I have been following ultrarunner Dean Karnazes' "Run Across America." He started on 2-25-2011 at Disneyland resort in California and should arrive in New York City by the middle of May. He will have run nearly 3000 miles total, 40-50 miles per day. He is running it to benefit the charity "Action for Healthy Kids" and to urge people to get healthy and to lose weight. He is currently running across Kansas. He has a support team and stays in nearby hotels; and gets regular meals and healthcare as needed. This is not to belittle his tremendous effort.
However, he was not the first to make this journey. In 1928 there was a footrace across America from L.A. to New York City. The grand prize was $25,000. 199 men from around the world entered. It was put on by C.C. Pyle, a sports agent, con-artist, and rogue. It started on 3-4-1928, and on 5-26-1928 there were only 55 men remaining to complete the race. It was won by a 20 year old farm boy from Oklahoma named Andy Payne. Only those who could afford it had a support team or coach. They were generally starving, had poor housing, poor shoes, and got little sleep. This was the era of endurance competititions, however.....dance marathons, flagpole sitting, bowling, swimming, eating and drinking competitions. Several of the racers entered the race again the next year in 1929, but C.C. Pyle was bankrupt by then and could not pay out any prizes at all. (C.C.Pyle's Amazing Foot Race, The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America, by Geoff Williams).
Doesn't this make you want to test yourself, at least just a little? Of what amazing things are we truly capable?
"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." Helen Keller
Looking together in the same direction.
Sea otters hold hands while they sleep so they don't drift apart.
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