OTTAWA — For the past few years, Marianne Long seems to have spent her time running from one crisis to another.

Sometimes, it would start with a squabble in the playground that would escalate when her son, Ryan, 6, would lose control due to his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Other times, there would be violent tantrums in stores, at home or, in one case, at a Cosmic Adventure party that ended with another child being punched and kicked.

But now, after years of running after Ryan, Long is running for him — and the Learning Disability Association of Ottawa-Carleton.

Although Long, 37, has never run any race, much less the Ottawa Race Weekend’s wildly popular 10-km run along the Rideau Canal, she’s determined to run “in whatever time I can” to raise funding and awareness for the association. She has already raised $500 and hopes to double it.

“I wanted to make it more meaningful, and the Learning Disability Association of Ottawa Carleton is the most meaningful charity I could think of. They’ve provided me with multiple sources of support in dealing with the issues that were raised when Ryan’s diagnosis was made. Through them, there’s been a remarkable change in Ryan through some of their ideas.”

But it hasn’t been easy. After teachers in Ryan’s Gatineau school noted his behaviour was changing from buzzing with energy to outright aggression against teachers and children, Long struggled to find English-language help within the Quebec school system. Eventually, the mother of two found a pediatrician in Ottawa and a therapist who assessed Ryan.

Yet while an assessment of ADHD certainly helped Long find coping methods, Ryan’s behaviour continued to deteriorate, a situation that became exacerbated by judgmental parents around her.

“Things that traditional discipline or positive reinforcement would tackle with my daughter were not working,” she says. “It’s so hard because you know your child and their issues.

Trying to explain that to someone else is hard, because they don’t know you and there’s a judgment made.” And despite Ryan’s behaviour, Long says that isolating him from other children is not the answer.

“Keeping them out of every trigger environment is not the right way to go, he has to learn to cope in those areas. Once at Cosmic Adventures, he was out of my sight for a second and there was an incident over one of the video games. The mother came to me and said, ‘Well, I don’t know how you can bring your son here if you don’t know how he’s going to behave with other kids.’ I understand there is an issue, but it’s frustrating because you have to give them social interactions, just like other kids.”

To help Ryan develop management skills, Long turned to the Learning Disability Association of Ottawa-Carleton, a non-profit organization that provides summer social skills camps, regular parenting workshops, monthly support meetings and access to assistive technologies. The association also “promotes increased awareness of a respect for persons with learning disabilities and ADHD amongst the community, professional groups and educational, social, recreational, medical, legal and employment sectors,” says executive director, Linda Barbetta. “When Marianne first called we were really touched that she would run for her son and use it as an opportunity to assist our organization in raising much needed funds. We are a small grass roots association with not enough time or money to often meet the needs of the community we serve.”

Through them, Long says she’s learned teaching skills that have helped Ryan gain more self-control over his emotions. “I grab any possible positive act or decision he’s made and he feeds off that instead of negative attention. I’m his cheerleader at home.”

But out on race day, Long says Ryan will be cheering her on. To prepare for her first race — she does run shorter, five-kilometre distances on her own — Long turned to American runner and author of 35 books, Hal Higdon, possibly the most authoritative and longest-established writer on running.

Following a two-month training regime that started Long at a five-kilometre distance, she has been running four times a week and cross-training in between runs. “I wanted to take this on as a challenge and push my comfort level. I love the idea of the race. Just the fans and the support the fans give will be a huge push for me. I’ll be happy to finish and know that I’ve done my best,” she says, laughing. “But if I get tired, Ryan said he would drag me across the finish line.”