Chilliwack runner marks 24th birthday with 100-kilometre fundraising run

Vancouver -

Kalyn Head spent the first 10 hours and 42 minutes of her 24th birthday on the run.

The Chilliwack native is an endurance runner, and she's celebrated each of her last four birthdays with a fundraising run for an organization in her community.

The runs started as five-kilometre fun runs with friends and family, but when the pandemic made a group gathering impossible last year, Head decided to escalate her efforts.

Instead of running five kilometres with friends, she ran 100 kilometres - an ultramarathon - by herself. In the process, she raised more than $6,000 for Chilliwack Community Services.

"This year, after I saw how much the pandemic affected a lot of the athletes, I decided that it would be good to donate the money to Special Olympics," Head told CTV News.

She began her grueling run at midnight with a 50-kilometre loop around Chilliwack. After that, she ran to Abbotsford, where she was joined by some Special Olympics runners as she crossed the finish line at Rotary Stadium.

As of Saturday afternoon, she had raised more than $16,000 for Special Olympics BC.

Head has volunteered as a coach for Special Olympics for the last six years, and said the fundraising run gave her the opportunity to raise awareness about some of the athletes she has coached.

"I just think it's so important to be inclusive and to be kind to everyone," she said. "My running logo says, 'Run hard and be kind.'"