I love the idea of epic adventures. I'm especially intrigued when it's a challenging (aka crazy) idea that is met with puzzled looks and "that doesn't sound fun" responses from people. This time around the adventure is a self-supported cross-country bike and run along the length of the East Coast Greenway. Shan will run and I will ride my bike with our gear in tow, to bring awareness and raise money for the East Coast Greenway Alliance. Biking across the country has been on my mind for some time now. Combine my love for cycling with his love for running (and my need to make up for missing out on his 2020 run) and you've got this perfectly insane way to do it - I can't wait!
So, what about Shan - what's motivating him? Running across the country, averaging 40-mile days, with a lone crew chief driving his camper van is crazy enough. Why do it again? This time around, our runner will rely only on bike support. At night he will curl up pretty much anyplace we can find: a tent, a couch, or the cheapest motel in our path. He won't have the quilt-covered mattress in the safety and comfort of the van. Food? We won't be able to make big grocery runs, and we won't have the room to store extra ingredients or fancy things like hot sauce and spices. We won't even have a kitchen. We'll be winging it, scraping together the best high-calorie, protein-dense meals we can find, sometimes from local restaurants; other times creatively crafted over a tiny camp stove. Laundry? Uh, we'll have to figure that out once we get moving.
So, yeah, the perks of this expedition aren't obvious. Perhaps it's the uncertainty that motivates Shan (and me!). The extreme, the unknown, and the adventure make it an irresistible challenge. We've talked a lot about what to expect with this trip and we wholeheartedly agree that some of this will be easy, most of it hard, but all of it will be "fun".