Award-winning CBC-TV documentary

For those of you who missed it, here's a link to the CBC News: Sunday documentary, 'The Joggler.' which last week won a prestigious Gold World Award at the New York Festivals.

My lucky break ... or should I say, no break?

After seven hours in a variety of waiting rooms at St. Michael's Hospital, it has been determined that my shin suffered "massive trauma" in my parkour mishap, but no fracture. So as soon as I can walk again without pain, I'll be ready to run.

I'd say the next world record attempt is a go.

When my name was called out by the triage nurse in the ER, I heard a voice behind me say: "That's the joggler! That guy runs marathons while juggling." I looked back to see a guy in the red shirt and glasses grinning away. Later on in the treatment area, we ran into each other again. It turns out that he was the editor who put together the CBC News: Sunday documentary. He had torn his Achilles tendon playing ball hockey. We had a good conversation about joggling, juggling, running, ball hockey, news editing and injuries.

I laughed, I cried, I ate breakfast

I woke up this morning and took the kids down to watch daddy on TV. The CBC News: Sunday story was airing at 9 a.m. on Newsworld and 10 a.m. on CBC-TV. Assuming it would be near the end of the show, we started watching Newsworld at 9:30 and it was nowhere to be found.

At 10, I flipped over to regular CBC and there it was – the lead story! The whole family sat on the couch laughing (and me sometimes crying in embarrassment) while we ate breakfast. They did an unbelievable job editing the feature. Having made some short films, I know exactly how much labour is involved.

I was excited to be the lead story, but one viewer wrote to complain about this editorial decision in the comments section on the CBC News: Sunday website. Let's see if anyone responds to defend it. It's true, the world faces many grave problems, but let's for once put some fun first. I've spent my whole literate life reading the Globe and Mail from back to front – fun stuff first.

The story will air again tonight on Newsworld at 9 and CBC-TV at 10. Also, Marg from RunningMania.com (by far the best Canadian web community for running) has offered to record and post the story on YouTube. Marg just ran her first marathon today in 4:33 in Ottawa (congrats!), so her priority right now is to celebrate her achievement and get some rest.

NEWS ALERT: Joggling duel on TV this Sunday

For those of you in Canada, CBC News: Sunday will be airing their hard-hitting, investigative report on my joggling duel with Zach this Sunday at 10 a.m. on CBC TV and 9 a.m. on CBC Newsworld.

The producer tells me the piece turned out really well, and from my journalism background I know that this probably means it'll be embarrassing for me. But I'm the one who decided to run while juggling, so I suppose I can't complain. This story will be the most comprehensive TV coverage ever on the sport of joggling and may even spur a Canadian joggling boom. We're goin' mainstream, baby! (Or not.)

Can I run like a normal person?

Now that the joggling duel is done, I'm going to take a break from joggling and see if I remember how to run like normal human being. I hope I don't still run with palms facing up, because that would look stupid.

Thanks to my mom for pointing out that I'm listed in Upcoming Stories on the CBC News: Sunday site as the Marathon Joggler. I'm waiting for confirmation on the date this will go to air, but here's the link. I watched the show last Sunday and Evan Solomon did a fantastic interview with David Foster. No doubt hundreds of thousands of viewers will be anxious to see what kinds of insights Evan was able to pry out of The Joggler.

Flashing seven

Last night I flashed seven.

No it's not what you think. I did not expose myself to seven people. In juggling terms, flashing seven simply means that you throw seven balls up in the air in a cascade pattern, then catch all them. Seven tosses and seven catches. And today I managed to complete 12 catches of seven. This left me only two catches away from a "qualify", which is a full run of twice the number of objects you are juggling.

Alright, so some people can comfortably juggle seven balls for several minutes, but this was a big achievement for me. I was also just happy to be juggling at all, after taking off more than a week with that neck injury.

Today's shoot and sit-down interview with Evan Solomon from CBC News: Sunday was the most fun I've had doing a media interview. Let me just say that I think Evan may be the second-fastest joggler in Toronto.

Joggling for childhood cancer research

My back's back!

After eight days of no running or joggling because of an upper back/neck injury, I hit the road yesterday for a six-mile jaunt home from work. I had no pain and was even able to do some tricks, ignoring warning from my physiotherapist not to do any joggling tricks or five-ball juggling (because the higher tosses force you to look up and crane the neck back).

CBC News: Sunday is filming tomorrow and documentary crew is here on Thursday through the weekend, so it looks like I healed just in time.

I recently set up a link to make online donations to a great charity that I've been raising money for these past few years. It's called A Run For Liane, and all donations go 100% toward childhood cancer research at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

At last year's team meeting for this charity, we were told about some amazing advances in research that have been made in recent years, so to those of you who have donated in the past. your generosity is truly making a difference.

Any donations are greatly appreciated. To make a secure, online, tax deductible contribution, click HERE.