Teen shares emotional experience after 82-km run around bay

A Barrie teen has proven that sometimes it’s simply about mind over matter when it comes to achieving your goals.

Max Nykoliation, 17, recently completed an 82.8-kilometre run around Kempenfelt Bay as a way to not only prove to himself he could do it, but to also help inspire others who may have goals they think are not achievable.

“It’s been a long time coming to get to this point, filled with challenges and obstacles over the course of my life, such as an autoimmune condition that I’ve had to overcome,” says Nykoliation, who will be entering Grade 12 in a little over a week at Maple Ridge Secondary School in the city's south end.

He even recently started documenting and sharing his journey online.

“I started posting to social media so that I could go back and watch them later, but then they kind of caught on and touched other people, too. Then I got hooked by it," he says. 

And while Nykoliation has dealt with his autoimmune condition most of his life, he was officially diagnosed in 2021 with chronic spontaneous urticaria.

Although the condition presents differently for everyone, for him it often flares up when he's extremely stressed and/or fatigued. It typically results in severe hives, chills, bad muscle aches, etc.

“I have missed 13 weeks of school before and had a tough go of it,” he says.

Over the years, he says he has been on multiple prescription medications and regularly visited SickKids Hospital in Toronto.

“If I listed off everything I have dealt with with the autoimmune condition, it sounds like the worst thing in the world. But it’s not. It’s manageable. I would go to SickKids to get prescriptions, but there were kids right down the hall that were never going to leave that place,” Nykoliation says. 

After losing quite a bit of weight and muscle due to the condition, the Barrie teen decided to slowly start chipping away at his goals to get back to his “normal” life after several weeks away from school, his friends and his routine.

Nykoliation admits that, despite always being active and involved in a variety of different sports, he has loathed running for most of his life.

“I would do cross-country at school, but I always kind of hated running with a bit of passion," he says. "I would tell myself that when I was done Grade 8, no more cross-country. Then I did it in Grade 9 and 10 and now I am kind of hooked to it.

"I still kind of hate it, but it is the best feeling ever when you don’t want to do it, but you do it anyway. When you finish, it you feel so much better afterwards, but I just don’t put so much pressure on myself. I do it because it’s something that is good for me and I want to do it.”

Despite still having a love-hate relationship with running, Nykoliation set himself a goal to run 75 kilometres — from his home near Minet’s Point, around the bay to Oro Beach, back to his home with an finish line set at his best friend’s home near Johnson’s Beach.

He started his run at 4:30 a.m. on July 12, completing the final kilometre approximately 12 hours later.

“If you’d told me a year ago that I would do what I just did … I wouldn’t think it was possible," he says. "I just set out to prove myself wrong."

Looking back on completing that first kilometre, Nykoliation recalls feeling elated and slightly nervous.

“I was like, ‘this is so good! And then I thought 75 more to go. This was going to be rough," he says. "There are moments of doubt that creep in and you just have to shut them down. Then there are other times where you feel like you’re on top of the world.

"It’s all waves. Running is weird. Sometimes you can run for a minute and it feels like an hour, and other times you can run for an hour and it feels like a minute … but in that last kilometre I felt like crying," Nykoliation adds. 

The experience, he admits, was an emotional one. 

“I was thinking back to all my friends when they were at school and playing sports and I was at home on the couch not able to do anything," he says. "I think back to how I was doing then and how I am doing now. All things considered, I am good. I have to be mindful of my health, but that’s what running has helped me with. If my body is asking for something, I can listen to it really well now and give it what it needs.”

The local teen hopes his own accomplishment — and struggles — will help to inspire others to overcome whatever challenges they may be facing in their own lives.

“I am nothing special. I was not born to run. In theory, anybody can do this. It does take a lot of hard work, but there is nothing special about me. It’s just proof that whatever you want to be possible oftentimes is possible if you are willing to work at it.”