Run, Forest, Run

Barclay Oudersluys {pronounced outer-slice} of Project Gump made his way across Lake and Ashtabula Counties the past two days.  Last night Northeast Running Club had a picnic for him and his mother, who is his crew for these few days.  Barclay is a 23 year old, soon-to-be law student who went from non-runner, to ultra runner, to a guy running across America in 100 days.  My brother has that adventurous spirit, which has not sprouted in me {thank goodness ~ marathons are crazy enough}, but I'm always intrigued at what makes a person say, "I'm going to run 32 miles every day for the next 100 days."  And it seems like there's no real "ah ha" answer.  "It seemed like something to do, that really hasn't been done much before."  It's that spirit of challenging the body and the mind and seeing what is POSSIBLE that is common denominator ~ which is also true for why most people run...

Groups ran with Barclay for all three 10 mile 'legs' of yesterday's journey from East Cleveland to Perry.  Today the Madison XC girls ran with him for the first 11 miles from Perry to Geneva.  Dodd and I met them at the tracks...  We parked at Geneva Hospital and walked backward along the route...and for some reason, the tracks seemed a good place to wait.  We 'walked the rails' for 15 minutes or so, wondering what all the driver thought of the two strange people loitering on the railroad tracks...no trains came along, which was disappointing. 

Then, just when we expected, we see the group bopping up the road {we didn't go join them because Dodd didn't want to run down the 'hill' and have to run right back up it}  The girls left us 1/2 mile later at Geneva Hospital and Dodd, Barclay and I continued running Route 20 to where we parked at the Dairy Queen in Ashtabula...just past Busy Beaver {unfortunately the DQ wasn't opened when we finished}.    I found out that Kansas was by far the worst state to run in and running the Katy Trail in Missouri was his favorite place.  He's seen zebras along the route & was hit by a car just last week...he managed to knock the side mirror off with only a cut to his arm...so he's counting it as a win.  The trip down route 20 itself was pretty bland.  Once you leave Geneva, it's not beautiful scenery.  {I did point out the one McDonald's in America that has been abandoned and boarded up.} And the sidewalk runs out...  So we're running on Route 20.  But it was one of my Top 5 runs of all time.

It was an amazing experience to be such a small part of such a great undertaking.  I wish him good weather & healthy feet all the way to Maine.

Barclay and me finishing my 10...He still had 10 or so more to go.

Getting the moving selfie isn't very easy!

We'd left Dodd's truck at DQ & mine at Geneva Hospital.   This is the parking job by the van next to me...I had to climb in the passenger side to get in the car...How they didn't ding my car is beyond me.