It's been 2 days since I finished running across the USA. The massive anxiety that I felt from days 95 - 100 has completely gone and has been replaced with an overwhelming sense of relief, pride and gratitude.
The donations continue to pour in to The Children's Foundation and St Benedict's Hospice. With the Charity Ball still to come on the 3rd September, it would be great if the current total of £75,718.44 could get as high as 80 or even 90 thousand pounds.
Thanks to the wonderful product that is Cherry Active, my body feels like it has had a good recovery and is ready to run again after my first day off in 100 days. Other than my swollen feet, I have no injuries to speak of. My Brooks Glycerin running shoes have had a major part to play there. I've been wearing Brooks shoes for 5 years now and hope to have many more comfortable injury free miles of running in them.
My feet are in a really bad way and I'm in a lot of pain. The heatwave that I ran through a few weeks ago together with the increased daily mileage has really taken it's toll. It's a good job I'm happy and content to enjoy the cafe at the Sheraton hotel and catch up on loads of emails and Tweets. Thanks to the unbelievable support from so many people, I'm sitting here a very happy man, drinking coffee and watching the world go by in one of the finest cities in the world.
Thanks to the Sheraton hotel for putting me and support man Carlton up for free. It's a brilliant hotel and in some ways I'll be sad to leave it on Thursday. Thanks go to Caroline O'Doherty for helping to arrange our stay here.
I had an absolutely brilliant time last night with the NYC Toon Army at Legends Bar. There was a great turnout and it was a fabulous end, in true Geordie spirit, to a tough 100 days. I'll never forget what these guys have done for me. Memories of seeing me safely to Coney Island through Brooklyn, the laughs we had and last night's party are something that I'll treasure for a very long time. Pictured below are a small selection of those present last night. Thanks go to barman Jack too for doing a great job and for the presentation of a nice Legends polo shirt. I hadn't actually had any sleep since since Monday morning so it was a triumph to still be "standing" 40 hours later! It was also brilliant to see Alan and Tim (aka The Exiles). Alan was at the start in California having flown in from Switzerland and Tim had flown from Canada.
I had a really good celebratory drink last night and a solid 7 hours sleep as a result. I woke up this morning in a right panic. I thought I was still in the RV, had slept in and was due to run today. It was a full 10 minutes before I realised that I was in a nice hotel and had actually finished the run across the USA. What a feeling!
