3150 miles across the USA - April Progress Update

The 3150 mile coast to coast run across the USA from Coney Island, New York to Huntington Beach California is scheduled to take place starting on May 1st 2025 and finish 100 days later on August 8th 2025. Planning and preparation for the run is gaining more and more momentum as the weeks go by. Other than work, watching football and taking the dog for a walk, my days are stuffed to the brim with all things associated with the run. 

With the planning of this campaign, there is a familiar sense of anticipation and the organisation that accompanies it. I suppose that's only natural given that USA 2025 is the sixth major initiative I have undertaken. Despite the uniqueness of each of my running projects, I have a comforting familiarity when navigating the logistics, assembling the support team, planning the route, searching for sponsors and so on. In turn, this familiarity breeds confidence and gives me the reassurance that I'm doing things bigger and better than ever before. 

The run across the USA is hugely ambitious in itself. My plans to engage people and take them virtually "on the journey" must match that effort if I'm to maximise this opportunity for St. Benedict's Hospice. 

There is so much progress to report and it's hard to do it justice in a blog post on this site. That said, the following is a short summary of where I'm currently at with seven of the most important aspects. 

FUNDRAISING

At the time of writing, despite the run being quite some time away, £6125 has been donated direct to St. Benedict's Hospice via Justgiving. There is also a further £3000 in the pipeline for the Hospice. 

I have set a target of £60,000 for this run. With 388 days to go and 15% of that achieved already, it's safe to say that this is an encouraging start from a fundraising point of view. A huge thank you to everyone who has already made a donation via Justgiving. 

COMMERCIAL BACKING

I was so grateful that long term supporter Chapman Ventilation offered to become my main sponsor. You can trace their kind support back to 2011. Without their help, the current overall charity total of £351,894.67 would not have been achievable.

Another long term sponsor, D-Line, were also kind enough to continue their backing. Again, without their help, the charity fund would not be what it currently is.

The search is now on for the remaining kit sponsors to fill the slots on my USA 2025 running kit. The full sponsorship prospectus is available here.

SUPPORT TEAM

The task of recruiting the support team has gone very well indeed. Of the 100 days that require cover, 65 days have at least one person on the team with 45 of those days having the desired two people on the team. For many reasons, it's important that there are at least two people on the team at any one time. 

To accommodate the team and I for 100 days, a modestly sized motorhome has been acquired on a rental basis. Chapman Ventilation were instrumental in making this possible.

There is the small matter of having a "team within a team" for the 4 day, 153 mile Death Valley section of the run. The rental agreement states that we can't take the motorhome into the national park. Given the scorching temperatures when I'll be running there (July 28th - 31st 2025) it wouldn't be wise to contemplate doing that. Instead, we'll have a more nimble vehicle at our disposal. The motorhome will provide a base camp in Shoshone in the east of the park and subsequently in Olancha in the west. 

There have been some excellent conversations with the Death Valley team around the exact logistics of support. I anticipate that these will continue for the next few weeks before we have a firm plan A, B and C.

Efforts will continue to recruit the final support team members over the coming months.

RUNNING SHOE SPONSORSHIP

 

The biggest kit related expense is for specialist running shoes. With 10 pairs of shoes required for the USA 2025 campaign, I was very grateful to receive the support of Hylo Athletics. They are a brand new British company whose shoes offer a huge amount of support and comfort. With my "battle damaged" feet, that's exactly what is needed. You can read my full depth review on their Impact shoes here.

TIME OFF WORK

I agreed a period of "unpaid special leave" recently with my current employer to enable me to run across the USA. In the past, I've essentially quit my job to do these major runs in the hope that I'd find work when I returned. It gives me a huge peace of mind to have a job to return to.

TRAINING

There has been an increase in training load recently. Whether that's at the gym twice a week with David Fairlamb or running around the local roads. I estimate that I'm probably 15% of where I need to be in order to start the run across the USA.

Getting the balance of training and organisation of the run right has always been a challenge. The USA 2025 campaign promises to be no different. It's safe to say that the next few months are of huge importance. I anticipate this year's summer holiday will be spent running. I've started looking for cheap, uncomfortably warm destinations to accommodate this. 

LEAFLET

Once the all important final sponsors have been found then they can be added to the tri-fold leaflet that I recently completed the design of. This contains all of the relevant information about the run across the USA including my background, reasons for running, how to donate and a detailed map of the route.

This type of leaflet has served me very well in the past. Particularly, when I don't have a huge amount of time to explain to someone what I'm doing in great detail. I'm currently searching for a kind printing company who can produce a few for me. 

SUMMARY

As you can no doubt tell, these is plenty of work going on to make the run across the USA a huge success.I'll talk more about progress in a similar post next month. No doubt, social media, online content, merchandising, the USA 2025 companion guide to name but a few things, will get a mention. Hopefully, finding the remaining commercial sponsors and support team will have made good progress too.

As ever, if you feel that you can help with any aspect then please do get in touch at sponsorship@rungeordierun.com.  

Your kind donations to St. Benedict's Hospice (Charity No. 1019410) can always be made and gratefully received at https://www.justgiving.com/page/rungeordierun2025.