Josh Horan admits he has never run a marathon, but on Friday morning, he will come very close when he jogs from the bridge in Belle River to the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor.
That is about 32 kilometres, eight kilometres shy of a marathon.
Horan, an electrician by trade, wanted to do something positive to support frontline workers, so he started training and set up a GoFundMe page with the intention of raising $10,000 for Windsor Regional Hospital.
"At the gym, I would run on the treadmill a little bit," Horan said. "But, since I've been training the past few weeks, I've gotten as far as eight miles consecutively."
He plans to start the trek at 9 a.m. Friday morning in Belle River, and hopes to arrive at the Ambassador Bridge between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Jayden St. Louis-Marshall (Photo courtesy of Josh Horan)
Horan will not be acting alone. He has the support, both in spirit and body of the 14-year-old son of a colleague. Jayden St. Louis-Marshall is an avid hockey fan.
"He's going to be shooting some hockey pucks in his driveway, practicing his skills, stickhandling," said Horan. "He plans to stickhandle his way down Lesperance Road to Riverside Drive to meet me. He plans to live-stream the whole thing on Instagram."
St. Louis-Marshall is a student at Corpus Christi Catholic Elementary School and an aspiring athlete. He also won the John Atkinson Award in 2018 for kindness and bravery.
As of Thursday morning, Horan had raised $3,360 towards his goal.