With a lacrosse stick on his back, Zak Raymond set out from Lunenburg, N.S., early Sunday morning for more than a jog. “I’m running 100 kilometres for lacrosse to grow the game. I raised a bunch of money over the last a few months to purchase a bunch of lacrosse sticks and donate them to kids in the community just to get them started in the sport,” says Raymond, who is also a coach. That’s about two and a half marathons. Catching up with Raymond near Chester, N.S., spirits were high. “I read David Goggins book a couple years ago, which was super interesting to me. A challenge where you can’t back down from it. I liked the aspect of telling the kids in the community, telling the parents, telling everyone that I’m doing it and then I stick to it and I do it,” Raymond says. At that point he had already been running for more than four hours. “It sucks, it’s not fun what I’m doing. The training wasn’t fun and every second of this sucks, but every 10 minutes I’m thinking, I told everyone I was going to do this, I told the kids I was going to do this, so I’m going to do it.” Later, at a rest stop at Meisners Beach near Hubbards, N.S., the ordeal was starting to take its toll. “I’m not feeling great. It’s definitely tough, but that’s what I signed up for,” he says. “My ankle is super sore, I think it was running on an incline one way on the path, I had to find a flat surface. My groin is hurting a little bit too, but other than that, just tired, I guess.” All the pain is worth it he says as the fundraising efforts will provide sticks for at least 15 young players. “At every point leading up to it you’re like, I don’t wanna do this, but you tell someone you’re going to do something and you coach a bunch of kids and you want them to follow through with the words so you’ve got to do it yourself too.” Raymond left Meisners Beach, but after completing more than a marathon, a foot injury forced him to abandon his goal. But the lessons for the kids he coaches still remains as does the money raised which will help young players get started in the sport, with Raymond’s determination as inspiration. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
