running down a dream - 2024
shot for the globe and mail
words by ben kaplan
There’s not a cloud in the sky on this February morning, and Abdul Hussein is running along Lake Ontario, smiling at other runners who meet his glance, grin and wave, as they move in the opposite direction.
Last fall, the 17-year-old completed the half marathon at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. This year, he’s ready for more: the full 42.2-kilometre marathon.
“The running community is special because you’re welcomed with love and genuine connection by all sorts of people, no matter who you are,” Mr. Hussein says at the end of his 10-km run. He wears basketball shorts and a cotton Crescent School sweatshirt, from the private high school he attends on a scholarship near his home in Toronto’s Regent Park.
An Eritrean refugee, Mr. Hussein was 6 when he came to Canada with his brother, sister and mother, and began running with help from the Kickback Program, a Regent Park-based non-profit that offers running shoes and professional mentorship to young people in the community.
At his race last October, he surprised himself because he never imagined he could run 21 km. For Mr. Hussein, who wants to study engineering after high school, the marathon is both a plan and a promise to himself to keep crossing challenging physical and professional finish lines.
“Without a goal, life can lead to unfortunate roads,” Mr. Hussein says. “Cheap dopamine is all over, especially in Regent, but earning things and seeing results from hard work is something different. The marathon is going to re-emphasize that I never back down from a challenge. With hard work, I can do anything.”
This year is poised to see more Canadians participating in marathons than any previous year, likely surpassing the 30,993 finishers in 2014 (the current record).
Today, even with fewer marathons offered – 44 this year compared with 55 in 2014, according to Frank Stebner, a marathon statistician in Vancouver – races are bigger and buzzier, and the face of the running community is changing.
It’s younger people and new immigrants, such as Mr. Hussein, who are at least partly responsible for the uptick in marathoners. While races don’t collect ethnic demographics at registration, directors across the country say their events have become more diverse.
