Article September 17, 2001 Issue

The making of an unlikely athlete

By Zöe Landale

I grew up in a family that valued intelligence and creativity. Anything athletic was at the bottom of the heap. The unspoken assumption was that physical activity was for people with no brains. Needless to say, no one in my family played sports. In school I grew up knowing I was going to be one of the last people chosen for a team.

After I got interested in the Science of Christianity and was healed of a back problem that had often put me in a wheelchair, I was vaguely aware that I was still seeing myself as a complete klutz when it came to athletic ability. It didn't bother me much, but I decided that being more active would be good. So, when we got a large dog, I was happy to take her for a walk every day in Seal Bay Park, near where I lived in the Comox Valley, in British Columbia. Our walks through the woodland and a marsh made a great break from sitting at my computer, working.

It wasn't until I decided to apply to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police—involving a truly brutal physical fitness test—that I realized I was going to have to massively upgrade my view of who I was.

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