DAY 55 and beyond...

To follow my progress from here on, click: Where's Dean?

The Endurace 50 Final Video
Documentary Coming Spring 2007 from Journeyfilm

Comments

[Travis]

Dean,

I'll be looking for you around the St. Louis, MO area to join you for some miles. Keep Moving Forward!!!!!

[Kevin O'Neall]

Hi Dean,

Astonishing that you're doing this. James Shapiro wrote Meditations in the Breakdown Lane, where Interstate 80 was an important part of his cross-country journey. If you are following I-80 you will eventually go right past my house. I'll be checking in pretty much every day on this blob.

Kevin (marathoner and 100 miler wannabe)
Green River, WY

[MIKE OKUN]

Is Dean running with anyone?
GO DEAN KEEP ON RUNNING.
MIKE
NYC

[MIKE OKUN]

GO DEAN GO DEAN
RUNNING FOR ALL OF US WHO HAVE A DAY JOB
MIKE
NYC

[MIKE OKUN]

GOOD LUCK DEAN GOOD LUCK DEAN
RUN FOR ALL US OF US WHO HAVE TO
SUCK IT UP AND HAVE A DAY JOB
BE SAFE
MIKE
NYC

[Kevin O'Neall]

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right. This is an astounding goal. Several runners have written about their cross-country feats but none of them did it after 50/50 marathons. James Shapiro, author of Meditations in the Breakdown Lane, mentioned Interstate 80 being the most direct east-west route. If you follow it, eventually you will go through my town. I'll be following your progress on this blog.

Kevin O'Neall (marathoner and ultrarunner)
Green River, WY

[Heather Griffith]

Hey Dean!
So tomorrow morning is my first 50-Mile, and just being sssooo cold here in Chicago, and so I read your blog today and it was really inspiring! I mean just that you have already ran from New York to Philadelphia PA...I think that is so much farther than I will be running in the morning and just has to be cold in PA, so throughout the race I will carry that thought and believe me, you will help me on this race even not being there, just knowing how incredibly you have been running since Sept 17th, and that you've now decided to do something as or more incredible than the 50/50/50, I know you will accomplish your goal though...b/c you have already ran more than any human I have ever heard of in my entire life! Running that marathon w/you Oct 26th was really amazing, and I know that anyone who joins you on this journey across the country will feel the same...like what better thing could they be doing that day but running w/you! Running is such an amazing sport, and you're such an inspiration you can't even know the difference you are making in the lives of everyone you meet!

[Jerry Pederson]

Dean,

You have been such an amazing inspiration for me in recovering from plantar fascitis and lower back injury. Reading your daily log encouraged me to slowly get back out on the road and slowly rebuild my base. If by chance your run home brings you through Spokane Washington my wife and I would gladly put you up and I'd love to join you on the road for a distance as you continue home.

Keep your dreams moving!

Jerry Pederson

[nicole]

Also in St. Louis Mo, we will keep r eyeballs peeled for you and will be sure to bring you snacks o' plenty..

[Chelsea]

HI Dean!
I got to meet you in Boston and I wanted to let u know that it's amazing what one person, you, can do for so many. I'm a physical therapy student and runner who is pysched about your health promotion acts!
Chelsea

[John Ball (Team Parkinson)]

Dean,
Congratulations on the 50/50, particularly the marvelous finish in New York. I haven't run a marathon since we shared booths next to each other in the San Francisco marathon expo. