What excuse did you use today (June 3) for doing nothing?

Chis Koch of Nanton is a man who was born without arms or legs but that didn't stop him from coming to Airdrie to take part in the 10th Annual Mayor's Run with over 20 young girls from the running club at Good Shepherd School.

Koch uses a skateboard to roll through the races.  His involvement with Good Shepherd started when the organizer of the running club, Sarah Barton, asked him to come and speak to the group.  Three years ago, Barton started a girl's only running club which has grown in leaps and bounds and now has about 70 members.  

Koch says, "Sarah asked me to speak to the run club and then we organized a presentation for the school.  I said at the run club that if I wasn't farming and I was available that I'd come and do the 5K with them and, here I am."

When he's asked what his presentation was about to the club, you see Koch's quirky sense of humour come through.  "I did the Calgary Marathon a couple of years ago and since then I've done five marathons, so from a running...." then he pauses and adds, "term used loosely, standpoint, as well as just pushing your boundaries, putting yourself outside your comfort zone and making the most of life regardless of what your challenges are."

Koch speaks over 200 times through the year.  He's appeared on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah Winfrey and has done a Tedx talk at Binghamton University, so having him speak to the girls at Good Shepherd was a big deal.  Barton says his talk inspired them.

"His talk was all about If I Can.  If he can do things with no arms and no legs, we can all overcome our challenges in life and keep going stronger in a positive direction.  The girls also like to see that you can get around in different ways.  It doesn't matter what disability you may have or what challenges you face in life.  Chris jumps on his skateboard and he can run with us the same as we can with our legs.  It was a really cool experience."

Koch says there's one thing that keeps him motivated to keep going.   He says, "I'm more afraid of regret than I am of failure.  Failure's not a bad thing.  If you fail, make sure you fail forward, learn from your mistakes.  Regret, I don't want to look back at life saying 'I wish I would have done this' or 'I wish I would have tried that.'  I'll look back on life saying 'I did as much as I possibly could, maybe not everything went the way I hoped but at least I put myself out there."

The girl's running club meets Mondays and Wednesdays after school to practice and Barton says the Mayor's Run has always been their target for taking part in.  She says her goal with the club is to inspire girls and bring them together in a less competitive environment.  Barton has seen a rise in the level of confidence among club members.

"Yeah, definitely.  This is our third year and you can tell some of those girls who started, in the beginning, come for more and feel stronger each time.  Some of the girls never thought they'd be able to complete a 5K and we did our practice run at the school this last Tuesday and just the smiles and the cheers and just the pure happiness they had that they completed this big goal of theirs that they never thought they could do at the beginning."

Koch says he's happy to see the girls digging a little deeper.  "If a guy with no arms and no legs is doing some of this stuff, what's stopping them.  I do my presentations with a big smile on my face and tell some good jokes so it kind of reminds them not to take life too seriously either."

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