Maine to DC: Update #3

Yesterday was day 4 of Gary Allen’s run from Maine to DC. He totaled around “43” miles, and I put that in quotes because he discovered that if he leaves the orange line his mileage stops counting until he rejoins it, and then it’s just the original mileage no matter how much extra he has run. As you can hear from his update, which he left early yesterday morning (but requested be delayed in posting) he was running with Joan Benoit Samuelson and she took him on a few detours to show him some of the sites in Freeport.

He determined to stay on the line the rest of the day, but had to detour again after a few miles on the Eastern Trail proved too difficult for his ankle, but more on that later.

First, here’s his morning update:

Click the play button to hear Gary’s update:

• Click here to Download [ 37 Seconds | MP3 | 78 KB ]

I joined Gary around noon when he got to Falmouth, and ran with him through Portland, South Portland, Scarborough and Saco. Gary ran for another 20 minutes after I got picked up to finish his run in Biddeford.

There was a lot of support for Gary yesterday; Kevin Morris again came out to take photos and ferry folks and gear back and forth along the route (click here to see his photos), and Sarah Emerson was part road crew and part road company as she got in about 20 of Gary’s 48 miles yesterday. There was a good crew of folks that joined him in Portland on their lunch breaks, some to run with him and others just to hang out during a break at Monument Square. He was joined later by Jim Berger and his wife who took care of him for the rest of the run and gave him a place to crash for the evening. (Good luck to them at the Houston Marathon this weekend!)

Gary was making great time all day, not stopping too frequently or for any length of time, until we got to the Eastern Trail. The snow was frozen and slippery…but not so frozen that it didn’t suddenly turn to slush unexpectedly and cause you to break through. It was no fun with my flat shoes with minimal traction, and was especially difficult for Gary and was aggravating one of his ankles every time we broke through. We couldn’t do any better than a walk/shuffle, and while the views and lack of traffic were great, we gave up on the Eastern Trail at the first road crossing and made our way back to Route 1, adding a few more miles to the trip but moving much faster.

The Portland Press Herald came out, sending a photographer to Falmouth to shoot some photos and video of us, and then calling Gary for an interview during our trip through the Prime Auto Mile in Saco. Here’s the story they shot:

(Click here if the video isn’t loading…)