I had the delightful opportunity to interview Zander, who is currently in elementary school in Fernie, BC. He has been part of the Panther’s Running Club at Isabella Dickens School since the day he was eligible in grade 2. What makes Zander’s situation unique is that despite having Cerebral Palsy, he chooses to not let his challenges defeat him. He continues to strive toward his long-term goal of running 100 km in a year. He says “Run on feel good” to keep himself motivated. His recent message to his fellow peers who struggle with their individual differences was something along the lines of: No matter the distance, making it to your ideal landmark for running is something to celebrate and be proud of.
Hello everyone. Today we are pleased to introduce Zander. He is an elementary school student who started running with his school running club in Fernie, British Columbia who happens to live with Cerebral Palsy.
So welcome to the show, Zander. We are excited to have you join us with your story. We also look forward to hearing an update on your success with your school running club so far.
the way. Yeah. is there anything you wanna, anything you wanna tell us before we get started into the questions about your running journey so far? No. Well, how long have you been running for?
Three years. That’s pretty cool.
So when they’re at Isabella Dicken, we have a running club program and they can start running when they’re in grade two. So Xander’s been running since he could first start at running club grade two. Nice. Yeah. I wonder what and if there was a story behind your choice or inspiration to start running with the Panther’s Run Club at your school? It’s fun.
It’s fun. I bet you it’s fun and He’s fast. I bet you you’re fast. Is there anything you have to do in order to prepare to run, because you have Cerebral Palsy? so small distances. Yeah, a little bit at a time. So building up to those bigger distances. And how many kilometers do you run per year and how many times a year do you run to work up to 100 kilometers?I think it was this last year you received your first 100km a year medal Right Zander?
These ones Zander got in grade two.Yeah, they keep track of all of the kilometers at run club.
Yes. And then the tokens get given to the students when they reach certain milestones. So 10 kilometers, 20 kilometers, 30 kilometers. Yeah. Did you do more than 30 or that’s it you reached, because that’s why he got the T-shirt for his marathon. So then you got your marathon shirt. Right here.And once you get your marathon, yeah. And Dickerman is a park near Fernie . It’s a cross country running trail and all the kids from the the region get invited to come and they race for fun. Mm-hmm. You can only go if you’ve reached your marathon with our school. So you have to do a little bit and then get your distance to be able to go.Right. And Zander did you get last year? Yes. Your first 100 kilometers?. That was pretty special. And I think that was this one, wasn’t it? This one. So what have we got your 100 medal, the shirt you’re probably wearing right now. What does it say? We can run through anything. Panthers, run clubs and all of his tokens that he gets.
That’s cool. And then these are the ones from this year, I think he is like 54. Kilometers at the moment, but he does hope to run 100 again this year. Awesome. That’s cool. And what, what inspired you to have a diverse person join the running club? I actually, I think he. Had wanted to do it anyway.
So I think it wasn’t, I think our school really is very inclusive. Um, without trying hard to be. I think that’s one of our, um, major philosophies is kindness, connection, and courage. And our school really does embrace just the beauty in everyone. Um, and so I think when Zander was in grade two, it was a, it was a given.
Everybody knew how much he loved sports and being active and moving his body, what makes and how much he loved to run. What makes, so I think it just, what makes you love to run? Like I, I don’t have the aspiration to run, but hearing that you run a hundred kilometers makes me kind of wanna run as a person with Cerebral Palsy.
That is a hard question.
What do you think, Ms. Parr? Is it? Is it me cracking the whip? Yeah. No. Is it Ms. Parr’s Funny jokes.
I can see that you guys have a very good relationship.
We are very, very fortunate for Xander’s wonderful school-based team. Hi, Katie. Yes? Yeah. Katie is your other awesome ea, isn’t she? Is Katie number one or is Ms. Par number one? Oh, uh, you’ll not miss. Katie had to run one day when I was away and, uh, she said never again. Yes So, Alexis, miss Katie shares with you a dislike of running. She does not like running. Yeah, I love running. So that’s our connection. Um, but I totally get it. Not everyone enjoys running. Not everyone at CP can run a hundred kilometers in a year or work up for running a hundred kilometers a year. So that’s why I am a little inspired by his admiration to, uh, run.
