Benard Onsare, who trains in Cochrane and plans to make the town his forever home for his family, placed third at the Calgary Marathon last weekend. This was the first race the Kenyan-born runner has taken part in as a Canadian citizen and his first serious race since overcoming an injury from 2013. "It's the national championship and I have no excuses. I’m just going to go out and have fun and just enjoy being out there," Onsare said before his race on Sunday. He only began preparing for the half-marathon about five weeks ago but he's since won three previous races including the Calgary Police Half-Marathon. Getting to this point hasn't been easy, however. In 2013, Onsare developed an injury in his right Achilles tendon, which especially flared up during a marathon he was running in Vancouver. He stopped training and sought treatment, though it seemed nothing would relieve his pain. Onsare, bogged down by his injury, nearly retired. To add to this disparity, his wife and two children were not able to be with him - they lived in Mexico and were awaiting a visa into the country. It was only recently when his coach, Malcolm Kent, encouraged Onsare to try more treatment and finally in late 2017, the pain in his Achilles subsided. He was even able to participate in the marathon in Martin Parnell's Annual Run last December. "You can imagine three-and-half years fighting to come back from the injury and not - it was a pretty low period," Kent said. "Last year, we started working together and we got it back. By mid last year he was free of the symptoms." Aside from running, Kent said he also helped Onsare through personal goals. A few months ago, Onsare's family received a visa to Canada and they are preparing to make Cochrane their new home, near Kent. Kent helped Onsare get a car, and last week, Onsare received his driver's licence. "Part of it is coaching him the running. But most of what we’ve done in the last six months has been life stuff. If the athlete isn’t in a goodplace life-wise, they can’t run, you can’t coach the running stuff," Kent said. "All these small things add up and make his life easier. It builds confidence and he then feels he’s moving forward." Their next goal is to have Benard compete in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. "This year is all about the come-back, this is for real, this is serious. He’s not injured anymore, what can we do," Kent said. "It's become more and more real now. This is actually achievable we can do this." During the Calgary Marathon Expo last weekend, Onsare collected shoes for donation to send back to Kenya, his home country. In 2012, he held a similar drive where he collected over 700 shoes. “It’s something that I really love to do. Besides my running I think it’s fun to asking the community to bring (shoes) and the community is responding,” Onsare said. “People bring something they don’t want to use but still it’s useful somewhere. It can put a smile on someone’s face.”
