First Nation runners compete in 10-miler

Sandy Lake’s Racheal Anishinabie improved her best time by six minutes at the May 21 Thunder Bay Ten Mile Road Race.
“I finished in an hour and 20 minutes,” said the academic assistant at Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute in Thunder Bay. “It felt great — I think the older you get, the better you are.”
The 37-year-old runner said the weather was perfect for this year’s run along Simpson St., Fort William Rd. and Water St., noting that she has run through cold and wet weather during some of the past 10-milers.
“It was one of the perfect days that I’ve had running in this 10-mile road race,” Anishinabie said. “There was a good breeze; I think everyone was thankful for that breeze.”
Although Anishinabie has been running off and on since she was a child, she began getting more serious about her running in 2008.
“In a week I do one five-kilometre run, then a few days later I do a 10-kilometre run and then a few days later I do a 15-kilometre run,” Anishinabie said, explaining her training routine for the 10-mile race. “Now I’ll probably be training for the Thunder Bay Marathon.”
Anishinabie said her training routine for the Sept. 23 marathon consists of less 5-kilometre runs and more 10 and 15-kilometre runs as well as some half-marathon runs of about 22 kilometres.
“Probably every other Saturday or Sunday I will be running 22 kilometres,” Anishinabie said.
This year’s Thunder Bay Marathon will feature a new 26.2-mile single loop marathon course, which organizers are working with Athletics Canada to certify as a Boston Marathon qualifier.
Five long-distance runners from Sandy Lake also competed in the 10-miler, thanks to support from Anishinabie’s father, Ralph Bekintis.
“Shortly after I entered the 2008 North American Indigenous Games, he started up a running group in Sandy Lake,” Anishinabie said.
Bekintis now trains about 20 runners in Sandy Lake.
Jeffery Kakegamic, a 13-year-old member of the running group, finished in seventh place among the under-20 runners. Kakegamic completed the race in a time of one hour and 18 minutes.
“It was really good,” Kakegamic said. “(My parents) were happy.”
Kakegamic, who usually trains for up to an hour with the Sandy Lake running group, is planning to improve his time for next year’s 10-miler.
“I’m going to try going over there again,” Kakegamic said.
Anishinabie said he will likely be a top contender in future runnings of the 10-miler.
“He wanted to stay with the Kenyans — that was his big thing,” Anishinaie said, noting the Kenyan runners were among the fastest in the 10-miler. “Next year he said he wanted to stay right with them, and you know, I believe him.”
Anishinabie has noticed an increase in the numbers of First Nation runners competing in local running competitions.
“And there’s going to be more and more,” Anishinabie said. “More and more people are starting to come out and we’re showing the positive side of Thunder Bay that we’re here. I’m excited.”
Anishinabie usually does some running and circuit training with a group of friends at Boulevard Lake.
“It’s exciting and I think more Aboriginals should get into it,” Anishinabie said. “It’s mind over matter.”