I've been on the summit of Cadillac Mountain in Maine's Acadia National Park. I even hiked it once. It's a little over four miles up and back.
I've also been to Washington, DC a few times, and did plenty of walking around. Probably 3 whole miles.
What I've never done is run the 700+ miles between these two places. If I were to try, I'd give myself a few months, maybe a year.
Gary Allen is on course to run that distance in two weeks. On Monday, January 7, he left the summit of Cadillac Mountain at 6AM and arrived at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge in Bucksport at about sunset. That's 45 miles. On day two he reached Warren (south of Rockland), on day three he got a police escort over the Kennebec River in Bath, and on day four he ran with Joan Benoit Samuelson through Brunswick.
He plans to reach Washington, DC just in time for the Presidential inauguration on the 21st.
Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
Well, maybe for normal runners, but Gary has run 86 marathons, including Boston and NYC dozens of times, and 5 ultra marathons. He's also fast. He ran 65 of those marathons in under three hours.
But this is ultra-ultra-ultra running. 45 to 50 miles a day. The sort of stuff you read about in Chris McDougall's Born To Run.
Why would someone do this?
Well, for charity. Gary is running to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project, which helps injured service members transition to civilian life, and the American Cancer Society.
After the December shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, he added the Sandy Hook PTSA to the list. The funds will be used for counseling, funeral expenses, a scholarship fund for the school's students and a memorial.
It's all done using CrowdRise, so the money is going directly to these organizations. I plan to join his crew as he runs through Massachusetts this weekend. To follow Gary as he runs to support these charities, or join him along the route, you can track him here. You can also follow Gary on Twitter.
Go Gary!