Phil Troyer (pictured blue shirt middle) presents members of Odyssey House with a $28,318 cheque following his 200-mile race. Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

phil's fun run

Peace Region man raises over $28,000 for Odyssey House following 200-mile journey

Jul 26, 2021 | 5:30 PM

A Peace Region man has completed his 200-mile journey through the mountains of Grande Cache, where he was able to raise over $28,000 in support of Grande Prairie’s Odyssey House.

On July 14, Phil Troyer began his 200-mile journey. He tells EverythingGP the main reason he wanted to run 200 miles was because he thought it would be a fun and exciting challenge.

“The initial goal for me was to run 200 miles. I had run 100 miles before, so I wanted to run 200 miles. There are no races up here that long, so I had to come up with my own thing,” explained Troyer.

“Believe it or not, I kind of lack motivation sometimes, so I figured if I do it for a cause it would keep me motivated. I decided to help out Odyssey House and do it for them.”

Troyer ran from July 14-18 and says it was definitely a challenge.

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“Most of it (the terrain) was quad trails up in the mountains. There were lots of elevation gains. We did just over 12,000 metres of elevation gain and that was up over seven mountain summits.”

He adds the rain also made things difficult. He says there was one summit of a mountain they could not reach because the wind and rain were so severe.

Over the four days, Troyer mentioned he only slept six hours total.

“I started Wednesday morning at 3:00 a.m. and then I finished Sunday at 8:30 a.m. One time I slept for an hour, and it was too long. Talking to some other ultra runners, the advice I was given was don’t sleep for more than two hours, because your body will shut down.”

By the time the race had ended, Troyer learned that he was able to raise $28,000 for Odyssey House, something he says he didn’t expect to do.

“The community really kicked in, we got a phenomenal response, it was way more than I anticipated. I called a friend of mine (at his business Secure Energy) and asked if they wanted to match the donations during the run,” said Troyer.

“Secure matched it up to $3,000 and then I got an email from Cenovus and they said they’d match whatever Secure donated. Canadian Tire sponsored a leg and gave me a cheque much larger than just the regular donation amount. Our run group put on a COVID-friendly run and they raised almost $2,500. The community pitched in and that’s the only reason it was a success.”

Because of the money raised by Troyer, Odyssey House says it will be building a play yard on one of its properties.

Lisa Watson, the Executive Director at Odyssey House, says they’re grateful to receive the generous donation from Troyer.

“The play space at Odyssey House was something we’ve been looking to develop for the last two years. We’ve got a plan to put in a small track, so some of the kids can learn how to ride bikes. We’re also looking at adding a possible play area with some swings and slides and we’re excited to have them be able to utilize it.”

According to Troyer, he is still debating about doing a similar race next year.