Beth Alden is used to conquering challenges, but she’s facing her toughest in the Victoria Half Ironman in honour of her father Jim Alden.
“He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six year ago,” she said. “He worked hard all his whole life from the age of 12 to 72 to retire, and that’s his parting gift,” she said of the diagnosis six years ago.
And so she set an ambitious goal to raise $25,000 and do the 1.9 km swim, 86 km bike and 20 km run around Victoria on June 14.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but everytime I want to quit I just think of dad, he hasn’t quit, it’s hard for him to put sentences together, he hasn’t given up, so I keep training,” she said.
She has spent six months on a rigorous training schedule, including a lot of time in the pool which she said she hated at first.
“I don’t ask people for help easily but I am asking now,” she said, lavishing praise on the work of Alzheimer B.C., who is helping her dad and especially her mother deal with the disease that is often said to be hardest on the family.
“My father is an amazing man who has been my mentor as long as I can remember. From the day his father passed away (when he was 14), he became the other parent in the household, working on the family farm and other jobs to help support his family. He just stepped in to do whatever needed to be done because he is just that guy,” she said on her fundraising page.
For more information or to make a tax deductible donation visit www.facebook.com/bethaldenteamdad. Donations can also be dropped off at Kickstart Fitness, 1530 Springhill Drive, Errington.