And I just Exactly. You know what? I just wanna know what started that admiration of running for him. Well, I. I think the program is really good because it doesn’t ever force kids to run a huge distance, so I think that’s really common, I think in humankind is to, we always get intimidated by something really big.
But I think it’s important when we break it down into just the little parts of that because it can feel really overwhelming. So I think it’s really just one step at a time. Yeah, and we quite often do that with our running, is that we really do just chip away. Uh, a few kilometers, and I think that’s, that’s common across everybody.
You know, like you can hate running, but if you wanna give it a try, there’s nothing except what’s in your mind stopping you from being able to do a small distance, A competition, just a fun run with friends or a massive mountain. Massive over hundreds of kilometers. You know, I’m inspired too by people who do hard things.
Yes. And considering talking more about the preparation. Is there any special prep that he has to do physically, mentally, to be able to do what his mind wants him to do? When I, when I think of doing the things that my mind wants me to do, I have to start writing letters and start.
Prepping and start asking before you actually receive and you actually do it. Yeah, and I think what I’ve noticed with Zander is what really helps him is the people around him to help him get through it. Sometimes he gets a little busy in his brain. Um, so we just come up with as our team and his family, Just come up with things that really push him and keep it simple so that he can sort of say in his mind to be, not so much up in his head, but letting his body really run.
Yeah. So I’d probably say your body can do it. It’s just sometimes, like everybody, we get a little busy in our brains, don’t we? And what’s our thing that you’ve come up with for your, um, your videos that we say?
Really about all of the busyness and the messiness of how hard running can feel. What do we say to everybody in ourselves? Feel?
Feel, feel good, and run. Run. Because that’s why you run, isn’t it? To feel good. Yeah. I wonder, was there anything you would say to., Anybody else in similar situations like who want to accomplish their physical goals but aren’t quite yet there because they have a disability.
Okay.
And keep trying your best.
Yeah. And what does trying your best mean to you?
what’s trying your best to look like Zander is highly followed by a lot of people. With physio and occupational therapy and speech. So I think he tries his hardest in everyday life.
Yes.
Can you, can you describe what a day in your life looks like as a young person with cerebral palsy?
Like, what does it feel like to you to be a young person with cerebral palsy? Sometimes hard.
What else? No. Um, do you have to try a little harder than neurotypical? Yeah, because when I think of myself, I have to. You know, people generally think walking is just a human right and walking in and opening a door is a human right, and it is.
But some people with cerebral palsy or any neurodiverse condition at that point have to really work. If they wanna open the door, they have to really break through their mental barriers if they really wanna. To be able to independently move. And would you say, Alexis, that is also those things that even making a decision is more complicated with people that have cerebral palsy?
Yeah, and I think that sometimes it’s, that’s underestimated. Within neurotypical people and how they approach day-to-day life. Just simple decisions. Um, simple decisions like do you want mustard or ketchup today? Well, am I gonna have a mustard day where it’s going to make me really happy? Or am I gonna have a ketchup day where it’s kind of one of my least favorite things?
And that’s gonna. You gotta choose what kind of they’re gonna have and what, what. Those are simple decisions, but what, when it comes to what you actually wanna do in your mind, making that a reality is quite a bit different than what you actually see in your mind sometimes. Yeah, I like that metaphor. A catch day or a.
I like that sometimes you have to call ahead and you and the people say they’re accessible, but then you get there and you’re like, Hmm, I was really looking forward to that. That’s not really accessible, but I mean,
so you have to be able to define. What? That is really good. Before you’re able to make complex decisions. Yes. Do you like making decisions Zander?, or are they hard some days? Um, mm-hmm. Some days. Some days are hard to make decisions. Me too, buddy.
