Maniac Ed - Day 1 Hartford

Written on Day 2...

We had an early morning conference as soon as we made it into Hopkinton (start line of the Boston Marathon). Ron Kramer discussed logistics and a lot of details about the trek. Half an hour later, the ceremony to start Trek II started. Intrepid kids and parents showed up. The president of Saucony shoes also made a short speech. Dave McGillvray, the president of the DMSE foundation , race director of the Boston Marathon, and the founder of Trek, gave a send-off speech inviting the kids and parents to run a half-mile with the Trek II runners. The start of Trek II began on the start line of the Boston Marathon. We happily ran with the kids, encouraging them when they stopped, and just generally hanging out with them before we had to get into our RVs to start running.

I ran with the first group from Boston. Our group ran a 50-miler into Bristol. Along the way, we ran into a reality TV show being taped where they had to walk down to Washington DC. It was fun talking with them because the main objectives were almost the same--becoming healthy by way of exercise and better eating habits.

I ran with Hannah Berg that first day on two 5 mile legs. It was fun because Hannah is a Team POL member as well. Captain Ron had mixed the two groups, so we spent the better part of the day getting to know team DMSE.

We ran through New England country -- quaint houses, towns, farms, and so on. At some point, we saw a running squad from a local school. When they found out we were running to Florida, they ran with us for a while. It was so much fun.