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Second Lisa Day Back-to-School run slated for Aug. 27

Avid runner, mom and teacher inspired others to follow in her sneakers
Lisa Day_WEB
Lisa Day not only inspired her family to run but many others as well and when the popular teacher and mother of five passed away last year her family held a memorial walk or run event and decided to create a yearly event in her name which will be held Aug. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Muskeg Creek Trails starting from the Landing Trail Intermediate School parking lot.

ATHABASCA — An avid runner who inspired others to get outside on the local trails, continues to do so posthumously. 

Lisa Day was a mother, wife, teacher, and an avid runner who took advantage of the Muskeg Creek Trails near the school where she worked, Landing Trail Intermediate School (LTIS). When she passed away last year, her family organized a run in her memory which had around 300 people turn up, so they decided to hold another one this year, explained husband Will Day. 

“Quite a few of the teachers said, ‘Why don't you do this every year?'. They just thought it was a good idea to keep it going and see if we could get a turnout and kind of a promoting exercise and education,” said Will. "It's definitely something Lisa would have liked to put her name on.” 

Last year was more of a memorial run and the Day family handed out medals to participants, but this year the further you go the more tickets you get, and you can win prizes. 

“You can run or walk and at the benches along the route, we're going to have people giving out raffle tickets,” he said. “So, the farther you walk or run, the more raffle tickets you'll get and then you put your name on the raffle tickets when you get back to the start and put them in a box and we're going to draw prize draws.” 

He couldn’t say for sure what the prizes will be because he’s still reaching out, but Canadian Tire has already committed to helping out. 

“Lisa did her master's paper on exercise and learning, and how important it is,” he said. “But it’s mainly because we have beautiful trails in Athabasca, and they aren’t really well known to a lot of people.” 

But she already did inspire a family of runners, her own. 

“Actually, I'm not a big runner,” Will laughed. “But she was a big runner, and she taught our kids a lot. My son just the other day ran home from Al-pac (Alberta-Pacific Forest Products Ltd.), which was 38 kilometres in the rain after working 10 hours. It's a passion of his for sure. All my boys just really enjoy running.” 

There’s nothing to fill out ahead of time this year, just show up Aug. 27 for a 10 a.m. start time in the large parking lot on the east side of LTIS and bring comfortable shoes to walk or run the trails. 

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