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Local runner prepares for race through Death Valley

Athabasca's Kerri Kanuga is preparing for her third Badwater 135 race - and the extreme heat the July 23-25 race will bring. "You can fry an egg on the pavement. I've had my shoes melt.
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Athabasca born Kerri Kanuga crosses the finish line at the Badwater 135 while waving the flag for the Cayman Islands. Kanuga will be participating in her third Badwater 135 July 23-25.

Athabasca's Kerri Kanuga is preparing for her third Badwater 135 race - and the extreme heat the July 23-25 race will bring.

"You can fry an egg on the pavement. I've had my shoes melt. It's like having somebody turn on a blowdryer and blow on your face, that's what the wind feels like," Kanuga said.

But that heat has not stopped Kanuga before. The avid ultra marathon runner placed sixth amongst women in her two previous completions of the run that bills itself as "the world's toughest foot race." The 135-mile, Californian run from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney starts from the lowest elevation in North America at 85 metres below sea level, all the way to 2,530 metres above it, according to the event website.

Kanuga has competed in ultra marathons across the continent while raising over $40,000 for charity. But as Kanuga prepares to run the Badwater 135 for the third time, she said she wants to best her previous performances.

"The two times I've completed the race, I've come sixth overall female and I think I can do better. This year, I'm hoping to break the top five and it'd be great if I can podium," she said.

Athabasca upbringing

Kanuga grew up in Athabasca, where she said her early athletics were concentrated in swimming. There was not an option for swimming in town at the time, she said, forcing her to swim in nearby lakes and travel to Edmonton for pools.

"I literally learned to swim in Baptiste Lake, Island Lake. I was fortunate my parents had a cabin at Calling Lake and spent as much time as a kid in the water like that," Kanuga said.

But Kanuga said she also got experience traversing the outdoors and hiking Albertas mountains.

"I was lucky back in Alberta in was able to hike up mountains and spend some time in the rockies and just out in the wilderness out hunting with friends around town," Kanuga said.

The first time she completed a run longer than a marathon was also around Athabasca, when she travelled between the town and her family's cabin in Calling Lake six years ago, she added.

Kanuga would eventually move out to the Cayman Islands, where she works as a real estate broker. She first started competing as a long-distance swimmer, completing multiple swims with distances of five kilometres, 10 km, 15km and 20km.

"Our water year round is like a bathtub," Kanuga said of swimming around the Cayman Islands. "I just got involved with some people who were doing some swimming. Started half-a-mile and then all of a sudden, doing three-mile swims."

Swimming, running for a cause 

Kanuga would find an inspiration in 2014 from an open letter in a Cayman Islands newspaper about a young girl named Hannah Meeson.

Meeson was battling brain cancer and Kanuga said the letter detailed the struggle for children facing the disease, with a lack of child-specific treatments. Adult-oriented cancer treatments can have a severe impact on the development of a child, Kanuga said.

"There really was no cancer-specific drugs and still really aren't for children. I was just shocked. I had no idea and so that just almost broke my heart," Kanuga said.

Since then, Kanuga has dedicated her running towards raising money for childhood cancer research and treatment. She has raised over $40,000 for the cause, running for St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a US non-profit dedicated to research for childhood cancers.

Those races have included the Ker-a-Thon, which Kanuga started in 2015, involving a six-mile open water swim, followed by a 106-mile run in the Cayman Islands.

"I'm grateful for all my friends, families, even strangers that are generous enough to donate to these charities. I'm glad I can make a bit of a difference and raise awareness if nothing else," Kanuga said.

Meeson would survive her battle with cancer and is 11-years old today. But the battle left her with cognitive and hearing difficulties as well as the inability to walk without assistance, according to Kanuga's 2018 Ker-a-Thon page. Meeson and her family also set up a fund with St. Baldrik's called Hannah's Heroes, which has raised over $1.6 million since 2013.

Meeson, who still gets tested every six months, remains a source of inspiration during races, Kanuga said.

"When I'm out there, 'oh God I can't run another step,' or anything like that, I look at little Hannah who I run for," Kanuga said. "I definitely get strength from that."

Racing around the world

Kanuga has gone on to participate in 11 ultra marathons worldwide, her longest being a 160 mile race in Brazil. But she said she plans to best that mark when she participates in a 200-mile race around Lake Tahoe in Nevada come September.

Kanuga's mother, Betty Kanuga lives in Athabasca and said she is happy with what her daughter has been able to accomplish through her racing.

"I'm proud of her. I think it's wonderful," Kanuga said.

The elder Kanuga said she regularly follows along with her daughter's races and has even participated as a member of her daughter's support team during a event in the Cayman Islands.

"It's amazing. It's nothing I could ever do, I'll tell you that, but she's amazing," she said.

As she prepares for her third Badwater race, Kerri Kanuga said she has no plans to stop running anytime soon.

"These races, it doesn't seem to matter how fast you are. In a lot of cases, it's how tough you are," Kanuga said. "I'll run until I cant run anymore and when that happens I'll start swimming again."

Kanuga's fundraising page for 2018 can be found at  https://www.stbaldricks.org/fundraisers/mypage/3408/2018.

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