2016 | Paul Morrison

Paul is the 12th child in a family of 13, a native of Beresford. In the early 80s, he started his own family in the region of Petit-Rocher and had two children, and Véronique and Mathieu. Paul worked at the Brunswick mine from the 80s up to its closure in 2012. Since then he is working at Raglan in Nunavik where he was transferred to another mine within the same company (Glencore).

During his youth, Paul was the only one of his family who played sports. He practiced baseball and hockey. In his twenties, he began practicing endurance sports. He participated in fifteen crossings of the Bay of Chaleur in the rowers Festival of Petit-Rocher from 1980 to 1995. He only achieved a victory in 1991. Paul and his team have always been a very competitive team. Following these crossings, Paul participated behind the scenes to organize the crossing as a volunteer for some years. At this time, Paul questioned himself to know what sport he could practice in which he alone would be responsible for his workouts and performance.

In 1989, he began running with Mario Boudreau, his rowing teammate, friend and colleague. A sport to which they quickly got hooked. At first, running did not have the same level of popularity than it has today, Paul took advantage of advice from people such as Henri Fournier and thereafter he met Junior Bourque who was present as a friend and coach throughout his racing career.

For over 10 years, Paul was active in the organization of 10 km Chaleur either by recruiting volunteers, solliciting prizes for the event with companies, contact the elite runners from other regions; basically in organizing the logistics of the event with a team of people involved who were able to grow the popularity of this race and come year after year looking for new people for the sport.

The investment, discipline and passion that Paul was dedicating to running had a positive influence in his surroundings and we could even see at some point his whole family to indulge in this sport.

During his career, Paul participated in many races of 10km, half-marathon and marathon across New Brunswick, Canada and the US until 1998. He unfortunately suffered an injury in 1997 that slowed his pace and drive and forced him to stop competing.

Here are the most significant races of his career:

• 1994, 10km St-Isidor, time: 32 minutes (personal best)
• 1994, 10km Chaleur, time: 33 minutes (1st place)
• Half-Marathon (21.1km)

Photos

Marathons

Several victories in the Acadie Half-Marathon.