Running America 2008: Charlie’s Uphill Battle

We told you back in August about Charlie Engle and Marshall Ulrich’s attempt to run across America in 45 days.

While Marshall has been making strides the past few days, the run has become an uphill battle for Charlie due to severe tendonitis and possibly another painful injury in his right leg.

Averaging 60 – 70 miles a day for the last 16 days on a painful leg has surely not been easy for Charlie. I’ve been following his blog and it’s apparent the amount of pain he’s in. He seems to have accepted the fact that he won’t be setting any records on this run and is now just hoping to persevere.

Marshall, meanwhile, is ahead of Charlie, having been able to keep closer to his anticipated pace. Marshall is in Colorado now and has completed 1,015 miles of the cross-country journey as of this morning. You can track his progress here.

The duo is set to be in Steamboat Springs, CO tonight and will be following an alternate route through Colorado per run organizers. They had originally planned to run through Rocky Mountain National Park, but due to extreme elevation gains and rough terrain, they’ve decided to run over Cameron Pass and through Roosevelt National Forest instead. (This is the same route I took for the Wild West Relay in August – it’s beautiful.)

Charlie mentioned that emails and text comments are really helping him forge on, so check out his blog and offer some words of encouragement. What he’s doing really is awe inspiring – he’s motivated so many people to get out and run. Whether or not he sets a record (or is even able to run the entire distance) won’t change that one bit.

I’m hoping to run with Charlie when he makes it to my part of Colorado this Thursday or Friday – he’s truly been an inspiration to me. I’ll update you all on his progress then and post some photos of the day.

Until then, why not dust off your running shoes and take a run of your own?