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Florentia Scott, For The Alberni Valley Times Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Shelley Harding walked 55.9 kilometres on a rainy day without stopping to rest to challenge herself and to raise money for the Alberni Valley Museum. It took her 14 hours and 25 minutes. Kris Patterson did the walk in 14 hours and 23 minutes to raise money for the B.C. Children's Hospital, where his infant daughter died five years ago.

Both were among 350 people walking around Lake Cowichan on Sept. 19 as participants in the Great Lake Walk. Both were among the 304 who actually made it all the way from Youbou through Caycuse, Honeymoon Moon Bay to the rec centre in the town of Cowichan Lake.

The Great Lake Walk is billed as an ultramarathon. It happens every year the third weekend in September. Organizers do it to promote the Cowichan Valley and encourage walkers and runners to raise money for the charity of their choice. Support drivers, medics, and 12 rest stations along the way support the brave souls slogging around the lake.

This was Harding's fourth year in the Great Lake Walk and the second year that she finished. The first year she completed 30 km and the second year 43 km. In year three, she walked into her mother's arms at the finish line.

"It was absolutely amazing," she said. "My mom is my biggest fan and cheerleader all the way." This year she entered knowing that she could finish, however, frequent rain showers made the road a little trickier, preventing her from bettering her time.

Patterson said that Harding's example is what inspired him to join the Great Lake Walk. "I watched her year after year and thought that would be a good way for me to make another contribution to Children's Hospital," Patterson said. "She worked really hard to get where she is." Patterson didn't train for the ultramarathon and paid for it with a blister that came up around the 20th kilometre. But he persevered, stopping at rest stations to have his wounded foot wrapped.

While Harding was his inspiration, the loss of his little daughter was his motivation. She was only three days old when she died at Children's Hospital in Vancouver, apparently from a bacteria contracted at the West Coast General Hospital. "The thing was that they didn't know. They thought it was jaundice. By the time we got to Vancouver, it was too late," Patterson said. While he now has four-year old twin boys to console him, he never misses a chance to raise money for Children's Hospital."I take part in every fundraising initiative they do," he said.

It was Patterson's first walk but it won't be the last. He plans to do the Shawnigan Lake Walk next year and possibly the walk from Gold River to Tahsis.