From one runner to another

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Dear Editor:

Kudos to John Dooreleyers (cover story, August Truck News) on running those marathons, while still working as a trucker.

I speak from personal experience that truckers can keep in shape while out on the road. I have run four half marathons and one full marathon in the past two years.

The marathon took me just over five hours, but I did finish! Two of the half marathons were run in Colorado while on my 34 hour resets.

Six years ago I was the ultimate couch potato until I decided I no longer wanted to look and feel the way I did. I started walking, then jogging and cycling. Two years later, I had lost over 100 lbs and felt like a million bucks. I’m on an 8,000 km dedicated run out of Burlington Ont. through Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.

I take at least one hour a day to go running or cycling (my bike rides in a carrier on the back of my tractor). These breaks are a planned part of my day just as well as meal stops, showers, or any other activity a trucker needs to do in the course of their day. It CAN be done!

For example, grab a salad and sandwich to go and take a half hour walk, instead of a sit down lunch. Last year I ran 1,000 km and rode my bicycle 4,000 km. I’m looking forward to my next marathon in October in Niagara Falls. Again, to all my fellow truckers, it can be done and once some sort of exercise regimen is started, it will become habit forming and even fun. By the way, I’m 51 and not some 20-something spring chicken.

Dirk van Wyngaarden

Brantford, Ont.

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Truck News is Canada's leading trucking newspaper - news and information for trucking companies, owner/operators, truck drivers and logistics professionals working in the Canadian trucking industry.


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