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Page 8
O ctober 20. 2010
ARMED FORCES
S p e c i a l
E d i t i o n
Pounding Pavement to Honor Troops
Veteran completes Oregon to Maine Run
(AP) -- An Army veteran who
pounded the pavement from coast
to coast to honor the nation's fallen
Is your wallet
making a
funny noise?
Mike Ehredt, of Hope, Idaho,
celebrates the completion of
his 4,425-mile coast-to-coast
run from Astoria, Ore. to
Rockland, Maine.
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Eubank
troops finished his grueling jour­
ney in rain and high winds on Friday
in Maine.
Mike Ehredt o f Hope, Idaho,
placed a flag in the ground every
mile along the w ay to honor military
personnel killed in Iraq.
The 49-year-old extreme runner
kicked o ff his journey on May 1 in
Astoria, Ore., averaged about 29
miles a day and took only four days
off. All told, he ran 4,425 miles.
Howling winds and sheets o f rain
accom panied his finish on the
Rockland waterfront, where sup­
porters gathered wearing bright
yellow T-shirts emblazoned with
"Thanks Mike!"
The operation ran with military
precision. Ehredt kept to his sched­
ule and stayed with a different fam­
ily every night. He suffered no knee
or hip problems, which often plague
distance runners. He didn't even
lose any weight. Each morning, he
popped a couple o f painkillers, and
hit the road.
Ehredt hatched the idea for the
coast-to-coast run three years ago.
And it took three years o f planning
to pull it off. It took 4,424 small flags
and 1,000 feet o f yellow ribbon to
create the tributes, each bearing the
name o f a service member, that he
placed on the ground at 1 -mile inter­
vals.
Along the way, Ehredt went
through 19 pairs o f trail-running
shoes, drank 40 gallons o f choco­
late milk (one quart a day) and con­
sumed 668 Aleve (two each morn­
ing and night).
Though he didn't personally
know any military personnel killed
in Iraq, Ehredt said he felt a kin­
ship that all form er service m em ­
bers feel and w anted to honor the
fallen. And m any were m oved by
his gesture. A m other from A la­
bama drove 28 hours to Colorado
to be there when he placed a flag
honoring her son, he said.