PARTICIPANT GUIDE

THE RUN: The Canadian Pursuit is an 8500+ km run that starts in St John’s NL, travels across all ten provinces, goes up to the capital cities of all three territories, and finishes at Mile Zero in Victoria, BC.

Clay Williams and Pace runners will start at Cape Spear on May 5th, running approximately 7 km segments and complete the route in 144 days, running 70 km per day, 6 days a week and finishing on September 25th. 

The run will start at 8am each day, and go through the following cities:

St John's - May-5, Corner Brook - May-15, Sydney May-20, Charlottetown May-24

Moncton - May-27, Fredericton - May-30, Edmundston - Jun-4 Quebec City - Jun-8

Trois Rivières - Jun-11 Montreal - Jun-13 Ottawa - Jun-17 Iqaluit - Jun-19&20

Peterborough Jun-25 Whitby - Jun-26 Toronto - Jun-27 Barrie - Jun-29

Orillia - Jun-30 North Bay - Jul-4 Sudbury - Jul-7 S S Marie - Jul-11

Wawa - Jul-15 Thunder Bay - Jul-23 Dryden - Jul-29 Kenora - Jul-31

Winnipeg - Aug-3&4 Portage La Prairie - Aug-5 Regina - Aug-13 Saskatoon - Aug-17

Edmonton - Aug-26 Yellowknife - Aug-28&29 Whitehorse - Aug-31& Sep-1

Calgary - Sep-6 Revelstoke - Sep-13 Kelowna - Sep-17 Vancouver - Sep-24 Victoria Sep-25

 

THE ROUTE: The full route can be seen here: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3172233

It is quite a large file, so it has been divided into several sections, by province, as follows:

Newfoundland: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/2738216

Nova Scotia: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174308

Prince Edward Island: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174312

New Brunswick: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174314

Quebec: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174316

Ontario: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174319

Manitoba and Saskatchewan: https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174320

Alberta and British Columbia https://www.plotaroute.com/map/3174327

Territories: COMING SOON!!

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The entire route has been divided into roughly 7 km segments, with end points located at places where it is reasonably safe to park a shuttle car for dropping and picking up runners. The route may change slightly, and all registered participants will be advised of any changes that affect their section of the run. Runners will be sent a GPX file of the route as the day of the run approaches.

 

CHOOSING A SEGMENT TO RUN: The start of each running segment is marked with a colored label. A GREEN LABEL indicates the start of a segment that is available, and a RED LABEL indicates the start of a segment that already has a runner. YELLOW LABELS indicate segments where there is no safe place to stop a vehicle for runner drop-off, and a WHITE LABEL indicates DRAFT segments, not yet confirmed, I am still working on tying tese down.  Although I would like every section to have a pace runner, I’m ok with having more than one runner on each section.  When you have chosen the segment(s) that you want to run, send an email to canadianpursuit2026@gmail.com to confirm your selection. Clay will get in touch with you to confirm details.

 

REGISTRATION: It isn’t a race, there’s no formal registration, no registration fee. It is, however, a fundraiser, and donations are gratefully accepted. Any donations in excess of the operating costs will be donated to the Mood Disorders Society of Canada’s Defeat Depression campaign.

 

THE FLAG: For the first two years of the Canal Pursuit, Clay Williams carried a Canadian Flag with him, and the relay runners carried the flag in subsequent years. Clay has asked people who know someone or are themselves struggling with depression, anxiety, bipolar, or any mood disorder to sign the flag, and the flag will be carried the full distance of the run as a symbol that they don’t have to carry their burdens alone. Runners will be asked to carry the flag, and are invited to sign the flag if they would like to.

 

POSTCARDS: The run has two main purposes.  One is to bring about change in Canada’s mental health care by talking with as many politicians as possible. Let our leaders know that the current system is not working and needs reform. The other is to raise funds for the Mood Disorders Society of Canada’s Defeat Depression Campaign. 

With that in mind, each of the runners will be given a handful  of postcards at the start of their segment and encouraged to give the postcards to people they see along the route. During his first two years running the Canal Pursuit event, Clay talked to dozens of people, and started by handing them a postcard and saying: “Hey, I’m running to Ottawa for mental health.” Many heartfelt conversations followed. Imagine doing that all across the country.

 

MEDIA STOPS: There will be several Media Stops marked along the route. We will be contacting local media and political leaders each day and inviting them to join us to cheer the runners on. As a runner you may be stopped to talk about your participation in the run. The crew will give you some warning about what will be happening at any media stops that you are scheduled to run through.

SUPPORT CREW: There will not be someone available to shuttle runners to and from their start and end points, so it will be necessary for you to arrange your own shuttle ride. Please be prepared to run 7 km unaided.