive ultra-marathoner, he was motivated to get better for himself. He realized he needed to run for something greater than himself and give back for the harm he’d done. “I took that very profoundly and deeply,” he said. “I understood my meaning or purpose.” He ran across Canada and to Yukon to raise awareness for preserving Canada’s freshwater lakes and rivers. Last year, his sister was killed by domestic violence, and this year he’s running for murdered and missing indigenous women.

“I chose to honour her through this run,” said Firth, who is taking a break from the road to join in a four-day sun dance, then getting a ride into Winnipeg Monday. He expects to arrive in St. John’s, Nfld., in November. He has no sponsor picking up the tab as he makes his way across the country. He’s got just his a backpack, crowdsourced funding and whatever speaking fees he can collect as he shares his story of hope along the way.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca