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Updates We currently have pledges and gifts in excess of $30,000.
See the latest updates during Run America III as they happen. Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9 Friday, May 4th - Day 1 Run America III kicked-off Friday afternoon, May 4, 2007 at the entrance of the main campus of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Present were three representatives from CDC, staffers from the offices of U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, ten cyclists from Scientific Atlanta led its General Counsel , Michael Veysey, and 12-15 runners and other cyclists. The first day was short, only 22 miles from CDC to the Scientific Atlanta campus in Lawrenceville, GA. Barry Wald, the honoree – who has myotonic dystrophy - cycled the entire way on his new yellow Catrike – a low-slung, three-wheeled cycle. The scenery? One strip shopping center after another in Atlanta’s sprawl and less than perfect running/cycling conditions. However, everyone arrived safely at the beautiful 1,800 acre Scientific Atlanta campus with lake and lots of trees where the team was served a delicious dinner and given room to lay their sleeping bags for the night. All the participants are extremely grateful for Scientific Atlanta’s very gracious and generous support. Several additional participants flew into Atlanta that night and joined the group who set out early Saturday morning for Franklin, N.C. Run America was featured in the Friday night news in Atlanta and has been mentioned several times on the national Weather Channel. They have been tracking the route on a map as they give weather announcements in the southeast. The energy and enthusiasm among the participants is high! They are truly having a good time raising awareness and money for myotonic dystrophy! (From Shannon Lord’s (Chairman, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation) perspective) Our first day in Atlanta was great - we all met at CDC and Shannon was able to bring in some great media. She ran the show and gave a great overview of what we are doing, our cause and some of the key issues about Myotonic Dystrophy with particular attention to the whole issue of misdiagnosis and difficulty of detection. Craig Johnston gave a very nice talk on the history of Run America (RA) and our fundraising efforts and Barry spoke about all of the above!
Saturday, May 5th - Day 2 was another day of traffic and twists and turns as we made our way North out of Atlanta. At one point we realized that our route was putting us on a crazy divided highway, and we had to buy some local maps and find an alternate route. It all worked out in the end with Craig Johnston doing a couple of tough highway miles but everyone feeling good about the day. Meanwhile the bikers took a totally different road that turned out to be a great biking road AND went through the town with the best boiled peanuts in Georgia! The peanut to salt ratio was probably 3 to 2, and needless to say, a bucks worth was more than enough--they were unbelievable! This night ended in Franklin high school - home of the Panthers.
Sunday, May 6th - Day 3 was all about getting to the Blue Ridge Parkway which we were all excited about. The excitement level never dropped despite the brutal elevation gain of about 3500 or 4000 feet over a pretty short stretch. Craig and the runners could definitely give a lot more detail on these specifics!! Barry and the bikers decided we'd be better off starting closer to the top of that rise and then enjoying a huge 3.5 mile downhill where we were screaming along at about 40 mph! This night's lodging was at a boy's camp in Hendersonville where Jamie Saul had been a counselor. About half of us bedded down on the bunk beds and half slept outside on the dock by the lake.
Monday, May 7th - Day 4 Although there was a big climb on Day 3, Van #2 had to face a brutal 3500 foot climb in less than 10 miles on Day 4, so clearly the worst was not behind us. Not a very nice way to start a morning but at least it was a glorious day of clear blue skies and bright sunshine! Van #1 also had to contend with some significant hills, but the real story from that van is that Craig is sporting the "throw back" look with his bright white socks pulled up so high that his van-mates have started calling him "Dr. J"! At least he's not wearing the 1970s short shorts too! Barry and the bikers had every intention of getting an early start and tackling a good part of this climb , but as we were cruising down the highway at 65 mph to get back on the Blue Ridge from our camp accommodations, a car pulled up next to us and frantically motioned to roll down the window. We did and a man who looked like he'd seen a ghost said we'd lost something. I couldn't make out what he said but I thought it was "basket", and as we pulled over I fully expected to see the top of a cooler missing or something. Instead, Barry's brand new 3-wheel "trike" was missing from the back of our pick up. What happened next is too crazy to believe: the bike flew up in the air, crashed down on the highway and somehow did not cause an accident. A man in a white car pulled over and ran into the highway to grab the bike before it was hit by a car and pulled it to safety on the side of the road. Liz Wald had jumped out and was running back on the highway during this time and Barry Wald and Jane Bieneman were in our truck driving back to the scene of the chaos. When we all got to the bike, it was in much better shape than any of us had anticipated. The man who had stopped was the nicest guy you could ever meet!! He said he was literally on the way to the bike shop when this all happened, and that this shop was about a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We loaded the bike in the car and cruised to the shop. As we walked in, we told the shop guys what had happened and they immediately started working on repairs. Meanwhile outside Jane, and her parents who had met up with us earlier in the morning so her dad, Jim, could bike, were getting the story from the man who had stopped. It turns out he is a preacher and Reverend Rick told us that he was literally driving that morning "praying to determine if he should buy this new bike helmet he'd seen" when the bike came flying off and landed in front of him!! Clearly a sign!! We got his email address and are hoping to hear if any of these events make it into his next sermon! Anyway, to make a long story at least a little bit shorter, by 4pm Barry was back on the road with a repaired bike and still able to go 40 mph down the incredible hills of the Blue Ridge Parkway!! It was an unbelievable series of events, and we can only hope that our night at the Blowing Rock Elementary School is a bit less eventful than the events of earlier in the day!
Tuesday, May 8th - Day 5 It was a slightly “easier” day for the runners as they had a bit less than 100 miles and a picture perfect day of sunshine that was not too hot - although it surely didn’t feel any easier as the whole realization became clear that no matter where you are on the Blue Ridge, there just isn’t anything flat. It truly is up and down all the time – and we’ve all come to learn that just because there’s a loss in elevation, it certainly doesn’t meant it’s downhill all the way! Jane and Liz made this their big day biking 100+ miles from Blowing Rock to Fancy Gap. Barry and Tony also cranked out a huge day biking 50 miles. The bikers got to fly down a huge 4.5 mile hill all the way to the middle school gym at St. Paul’s in Fancy Gap, VA – home of the Tigers. It was a great finish to a terrific day!! Meanwhile, earlier in the day… Craig Johnston, Dave Cummings, Bill Hodge and Ken Larish aka Van #1, pulled off the Blue Ridge to find a lunch spot between their runs and ended up at a “shack-like” place full of local truckers, farmers, etc. They sat down looking a bit like aliens from outer space, and finally one of the people at another table asked, “Where you guys from?” Craig responded, “How can you tell we’re not locals?” to which the guys said, “Same way you can tell that we are!” This started off a very friendly chat whereby Craig gave the whole history of Run America. A woman at another table who was listening was so moved she made out a check for $30 on the spot. Craig can do this story a lot more justice, but by the end of lunch, the gentleman who first asked Craig where he was from got up, walked around the table, handed a business card to Dave, Bill and Ken, and then when he got to Craig handed him a business card and a folded $100 bill!! Needless to say, 4 jaws dropped. Van #1 pulled out with full stomachs and another $130 in donations.. Great lunch! Wednesday, May 9th - Day 6 One particular highlight of significant note is that Run America veteran Kevin Cassidy drove down from DC to about 50 miles past Roanoke, VA to run 8 miles and then drive back to DC! It turns out that he had to fly to Maine for work on Thursday but will then drive back down toward Front Royal to join us for our final push into DC. In addition to Kevin popping in to bust out an 8-mile run, Wednesday evening also signaled the arrival of Mark Chandler who was in Boston and flew down to Roanoke. He brought his bike with him; has been training hard to grind through the last day of the Blue Ridge, which includes two climbs that are greater than 1500 feet – ouch! Thursday will be our last day on the Blue Ridge and as much as we’ll all miss this incredible road (Barry appropriately said it was like one giant bike path), I think we’ll all be happy to see a few more flat stretches! For those of you who can’t really appreciate the degree of difficulty of the Blue Ridge Parkway hills, note that the Tour de France guys come here to train! (Editor’s note: Some folks call them things mountains.)
