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Running for good

Eco-athlete Matt Hill to speak at upcoming iShift seminar

Matt Hill talks like he runs - fast, energetic and with heaps of enthusiasm. The Vancouver native has completed seven Ironman races, hundreds of marathons and has acted in a number of big budget movies. But it is his commitment to environmental causes that really gets him going. Fresh off a 17,000 kilometre cross-North American running tour to raise awareness around environmental issues through his organization, Run for One Planet, Hill is scheduled to speak at Whistler's iShift Citizen Launch as part of the Whistler 2020 Take Action plan to improve the environmental practices of local business.

 

Pique : You're a little more dedicated than the average runner - how did you get started?

 

Hill: "I was born a whole month prematurely and my mom said I hit the ground running. I basically skipped crawling and bolted right to whatever open door or fence that wasn't locked off, so I've been running my whole life. When I was a kid I got really inspired by Terry Fox, he literally changed my life when I was 10. Watching him on his Marathon of Hope just lit something inside of me. I went 'Wow, I'd really like to contribute like he did,' but I didn't know exactly what I was going to do.  As a 10 year old you're just inspired and that's enough. He really had an indelible mark on my life for sure. I ran track through high school and then after doing the Ironman seven times the question was still 'how can I give back?' With my love of running and people and the planet I guess you could say serendipity hits me in the face."

 

Pique : Why did you decide to align your running career with the environmental movement?

 

Hill: "On those runs (partner Steph Tait and I) were asking ourselves how we could contribute with our lives in service of something bigger, and it really quickly began to centre around what was going on with the planet. We'd hear all this stuff on the news and then in the summer of 2006 when Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth came out, it really affected us because those were the questions we were asking. At the end of the movie he asked what was the one action you would take as a result of watching this film and so as we were walking home that night Steph said 'OK, what are you going to pick?' and I committed to not driving my car around the city for silly trips and Steph said 'OK, I will stop using my dryer from here on in and I will hang dry everything.' And interestingly enough that cascaded into a total overhaul of everything we did. Literally one little change inspired another. We would say, 'OK, this summer and fall let's try to eat everything local and organic,' and we did and it became fun. We called it our summer of eco-evolution. Little did we know that it was the backbone of what ended up being our Top 10 Action Steps that we were asking people to take on the running tour. We kept getting more and more excited about the changes we were making in our lives. When the idea of the tour landed, we knew this was what we needed to talk to people about."

 

Pique : What small changes in the Action Challenge do you encourage people to make?

 

Hill: "Compost; reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink; eliminate plastic bags and bottles; turn off your ignition; turn off the lights; turn off the water when you're brushing your teeth; eat as much local and organic as you can; use green cleaners; teach your children well."

 

Pique : Most people have a hard time staying on an exercise routine, let alone adopting altruistic lifestyles. How do you keep motivated all the time?

 

Hill: "When you have a big goal in mind and it really is something that becomes your life, it is amazing what it does to your dedication and your commitment level because everything centres around it. Obviously on tour, because we had also said 'Ok, we are going to run 11,000 kilometers around North America,' we had bitten off a big, proverbial piece of the pie so that inspired us on bad days to go, 'Ok, well the RV just about blew up this morning and we just about got blown off the face of the earth by a motorist but we have another marathon to finish so let's just suck it up and keep going.' And as the tour went along it was really cool because one of our bad days was the same day we realized that our motto was Small Steps Add Up."

 

Pique : You ran the equivalent of 420 marathons in a row. Why the insane distances?

 

Hill: "It needed to be something that would make people go 'Wow, you ran from where?' Between New Orleans and Houston we did 12 marathon days in a row because we had three days of full schools to meet so we just ran and ran and ran and ran and it was neat because the kids thought we had ran around the world, for one. But they were so inspired because we ran to their school. I think it just hits people that wow, if these guys can run these distances and talk to us about what we all purchase and what we all use and what we all throw away then it's neat because it inspires them inside.  It wasn't about 'look at us, look what we can do.' It was 'we ran to you because we want to share this message and we believe that the inspiration of the simplicity of running can inspire you in your own life. If these guys can run a marathon a day then I can stop using plastic bags' and that was the neat thing that ended up happening."

 

Pique : You're clearly big on inspiration of all sorts, so who inspires you?

 

Hill: "Terry Fox, I think personally he's our greatest Canadian. Also, Steph Tait my partner absolutely inspires me to keep going, and my dad, who had this strong humility. I'd always get really nervous before a track meet or race and he'd just look at me and say, 'As long as you go out and do 100 per cent your best, no one can ever take that away from you and you will always know.'  He left a big mark on my life."

 

Pique : Which is the most pressing environmental issue for you?

 

Hill: "It's our insatiable use of plastic that I think is really starting to show signs of what's going on, and just the way our whole food system is being produced I think really needs to be looked at. There is a reason why North Americans are 40 per cent obese and the rest of the planet is considerably malnourished. There is more than enough to go around, it's just about how we distribute it and how we grow it and the whole system and how it is transactioned upon."

 

Pique : You burned five million calories and gone through 14 pairs of Asics running shoes on your tour - you must have had a lot of time to think so what did you find yourself thinking about?

 

Hill: "If there is one thing this journey taught me - I've always known that people are great but people are amazing and hundreds of people that we met along the way I would call local heroes. They inspire me because they would say to me, 'thanks for doing what you're doing and for showing our kids such an amazing example,' and then they'd talk about what they were doing and taking on and in turn they would inspire me. So it's a win, win, right? If there is one thing we did right with Run for One Planet it is we always met people where they were, meaning there was never a finger pointed or anyone saying 'This is our top 10 list and this is what you need to do.' We made a fundamental decision and we always wanted it to be about inclusion, and literally meeting people where they were, not only physically because we were running there but also really meeting them where they were in their environmental journey and their connection to the planet. That's how you inspire people - if they leave feeling empowered and feeling good about themselves, I believe there is a better chance they're going to continue making better choices and I humbly say that's what we heard a lot. It was a hell of a lot of work but it was a huge gift."

 

 

Pique : What does the future hold?

 

Hill: "I'm going to have to leave you with a little dot, dot, dot. All I can say is there's definitely going to be more running, and I can give you a little teaser. Think local, home grown running."

 

For more information go to www.runforoneplanet.com .