High Country Trail Shoe
Number Four and a Change of Perspective
Matt Kenny is holed up in his London hotel room, recovering from a tough TCS London Marathon the previous morning. I’m in my office recovering from a tough day of student fiction critiques. We’re talking about perspective and how quickly it can change. After running nearly half of the marathon far faster than his iffy training had prepared him to believe he could run, he was nearly felled by knee pain at 30k.
“The pain was seven out of ten.” I thought, “How do I run two hours of hell?” In his head a voice answered, “Lock in.” Immediately he fell into the mentality drilled into him during his youth hockey days in Canada: just gut it out; just finish.
The mindset served him well. He slowed to survival pace, stopped occasionally to tend to the injured knee, and step by painful step, proceeded to get to the finish line. “I was never not going to finish,” he says the next day, but once across the line, two thoughts, born of a lifetime of athletics, crossed his mind. First, that was crap, and second, what’s next? Because that’s what athletes do, right? Coldly assess the performance, then move on to the next goal. This is where perspective comes in.
We talked about how a little time, and a lot of experience enable us to look at a new experience from another angle, adjust how we feel about it, maybe approach the next goal a little differently. A hot shower, a cold beverage, a nap, and some ice for the knee was a good start, it turned out. As was the memory of all the people who called out his name, encouraging him to carry on when he stopped on the side of the road to work on his wonky knee. Or the thought of the money he had raised for Cancer Research UK during the race. Or the message from a friend reminding him just how impressive it was to endure that kind of discomfort for fourteen miles. Not to mention that he had been on PR pace for nearly half of the marathon before knee pain intervened. The fact of his MS diagnosis was less than an afterthought. By the time we talked, Kenny could already appreciate his accomplishment, maybe even savor it a bit before focusing on the next one. He’ll be toeing the line in Berlin this October.
All of this was preceded by an even bigger, more out of the blue change in perspective, one brought about by a television show, a panic attack, and a late-night Instagram post. Watching Heated Rivalry, the unexpected hit television series about the relationship between two gay hockey players, set in motion a series of events Kenny never could have foreseen. He had put off watching the show, fearing it might hit a bit too close to home. He had no idea how right he was, as viewing the series triggered “a five-day panic attack,” bringing to the surface memories and emotions he thought he had safely buried. Grasping at straws at how to deal with the panic attack, he fired off an Instagram post describing his feelings after watching the show, and sharing his own experience as a gay, teenage hockey player. Things he had never told anyone were now floating around in cyberspace for anyone with an internet connection to see.
At first, sending the message only added to his anxiety. He was perfectly aware of the kinds of doors a social media post can open, especially in the volatile world of 2026 America. He told himself he would delete the post the following morning. As he fell into an uneasy sleep, something remarkable happened. The lifeline he had tossed out during his panic attack landed with a bigger splash than he could have imagined. By morning the post had been viewed 25,000 times. It has since gained over two million views. Since that night Matt has gone from a few dozen followers to 82,000.
“Three months ago, I was a nobody,” he joked from London, “I mean I’m still a nobody, but now I’m a nobody with a platform!”
What surprised him even more was that the response to his post was overwhelmingly, unimaginably positive.
“The only negative responses I’ve gotten had nothing to do with the Heated Rivalry stuff,” he said with a laugh. “The bad ones, including death threats, were about nationalism!” Kenny is a staunch supporter of the Canadian national team, and his fervent support of Canada during the Olympics apparently melted some, um…snowflakes, then brought them to a boil. He apologizes for nothing.
His original post, though, had struck a nerve, both in the LGBTQ+ community and well beyond. People of all ages and backgrounds reached out with their stories, their hidden lives, things that had divided families, made them feel separate and alone. A young Muslim woman talked about being disowned after marrying outside the faith. Older people wished they had read something like this when they were younger.
Thanks to Kenny throwing out his electric message in a bottle, people all over the world suddenly felt seen, felt a little less alone. Within the gay and hockey communities the story caused ripple effects in ways that surprised him. A queer woman who loved hockey and the San Jose Sharks had stayed away from the game due to fear of the aura of homophobia surrounding the NHL and hockey in general. After hearing Kenny’s story, she is a loud, proud, jersey-wearing fixture at Sharks games.
Even closer to home, Kenny found himself attending the NHL Pride Cup in March in British Columbia, a dumbfounding turn of events he calls “coming out of retirement.” While at the event he posted that he had been recognized by a nine-year-old fan who told Kenny he was his hero. Hockey and Kenny were in love again! Since his fateful post Kenny has been in demand as a speaker, even talking to the student body of a Catholic boy’s school, then meeting with hockey players seeking advice on how to make their team more inclusive. This was a staggering development to Kenny, who attended and played hockey at Catholic schools, where such inclusion was unimaginable. He wonders what it would have been like for someone like him to address his team and say it was okay to be him.
“I wore number four when I played,” says Kenny now. “I want to be the person I needed for all the number fours.”
Run proud, love all.
Our Love All collection was created with the belief that visibility matters and that everyone deserves to feel seen, celebrated, and free to be who they are. 15% of every purchase will be donated to You Can Play: a nonprofit that works to ensure the safety and inclusion for all who participate in sports, including LGBTQ+ athletes, coaches and fans.