Thursday, May 10th - Day 7 Truth be told, we had a bit more excitement on Day 6 than we originally reported! In the category of "all's well that end's well" we are very happy to report that although he is fine now, we all had a bit of a scare when Barry flipped out of his bike when his tires hit an expansion joint on a bridge in the Roanoke area of the Parkway. The accident sure looked like it would be a lot worse that it was when the ambulance came and took Barry to the hospital, but about 4 hours later he walked out under his own power with not much more than a set of nasty scrapes, a splitting headache and a handful stitches for a gash on his head. By some miracle nothing was broken and he even joked at the hospital that this is what it took for him to not have to sleep on a gym floor! Really though, it was very, very lucky and everyone in the Run America family exhaled a huge sigh of relief when Barry proclaimed that the show must go on and proceeded to look for shops that could fix his bike (yet again!!). Special mention is most definitely due to Tony Green who saw the whole thing happen in front of him and did absolutely everything right to stabilize Barry, stem the bleeding and keep the situation under control until medical help could arrive.
Understandably, Barry took Day 7 off but Craig, who had abandoned his run about 1.5 miles from the finish when he say the ambulance drive by, dutifully backtracked to the place he had stopped and finished out the run to ensure Run America integrity! The rest of the runners knocked out their 100 or so miles to mile 0 of the Blue Ridge and we all felt like we had dodged a bullet. Also, lost in the update on Wednesday was the arrival of Mark Chandler who flew in and biked about 80+ miles on Day 7. Tim Fulham and Andrew Hawley also showed up during this crazy two day period and logged both running miles and overall support!
Friday, May 11th - Day 8 Things got back to some semblance of normalcy on Day 8 and the runners and bikers were both treated to yet another amazing road called Skyline Drive which is a national park that is essentially a continuation of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Both the views and the hills (aka mountains!) were equally as plentiful as on the Blue Ridge, but the wildlife changed a bit and we were treated to some incredible black bear sightings that were close enough to be cool but far enough to be safe. Of the 104 miles of this road there were about 75 miles of elevation gain and an enormous 4-5 mile climb that the bikers were cursing and that Ken had the distinct displeasure of running up! About half way he decided that this thing was his to conquer and embraced the challenge full-on clocking a great time and earning the much deserved accolades of the rest of the group. Barry did an easy five mile ride alongside Tim to ensure that both the bike's and his brain's gears were functioning! Both seemed to work pretty darn well and Tim and Barry made Run America history by logging the first ever tandem run-bike leg. Where things broke down a bit was around our lodging, with our high school accommodations in Front Royal falling apart over an insurance issue. We overcame the problem by sending most of the crew onward to DC and having them backtrack a bit in the morning and having Craig, Bill, Dave, Mark, Jane, Liz and Barry stay at a motel so we could knock out the morning miles. Unfortunately Tony and Tim had to leave us this day and were unable to participate in the final push to DC.
Saturday, May 12th - Day 9 There's so much to say about our last day that this short update will certainly not due it justice. We had the return of several runners who had to sneak out earlier in the week; we were joined by new people like Tom Johnson, who know much of the Run America crew from high school days; we had 50 or so miles of FLAT roads -- along the W & OD converted rail trail and most importantly of all, at about 5pm our whole crew made our final march from the Lincoln Memorial up to the Washington Monument. Lots of friends came to greet us and there were many happy faces standing in front of the Monument smiling for clicking camera shutters. Richard Lymn, a retired NIH scientist whose primary interest was muscle biology and currently scientific advisor to the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation, gathered us around to congratulate us on our making it all 830 miles from Atlanta to DC and was very nice to make up participation certificates for everyone. By this point, we were all really looking forward to hot showers and a big dinner and we could not have asked for better hosts that Libby and Nick Burns who had us all out to there home in Vienna for a tremendous feast and party. It was a fantastic finish to an unbelievable event!!
We really can't say thank you enough to all the people who made this happen from start to finish. We truly appreciate all of your support!!
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Daily Run America 
