Posted on the ultralist:
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:44:39 -0700
From: Jamil Coury
Subject: Glen Turner – Run Across America
Glen Turner starts his solo unsupported cross country run this Sunday (2/17) morning at 9am at the pier on Mission Avenue in Oceanside, CA. If anyone is interested in being there for the start, please come down! If you are interested in the details of his run, please continue reading. You may alsovisit his website which is being updated daily with new features:
www.grtrunning.com
Glen will be attempting the fastest unsupported crossing of the United States over the next 8 weeks (over 46 miles per day). Typically these runners either push a stroller with all of their gear or pull some kind of
cart. Glen has decided to merge these ideas into a custom built running cart he has dubbed, “zzzoomer”. This aerodynamic cart was custom welded out of aluminum and features full size carbon fiber racing bicycle wheels (2 in the front, 1 in the back), lighting, a windshield, and allows him to sleep inside at night. Since he is strapped inside of this cart with a waist belt and can actually support a portion of his weight on downhills, he may actually have an advantage over other runners who solely push carts, in turn creating a new category of cross country travel that merges running and “scooting”(a record may be classified as either the fastest scooter run across the US or as Glen would prefer the fastest “zzzoomer”. Whatever it
is, it is cool looking and from what Glen tells me, a lot of fun.
Glen has been training hard since his recent 3rd place showing at ATY and has been zzzooming around north Denver in the cold for the past several weeks. Glen plans to buy all of his food on the road as he travels from California to Georgia, a distance covering 8 states and 2,500 miles.
If you have a chance, you can watch Glen’s progress live as he will be carrying a SPOT messenger (Davy Crockett used this on his Grand Canyon adventure run in November of this past year). There is a link on his
website with instructions on how to access this feature, but it essentially tracks Glen’s movements with a satellite device and relays that information to a Google Map within 10 to 20 minutes of his passing.
A big part of Glen’s motivation comes from inspring kids to become more active. So in that spirit, he will be challenging student and community teams to “virtually” race him across the country. Students as young as 3rd grade will be forming teams at their schools, keeping track of their mileage with running logs and posting these results weekly. It will hopefuly be a unique experience as they participate and watch Glen cross the country.
Their cumulative, weighted (based upon grade) kilometers run will be set against Glen’s weekly mileage. We will have a challenge page which will track the statistics of how teams match up against Glen and other teams.
Glen would really enjoy meeting anyone along the way, so if you are in a southern state please watch for him! We have a rough schedule on the site.
We are trying to make the site as interactive and easy to use as possible, so please offer up any suggestions. In the coming weeks expect daily mileage updates, a front page map showing what he covered for the day, team challenge statistics, videos, pictures, podcasts and more.
Thanks for reading and let’s wish the best for Glen.
—
Jamil
Be the first to comment