UVic students plan to run from Victoria to Nanaimo to raise money for men’s mental health

Nicholas Sakamoto (left) and Kai Dorin (right) are planning on running from the UVic campus to Nanaimo’s Woodgrove Centre on Sunday, November 30th. Photo courtesy of Nicholas Sakamoto

Two university students are training for the biggest run of their lives, while raising money and awareness about men’s mental health.

University of Victoria students Kai Dorin and Nicholas Sakamoto plan to run from their university’s campus to Nanaimo’s Woodgrove Centre on Sunday, November 30th.

They are planning to run a total of 126 kilometres, which is the same distance as three marathons.

The two have taken on this challenge to raise funds for the Movember charity, which aims to raise awareness of men’s mental and physical health.

CHLY spoke with the pair over Zoom ahead of their Sunday run.

The idea first came to Sakamoto, a third-year kinesiology student, who knew he wanted to put on a long-distance run to raise money for men’s mental health, as running has helped him with his own mental health.

“When COVID-19 hit, I was running almost every day, and it was just super relaxing, and kept me fit and felt like I was being productive, which I think was like being at home all the time,” Sakamoto said. “It got me outside and doing things, which was really important during covid.”

Dorin, who is in his third year studying political science, said they are both runners and have experience competing in various sizes of races and marathons.

Dorin said due to the size of the run they’ll be doing on Sunday, the two have been focusing on training for what will be the biggest run either of them has ever done.

He said that, given the size of the run, they have been getting a lot of encouragement from the community.

“A big part of it is that they really give us the props for raising money for such a great cause, which is really awesome,” Dorin said. “[People have] been donating, we've nearly tripled our goal, which is just amazing. They call us crazy, they ask how we're going to prepare, and we tell them that's about it.”]

The route Sakamoto and Dorin will run on Sunday will kick off at the UVic campus in Victoria, where they will then run 24 km to the Brentwood Bay ferry terminal. There, they will catch the ferry to Mill Bay, taking the ferry rather than running over the Malahat along the Trans-Canada highway.

Once they get into Mill Bay, they will continue the remaining 102 km by running through various residential roads and trails before reaching Nanaimo to take the Parkway Trail up to Woodgrove Centre.

Sakamoto said they will both run side by side for the full 126 km, and they have also invited friends and community members to run with them throughout the day.

“We've definitely had some interest in people just coming out, some friends, and then just some people that have reached out and been like, ‘Hey, this is super cool. Can I run a bit with you?’ “ Sakamoto said. “We should have a decent group bright and early on the Sunday up to Brentwood Bay.”

Dorin said that due to the unbelievable length of the run, more people have been interested in what they are doing and are having more conversations about men’s physical and mental health.

“So we knew we wanted to raise money for a great cause, and we knew we could, despite running or not,” Dorin said. “But when we do go on this kind of run, it really interests people, and once we do interest them, we can finally teach them what it's about, because [there is] a really big stigma around mental health. It's not talked about. A lot of our friends are dealing with mental health issues, and I bet even more of them are, but they're just not talking about it, because that's the stigma.”

Sakamoto said raising awareness around men’s mental and physical health is very important for him because it seems like the stigma tends to make people miss out on what could be life-saving conversations.

“We want to do what we can to try and inform people about what's going on, and also that it's okay to get help, ask for help and talk to someone about any issues you're having,” Sakamoto said. “I think Movember does a really good job of that and also [around] prostate cancer and testicular cancer, which is another thing that is often overlooked. So, just trying to do what we can to inform people.”

Both Sakamoto and Dorin originally set out to raise around $1,500 for Movember, but since starting only a couple of weeks ago, they have now raised over $6,000.

With the run only a couple of days out, Dorin said he is looking forward to taking on this new challenge.

“We're nervous, as expected, but I'm honestly mainly excited,” Dorin said. “I want to see if I really like testing my limits and seeing how far I can take my mind. So I'm looking forward to it.”

Sakamoto also said he is looking forward to pushing himself to a new limit.

“Definitely, very excited. It still hasn't sunk in. It's definitely come up a lot closer than I expected, but I think it's going to be a great challenge,” Sakamoto said. “I do like that feeling of being challenged and actually able to challenge myself with new things. So that aspect is really cool. Definitely a little bit of nerves.”

Donations to their fundraiser can be made through the Movember website.

On November 30th, people can follow along on their journey from Victoria to Nanaimo on their Instagram account @126forMovemeber, where they will post updates throughout the day.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.