Man runs nine marathons in nine days across Vancouver Island for charity

Squamish's David Kaplan, 28, was feeling a little tired when The Squamish Chief caught up with him by phone in Port Alberni on Monday morning.

The surprising thing about this is that he only felt a little tired.

The local runner was in the middle of his Beyond Borders project, running across Vancouver Island in support of , the non-profit that provides medical care in areas of disaster, war or conflict.

It is a staged run — he covers about 42 kilometres daily — starting in Nanaimo and finishing in Tofino on Friday, Aug. 25.

That's nine marathons in nine days.

The goal is to collect 10 euros, or about $14 Canadian dollars, for each kilometre of the route to put toward the charity.

Originally from the Czech Republic — Kaplan and his wife came to Squamish about a year ago from Vancouver on a work permit — his fundraising campaign is being hosted on the Czech platform .

As of Monday, the run had gone smoothly, minus some bushwhacking he had to do when the trail route was not as clearly marked as he expected.

Travelling with his wife, Marcela, and their Alaskan husky, Espresso, Kaplan said the highlight is when friends show up to run with him.

He said it is a mental and physical challenge each day and it see-saws as to which is impacting him more.

"I need to battle one thing at a time," he said. "I can't really think about all of it. On some sections I just feel I want to be at home and don't want to do this anymore so I'm mentally down. But then I get out of this, I feel good for an hour or two, and then something else starts hurting, like my knee, my ankles whatever — my feet are crazy sore already."

Running with Espresso cheers him and for a section he listened to a Harry Potter book to pass the time.

Kaplan also re-listened to , he said, adding Jurek's book inspired him to become a runner in the first place about six years ago.

"He was explaining how running and sport helped him to kind of get out of his [difficult] life. And later, he was basically an ultra running superstar," Kaplan said.

Jurek has said that running helped him solve problems in his life and this is something Kaplan finds, too.

"He basically says, if you go for a run, and you don't find a solution to your problem, just forget about it; you're not going to find a solution."

The freelance software developer said he chose Doctors Without Borders as a charity to support because it aligns with his values.

"I really honour people who can basically give up their safety, their luxury of living in western states, having everything they really wanted, and go somewhere where it's unstable, where it's not easy ... and they go there willingly, not getting paid and help people who really need it."

With his run he hopes he can inspire others to get outside their comfort zone.

"This challenge that I do, it's hard for me. But there are people in the world who do much, much harder things. But it doesn't really matter, because you can always find your personal challenge where you can push your boundaries a little bit. And it doesn't have to be sport, it can be your work, it can be a hobby, anything can be actually turned into something which will inspire others to help our world, our society."

Kaplan is featuring his journey online as he goes. Find him on his , and .