bedford runner covering a marathon a day in fundraising run across nova scotia
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bedford's darcy eygun runs along part of the cabot trail in cape breton as part of his fundraising journey across nova scotia. - supplied by darcy eygun
darcy eygun is running the equivalent of a marathon per day until he makes it from one tip of nova scotia to the other.
the 21-year-old from bedford is trying to raise money and awareness for food insecurity in the province, so he carefully charted a course that will see him cover roughly 1,000 kilometres by foot during his estimated 23-day mission.
eygun started his journey on july 27 from the cape north lighthouse at cape breton’s most northeastern tip, with baccaro point near barrington in southwest nova scotia as his final destination.
“a lot of people in nova scotia are having a hard time buying groceries,” he said. “sometimes people can’t eat and have to go to feed n.s. i’m not a billionaire, i’m not a millionaire, i don’t have a lot of money. i’m a student, so i can’t donate large amounts of funds to feed n.s., but one thing i can do is run, so i figured i would run across the province.
“there have been two cross-nova scotia runs before, but they’ve been shorter and not from the exact northern to southernmost part of the province, so i thought this would be the first. i think the fastest route would be around 700 kilometres, but i decided to add 300 extra kilometres to make sure that i pass through the major cities, villages and sites, seeing spots across the province to try to really cover the most parts of the province as possible.”
darcy eygun gives a thumbs-up during his fundraising run across nova scotia. – supplied by darcy eygun
eygun’s ultimate goal is to raise $75,000 for feed nova scotia. there is also a modest gofundme online to help him cover some of his expenses for the undertaking.
feed nova scotia’s website said the charitable organization collects and distributes “approximately seven million pounds of food annually to over 130 member food banks, meal programs, and shelters across the province.”
eygun is a recent political science graduate from saint mary’s university and already has an extensive resume as a dedicated humanitarian. most recently, he spent time in brussels, belgium, participating in diplomatic simulations.
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prior to that, he worked, studied or assisted in causes in gambia, colombia and lithuania, while also travelling to malawi to sit on the youth board for amnesty international and work with the local government as a development advisor.
in september, he will be moving to ottawa to work in the prestigious parliamentary intern program. his career goal is to earn a master’s degree and a phd in political science so he can teach at the university level.
he was also an elite soccer player growing up, suiting up for nova scotia’s provincial team and spending time in the highly regarded vancouver whitecaps academy in british columbia. but as much as cardiovascular fitness is a huge part of the game, eygun looks back and laughs a little now that he’s taken on this massive run because he said that was his biggest weakness as a player.
bedford’s darcy eygun runs along part of the cabot trail in cape breton as part of his fundraising journey across nova scotia. – supplied by darcy eygun
“running was actually the worst part of my game. i absolutely hated running,” he joked. “but after i stopped playing soccer, i started running a bit, just to get outside and to get moving. it was a bit of a personal challenge for me because i have thalassemia, which is a rare blood disease. one of the symptoms is i get tired very quickly, so that’s one of the reasons why i was never good at running.
“so at first, i couldn’t run more than 500 metres without getting physically sick, so i took it step by step. even my doctor told me that someone like me shouldn’t be trying to run in anything like a half marathon, but i guess in a way, that also serves as motivation. so in about (the past) four or five years, i’ve run a few half marathons, marathons, ultra marathons, and now this is my biggest challenge yet.”
helping eygun for the first part of his nova scotia journey was his older brother blaise, who accompanied him in a truck and handled all of the day-to-day logistics, like finding campsites, posting to social media, and keeping the truck stocked with food, drinks and other supplies. a friend darcy made while working for nato in europe one summer was scheduled to take over from blaise on sunday.
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“it’s going great so far,” eygun said during a break in mabou. “my legs are feeling good. we’re currently sleeping in a tent. we tried to get a trailer for this and push for a sponsorship, but that didn’t work out, so we’re tenting at the moment. it’s still very much enjoyable and for a great cause, so that’s very motivating.”
darcy eygun at his campsite during his fundraising run across nova scotia. – supplied by darcy eygun
eygun also reports no major incidents with bad weather, vehicles or animals, like dogs chasing him.
“no dogs yet,” said eygun, who is updating his journey daily on instagram at @darcy.eygun. “i’m an animal lover, so i think if a dog was running after me, i would probably just run with it. i’m having quite a lot of rain, but that’s fine. i actually like running in the rain because it cools me off. and it hasn’t been too hot. other than that, i was just running in the forests on a trail all day, and there were lots of bear paw prints and moose prints, as well. so i’m just trying to make sure that i don’t come across those. i would love to see them, but not too close, of course.
“and then i’ve been warned quite a few times from construction workers on the roads and people in these villages (about) coyotes. they say there are quite a few around, so i’m trying not to bump into them.”
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