Tears and champagne as Saskatoon runner finishes 1,500-km north-to-south run in memory of her mother

Megan Wotherspoon didn't contain endorse tears as she took her net steps in a 1,500-kilometre trek crosswise Saskatchewan from compass north to south. 

Fighting through the pain of shin splints and general exhaustion, the 38-year-old Saskatoon teacher placed her hand on the Canada-U.S. Border marker near Val Marie, Sask., Thursday afternoon as her friends and family cheered her on.

Wotherspoon ran the equivalent of 36 marathons in 31 days.

"I have lots of emotions," she said. "I definitely kind of slowed my brain down and thought about all the kilometres I've travelled."

But the journey was always about more than running.

Wotherspoon just turned 38 — the same age her mother, Louise Tokaruk, died from leukemia — and wanted to do something meaningful to honour her.

No one knows the emotional impact of that more than Brad Tokaruk, Wotherspoon's father.

He greeted his daughter at the Morgan-Monchy Border Crossing and popped a bottle of champagne. The crowd laughed as the cork flew onto the American side of the border. No one dared to try to step over the line to retrieve it.

Tokaruk's pride for his daughter was unmistakable.

"To see your daughter do what she did is hard," Tokaruk said, referring to the physical strain. "That little body has been through a lot. As a runner, she knew what she was getting into, but to run 50, 60 kilometres day after day after day … that takes a toll."

Wotherspoon began her run in the northern Saskatchewan community of Stony Rapids, near the Northwest Territories border, on May 25. She ran mostly on unpaved roads.

Megan Wotherspoon reaches end of 1,500 km north-to-south trek

On one of her early days, she saw one car and five bears.

Wotherspoon said her mother was a forestry technician who felt deeply connected to the land. She died in 1995, when her daughter was six years old. 

As Wotherspoon finished her run, she talked about the long hours of running and all the time she had to think about her mother.

"I've just been reflecting on the time I haven't spent with her because of what happened," she said. "So, this was just a time to … see the places that she loved and hold space for her."

The runner set a goal of raising $1 per kilometre to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada but met that goal by Day 1 of the run. Wotherspoon has now raised more than $35,000 and hopes to reach $38,000, which works out to $1,000 for every year her mother lived.

Wotherspoon's brother Matthew Tokaruk, who was nine when their mother died, called the run "an emotional roller-coaster, in a good way." 

Sask. Teacher begins 1,500 km journey in memory of mom who died at 38

Like other family members and friends, he supported Wotherspoon along the way by foot, on bike, in a support vehicle and at their nightly camping stops. 

It also gave him a chance to reflect on "the strength of my mom when she was battling leukemia. And then, you know, Megan's strength on this run."

As she stood at the finish line, Wotherspoon said she was humbled by all the people who helped her along the way.

"My nature is one of independence. So, to ask people to help me like this has been probably one of the hardest parts, and I never could have expected that so many people would help out."

The group planned to celebrate with Chinese food and a night of camping in Val Marie.

Senior reporter

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