INSPIRATION

MANY THINGS CAN INSPIRE ME.

THIS IS ONE OF THEM -- THE MANITOBA MARATHON.

From the massive lineups for the loo at 6:30 a.m....

And 12,927 people listening for the start gun after months of training to run the full (26.2 miles), half or relay marathons, the 2.6-mile Super Run, the 10km walk...

...To the scores of people who accomplish their goal of finishing, each of them with fantastic stories to tell of how they did it and why it was important to them.

Fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, two-year-olds and 82-year-olds, breast cancer survivors and quadriplegics...here are some of them that made me smile.

This is Dorothy from Birch River. She just turned 80 and is a breast cancer survivor. It was her 10th half marathon. Eighty of her friends and family ran with her.

I can't remember this man's name but his six-month-old son Mathieu caught a ride the last 200 metres.

He ran for (below) his dead sister, his dead father-in-law and a friend who committed suicide.

This guy's name is Luke, I think.

He's 30 and is a quadriplegic from a tumor that grew in his spine.

He's wheelchairing because he supports the charity all the money raised goes to -- the intellectually disabled.

And this guy is just a dead ringer for David Letterman, although I couldn't get a shot of him head on to prove it.

He was one of the thousands of volunteers that lined the course all through Winnipeg.