Run the GAP

So it has been a while, been a long while in fact, almost two years since the last post. As you can probably guess, a lot has changed. Most notably my wife, my dog and I moved from our beloved Oklahoma to Meadville, a small community in northwest Pennsylvania where I began working at Allegheny College last fall. We bought a house, shoveled lots of snow and also bought a car. There have been a few races in there. Most notably the Heartland 100 through vast Flint Hills of southeast Kansas during Fall 2008 and the Oil Creek 100 through Oil Creek State Park, the birthplace of America's oil addiction, right here in northwest Pennsylvania this last fall.

The sun came out a few days ago, broke through after a week of overcast and snow showers. We spotted some new growth on the trees this morning, spring really is right around the corner. With it comes a new opportunity and a new challenge for Gina and myself. The last week of May I am going to run from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, DC. There is a 330 mile bike trail connecting the downtown area of both cities, 145 on an old railroad bed from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD, the remaining 185 on the C & O towpath along the Potomac. Historic, Washington path in reverse. It's called the Great Allegheny Passage. Our plan is to take 6-7 days, that means about 47-55 miles a day.

That's the big impetus for starting the blog again. I plan to blog about my training, itineraries and the actual run after it happens. Here's a few links to check out with info about the trail.

• The Allegheny Trail Alliance


• Linking up


• The Yockatomic Trek