Imagine running 26 miles a day for the past 11 months. That's exactly
what 58-year-old Bob Alessio has done as he's run across the country
to show support for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack as
well as police, firefighters and the military. Since he began his run
in Los Angeles last April he has carried a faded flag he spotted on
a bench at the 23-mile mark of the 2002 Hyannis Marathon.
I saw Alessio's van in Stonington
Borough last week and stopped to ask him what he was doing after I saw
a banner on the van that said he was running 5,450 miles. He had been
making his way through the area with a stop at the Coast Guard Academy.
He plans to the finish his run Tuesday in Boston where he will be welcomed
by Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
Alessio was planning to run
from the academy back to the borough so I gave him a ride to New London
so we could talk about his run.
Alessio told me he has visited
many of the country's historic sites, all its military academies and
the places that have connections with the Sept. 11 attacks including
where the planes were leaving from and where they were going. His plan
was to run one mile for each of the victims which at the time he planned
the run stood at 5,450.
While he began his journey
in Los Angeles, the Massachusetts resident actually kicked off the effort
by running the 2002 Boston Marathon. Along the way he has competed in
the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco and the Pikes Peak Marathon.
He's run with Frank Shorter and the mayor of Pittsburgh and met aerobics
guru Ken Cooper. He even was scheduled to run with President Bush at
Camp David but the run was cancelled when the space shuttle Columbia
crashed. He said the toughest and steepest hills were in the Appalachians
and not the Rockies.
What Alessio's secret for
being able to run a marathon day after day after day?
A loyal New Balance fan,
he's rotated 12 pairs of shoes donated by Nike. He constantly drinks
water and sports drinks and stretches ever night before going to sleep.
He also breaks up his daily mileage into two runs and takes his time,
averaging about10 minute miles.
Along the way he's had some
injuries but has kept going. His Achilles tendonitis has flared up and
he fell running down Pikes Peak and needed five stitches. Searing pain
from his psoas muscle almost crippled him in Colorado but a therapist
did some deep massage that almost left Alessio in tears but made the
pain disappear.
He said he has gotten used
to the daily soreness in his pelvis that usually starts about eight
or nine miles into a run.
“Basically though I'm
in good shape,” he said Monday night as he bent over to stretch
his hamstrings.
He's actually added five
pounds to his 175-pound frame during the run by making sure he drinks
and eats enough.
Alessio tells some great
stories. He had a standoff with a bull in a tunnel in Utah. Then there
was the former high school sprinter in Texas who pressured Alessio to
race two miles after he had already run 24. The man kept sprinting ahead
and then stopping to catch his breath before he quit.
Alessio said people has been
incredibly supportive and friendly along the way and he may write a
book about his adventures. I figured Alessio would take some time off
after he finishes his run next week but I was wrong. He plans to run
in the Boston Marathon on April 21.
“The Boston Marathon
will be bookends for me,” he said.
All the details about his
run can be found at www.RunAcrossAmerica.com.
Upcoming schedule
Next weekend there is a 3-mile
race in Baltic on Saturday followed by a 5K at Connecticut College in
New London on Sunday. The 10th annual St. Joseph School Road Race will
begin at 9:30 a.m. at the school located at the corner of School Hill
Road and Route 207. The out and back course is scenic and faster on
the way back. There is also a half-mile kids fun run beginning at 9
a.m. The entry fee is $3 for the kids race and $10 for the three-mile,
a bargain in these days of $15 race fees.
In addition to t-shirts,
prizes and goodie bags there is a $50 bonus for setting a course record.
The records were set last year by Chad Johnson (14:48) and Melissa Perkins-Banas
(17:36). All proceeds from the race benefit the school's basketball
programs. For more information call Glenn Costello at 886-2828 or by
e-mail at rungdc@aol.com.
On Sunday the annual Connecticut
College 5K run will be held at noon at the school's New London campus.
Registration will begin at 10 a.m. at the student center at Crozier-Williams
Hall. The entry fee is $15 and t-shirts will go to the first 150 entrants.
In addition to the usual age group awards, there are also awards for
first Conn College alumnus, staff member and students. For more information
call Kevin Grant at 439-0222 or William Wuyke at 439-2555. Grant can
also be reached by e-mail at kgrant10K@yahoo.com.
The wimp out award: goes
to the organizers of the Washington D.C. Marathon who cancelled today's
race and the 1,200 runners who e-mailed them with “concerns”
about racing during wartime. These people should forget about running,
duct tape their windows and stay inside their houses.
They should talk to the Bosnian
woman who ran in the 1992 Olympics and had to avoid sniper fire and
incoming shells as she trained. Now she had something to be concerned
about.
