Introducing Our Trainer, Maddie White

This year, our running program is very fortunate to have a seasoned trainer on board, leading the girls and their buddies each week as they build up to the ultimate goal of completing the "Around the Bay" race in Hamilton on March 29, 2009. Maddie is an inspiration to all of our participants, and we are very appreciative of her dedication and commitment to the program.

If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Maddie, this is a quick introduction. Maddie has been running for most of her life. Beginning as a way she could bond with her father, it quickly became a competitive sport and a large part of her adolescent identity. When she was 14 years old, she was involved in an athletic accident in a baseball game (the other sport she participated in) where she snapped her anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her right leg. Following two operations, she battled a lengthy recovery where she learned not only how to run again but how to walk again. Despite all of its pain, this injury helped her see beyond the competitive aspect of running and she learned how to appreciate it for its healing and healthy properties.

Since she began university, Maddie's focus has shifted to coaching runners; she has now coached over a dozen Running Room clinics and continues to coach in the University of Toronto Triathlon Club. When she is not roaming the streets in her running apparel, she is finishing her degree in political science and women’s studies at the University of Toronto. She is also activating involved in Canadian politics working with Equal Voice, a multi-partisan group working to get more women elected in Canada, and with Martha Hall Findlay, MP for Willowdale and former Liberal Leadership candidate.