Zander , what do you wear when you leg? Zander wears a left-sided AFO. That’s you, I was gonna ask that question. What do you wear on your legs when you’re running? So we actually take it off when he’s running because it, uh, slows him down. Huh? See, he likes going fast. With a, I like the support of AFOs, to be honest.
Do you have I have them on both feet and it doesn’t, it slows me down. Yes. But it keeps my feet from knees from hurting so much when I, I, it. Stability for you, Alexis. Sorry. You froze there. Does it provide you some extra relief and stability? Yeah. Yeah. Does it rub in any way? Well, I wear socks and you can put, I, I’ve learned over the years, put insoles in the bottom of them.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, we’ve made a few modifications to make them more comfortable for him. Yeah.
Yeah. It’s, it’s really, yeah, it’s, it’s, I’m inspired by his story to want to run like that
just makes me, and do you, do you always wanna run or are there sometimes you don’t wanna run.
That. What do you do in those times? You don’t wanna run. How do you convince yourself? Oh, okay. I had this dream of running a hundred kilometers again this year, and I’m at 54, so you’re, you are more than, let’s say, halfway there.
As much as I can. That was, uh, one of our videos this week, wasn’t it? Run what you can when you can. So if you can run every day, make sure you do, but it doesn’t have to be huge. It can just be a little bit, yeah. Yeah.
I, that surprises me. You’ve taken ’em off when, when he runs, but I guess your ankles are pretty held still. Yeah. And I think it’s the pronation. So when you’re running and you need that extra ability to be able to, um, bend on the ball of your foot, and it just doesn’t really allow him to vary. It’s too rigid.
Yeah. Yeah.
a, Were there any last things you wanted to, any last pieces of advice you wanted to give people who are thinking about either planning a run for diverse people or running.
Because I’ll tell you something kind of cool. I started on the town of Creston Accessibility Committee and they’re trying to plan a diverse walk run led by diverse people. And I totally thought of you, I thought, I wonder if that or has any words of advice. Yeah. We might not have words of advice right this second, but that is something wonderful to look forward to.
Ms. Par, do you have any words of advice for you and Xandr? Say to our viewers, what would you say? Feel good, run on. Um, it’s what is and sometimes, sometimes you say right on. Yeah.
What does feeling good entail to you? Like what, what does that mean to you? What, what, what brings those words to your mind?
You used to say when we were running that, I wanna go fast and feel the wind in my hair. Yeah. Well, it’s a bit short these days
t. You’d definitely feel better when it’s not icy on a nice, warm, sunny day. times and he calls Biffing. When you slip over on the ice, you wipe out. And he has lots of friends who cheer him on as well. His friends run with him. They cheer him on, they race him. Everybody gives high fives too, don’t they? Although it gets a bit busy. What about the other day we were running and that girl almost crashed into, oh, everybody’s so busy running.
They don’t look where they’re going. You almost biffed it with her. And Miss Par was laughing. That was bad of me to laugh, but that was funny. Your face was hilarious. So Zander has now four videos out, uh, on the Isabella Dicken Elementary School website and it, um, is called Running with Xander, episode one through four.
If you wanna check them out. Yes. And then what, what a YouTuber says, subscribe and press the like button. Yeah. He’s looking for a gazillion likes on the posts. Yes. Yes. I bet you, you are. It’s pretty amazing that you’re this young and you’ve, you’ve started running, to be honest with you. Do you think you’ll stop running Xa?
No. Should we go for a run now? I brought my spikes. I was, Ooh, can you repeat that? That sounds like something. His family built a little ice rink out in the backyard, so we uses his running spikes to make sure he doesn’t biff it on the ice when they’re out there playing.
Well, thank you Zander for joining me today to have this conversation and thanks to all of his support for making him achieve his goal of running. Thank you, Alexis. It was great connecting with you. That makes me inspired to wanna run. And you are inspirational for how confident you are with your podcasts? Oh, it’s, it’s just a general day in my life.
. Thank you, Ashley again. You’re very welcome. Bye-bye.
Meeting Mighty People by Alexis Folk 