London, Ont., woman completes 6th 100km run for charity

At roughly noon on Friday, June 19, Theresa Carriere crossed the finish line for her sixth 100 km run for ONERUN.

Nearly a month later, on Thursday, July 16, organizers announced the 2020 ONERUN raised “an incredible $150,811 to bring their overall total to $1,439,550 since 2010.” Money raised through ONERUN goes towards cancer support programs offered through Wellspring London and Region and Childcan.

“Despite the challenging times of this year’s campaign, the light of our ONERUN community shone its brightest and made our 10th anniversary incredibly special,” Carriere, a breast cancer survivor herself, said in a statement.

“Thank you to all of our participants, sponsors, volunteers and the many who donated for their continuous support.”

Last year, students, survivors, and others joined Carriere on the route, each running one kilometre dedicated to someone they felt needed their support. Throughout May 2019, London-area schools also raised money for ONERUN, doing their own version of the 100-km journey in the lead-up to the big day.

While the charity had “many new and fun surprises planned” to mark its “monumental and celebratory” 10-year anniversary in 2020, the novel coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to pivot to a “virtual journey” format.

Ten secondary school events were cancelled due to the pandemic, but organizers say over 1200 participants logged 100 km in a variety of ways between May 19 and June 19 while fundraising for the cause.

While COVID-19 thwarted some of ONERUN’s plans for 2020, hot weather and the chance for thunderstorms also forced Carriere to split up her run.

She was initially planning to do the entire 100 km on June 19 alone, but with a high of 29 C and a chance of thunderstorms forecast for the day, she instead ran part of her run on the afternoon of June 18 and resumed the run at 5 a.m. June 19 — finishing within a 24-hour span.