A Nova Scotia marathon runner is taking on his biggest challenge yet, and raising money along the way.
Cape Sable Island’s Landon Smith is running from the southernmost tip of Nova Scotia, The Hawk on Cape Sable Island, to the province’s northernmost point, Meat Cove in Cape Breton.
Smith is raising money for Autism Nova Scotia’s day camp program.
He says he’s inspired by his nephew, who is autistic.
“I think it’s so hard for parents, especially if they’re non verbal,” said Smith. “They don’t know what’s wrong because the child can’t communicate, it’s just so hard on the parents and the children too.”
He went on to detail how demanding meeting the needs of an autistic child can be.
“Its going to go to the summer camps, because they need one counselor per child,” said Smith. “That way it gives the kids a break and the parents a break.”
Smith said he’s an experienced marathon runner, but the more than 780-kilometre run will be by far the furthest he’s ever done.
Even his daily goals are ambitious.
“I’m hoping between 70 to 80 (kilometres), that’s my goal,” said Smith. “I don’t know if I’ll hit that every day, but I know when I get to Cape Breton things will really slow down… it’s a lot of days of running, it’s a lot of time on your feet.”
Community members and supporters can follow Landon’s journey on the Landon’s Tip-to-Tip Facebook page.
Donations can be made here, where Smith has already raised $17,901, well surpassing his original $5,000 goal.
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Voting in Marathon for mayor, councillors and school trustees will be held online through Simply Voting, a Montreal-headquartered company that provided election services to the town in 2022.
Voting will open at 9 a.m. on Oct. 15 and close at 8 p.m. on election day, Oct. 26.
People needing assistance in electronic voting can find it at town hall on Hemlo Drive during regular business hours, deputy clerk Jaimie Glaister said by email.
Electronic voting “went really well” in 2022, Glaister said.
The municipality’s website has information for voters, including a video on how to vote.
The local public library board is organizing a municipal “candidates night” for early October.
Chantal Gingras, Marathon Public Library’s chief executive officer, told Newswatch the date and time will be set once the forum’s venue is confirmed.
This year’s Marathon election features, for the first time in 20 years, a contest for mayor as incumbent Rick Dumas faces a challenge from Louise Hamilton.
There are 11 candidates for the four other seats on town council.
Visitors to Pukaskwa National Park are being advised to stay out of the water at Hattie Cove after blue-green algae was detected in a recent sample.
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks confirmed the presence of blue-green algae in a water sample collected from Hattie Cove on August 11.
The cove is located within Pukaskwa National Park, near Marathon.
People should avoid swimming in, drinking or using the affected water for household purposes while a bloom is present. The water should continue to be avoided for roughly two weeks after the bloom disappears.
Pet owners are also being asked to keep their animals away from the water. Pets can be particularly vulnerable because of their smaller size and because they like to drink directly from lakes.
Blue-green algae occur naturally in lakes and streams and are typically present in small amounts. Under warm and sunny conditions, however, the organisms can multiply rapidly and form visible blooms near the surface.
Those blooms can give the water a green, soup-like appearance or a turquoise colour, sometimes forming scum or clumps along the surface.
Some blue-green algae blooms can produce toxins that may pose a health risk to people and animals through ingestion, inhalation or skin contact.
Anyone who comes into contact with a bloom should wash the affected area with soap and water before rinsing with clean water.
While blue-green algae blooms have historically been relatively uncommon in the region, warmer water temperatures associated with a changing climate could make them more frequent.
A man from Sussex qualified for the Boston Marathon after a successful performance in the 2025 Fredericton Marathon and has since been filming the process of preparing for the race, which is on April 20.
Colin Swift started running in 2019 after he found himself looking for another hobby.
“I never enjoyed running, it was just something to do. When I first started, I decided to sign up for the Toronto Marathon, which is not a great idea for your first race, but I knew it would keep me accountable to keep running,” said Swift. “I just started training and ran my first marathon in 2019, and I’ve just been addicted to it ever since.”
Training for and running different races led to qualifying for Boston, which Swift has never run before.
He ran a 2:54:36 in the 2025 Fredericton Marathon, a time that beat the minimum qualifying time for Swift’s age group (35-39) of three hours, but Swift explained that runners typically have to go a bit faster than their given qualifying time to stand out in an application for the Boston Marathon.
“Qualifying for Boston is kind of funny, because you have to find a marathon that’s a Boston qualifying race, because not every marathon is. Fredericton is a Boston qualifying race, and a lot of people like running it because it’s flat, which gives you more of a chance to go a bit faster,” Swift said.
Colin Swift (left) and Thomas Van Steeg (right) training together for the Boston Marathon / Image: Colin Swift – YouTube (with permission)
He and a fellow runner, Thomas Van Steeg, who ran a 2:49:50 in his first marathon experience, both posted qualifying times and applied for Boston. They have been training together for two years since Van Steeg moved to Sussex.
A couple of weeks later, good news landed in their inboxes.
“Once you run your qualifying run, you go to the Boston website on a certain date, you put your name in and just hope for the best. They usually email you if you get in or not, and luckily, my first time I tried to get in, I got in,” said Swift.
However, he might have had the opportunity had he applied two years ago.
“Post-Toronto Marathon, I’ve run Fredericton every spring, so four or five times. I did run a qualifying time two years ago, but I didn’t end up applying for Boston, so I ran it again last year and finally decided to go for it,” said Swift.
He is hoping to run a time under three hours if he has a good day, but a hilly marathon route has reduced Swift’s expectations.
“Originally, I would have wanted to beat my qualifying time [in Fredericton] because every marathon I’ve gone a little bit quicker. Anything sub three hours is considered a pretty solid race, but my training block probably wasn’t sufficient to do that because Boston’s a tough course, so anywhere from a 2:55:00 to a 3:15:00 is what I’m aiming for,” said Swift.
The self-proclaimed YouTube junkie has been documenting the training process leading up to Boston, which he says began after realizing there were not too many running content creators from the Maritimes.
“I watch a lot of running content on YouTube, and I always kind of wished there were more New Brunswick, even maritime running-specific channels. There’s one guy in Fredericton who does good content, What Matters to Matt. The only reason I started doing it was that I wished there was more local content for running,” Swift elaborated.
Colin Swift’s YouTube channel / Image: Colin Swift (with permission)
He documented his training for the 2025 Fredericton marathon as he was trying to get into Boston, and this year has done more filming for Boston training.
Swift and Van Steeg will join more than 30,000 runners on the Massachusetts capitol’s crowded streets, among sports fans attending the Celtics’ playoff games and visiting the Red Sox at Fenway.
“We’ll be popping around different parts of the city and there’s lots of events and stuff going on, and I’m kind of excited to see if I can spot any of the YouTube people that I like to watch, so we’ll see,” said Swift.
Following Boston, Swift will be training for trail runs, like the Quebec Mega Trail, a 50k race in July, and the Capes 100, a Cape Breton race with different distances, of which Swift wants to run the 87k.
