By the time Lana Haight reached her early 40s, she was finding herself winded going up a flight of stairs and struggling to keep up with her four young sons. She knew she needed to get in shape – so she started walking during her lunch breaks where she worked as a reporter at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
It wasn’t long before her colleagues encouraged her to train for the 10km race at what was then known as the Adidas Saskatchewan International Marathon (it’s now simply the Saskatchewan Marathon).
“I was like: ‘Running a 10k – Are you kidding? I can’t even run a block,’” recalls Haight, now 63. But when she learned her older sister had also taken up running and wanted to do a race, Haight suggested they take on the Saskatchewan Marathon 10km together and she signed up for a 10-week learn-to-run-10km clinic at Brainsport.
“I really do owe a huge debt to Brainsport for getting me started – literally – on the right foot,” Haight says. “I really don’t think that I would have developed a lifestyle of fitness without that super strong foundation of what it looks like to walk and run regularly and how you do that in a way that is helpful and not harmful.”
Over 10 weeks in 2003, Haight went from running only a few minutes to being able to go for more than an hour. She learned about warmups, pacing, recovery, clothing, fuelling – and most importantly discovered a love of movement that became a cornerstone of her life.
Haight and her sister, Heather Austin, finished the 10km hand-in-hand in a little over an hour and two minutes, well under their anticipated time of 75 minutes. “It was very exciting and empowering,” Haight says.
Haight never stopped running after crossing that finish line. She and her sister ran at least one 10km race together every year for a decade. When she underwent treatment for colon cancer in 2021 and again in 2024, running became an integral part of her recovery.
“I don’t always enjoy starting to run, but once I get going, it’s like: I actually have a body that can move – this is amazing, I can go places and I have the strength and the stamina and I can do this,” Haight says. “To keep moving, you’ve got to move. If I just sit around, I’m not going to be mobile as I age. So I think it’s really important for me to keep moving so I can enjoy life, enjoy my 14 grandchildren, enjoy my family.”
In fact, running has become an activity the whole family enjoys together. About three years after her first 10km race, Haight encouraged her sons to start running and signed the whole family up for the Bridge City Boogie in 2007.
Aaron Haight, then in Grade 12, was already active in football, basketball, and hockey. He remembers his mom teasing him and his brothers that they weren’t real athletes if they couldn’t run. He didn’t train for the 10km – and wasn’t sure he could finish – but ended up doing well and having fun.
“There was a bit of a side of it that was definitely inspirational in the sense that I never thought I could do this and now I can,” he says.
Like their mom, the boys kept running. Aaron has competed in road races and triathlons and says running has become vital for his personal wellness.
Today, Aaron and his brothers still run – along with their wives and many of their older children. This past fall, Lana lined up for the 10km race at Step Up for Mental Health surrounded by family: three sons and her eight oldest grandchildren were also racing.
“You can certainly trace the legacy back to that original Bridge City Boogie and StarPhoenix running crew,” Aaron says. “It’s hugely meaningful. The number of things in our world that you can truly all do together and all experience the joy of it and health benefits – there aren’t that many opportunities. In sports and work activities, so many of them are segregated by age.”
For Lana, sharing that experience across three generations is deeply fulfilling. “There’s a pride that these people – big and little – are embracing a healthy lifestyle,” she says. “This isn’t about winning races. This is about staying healthy for as long as possible and doing our part to maintain the health that we have.”
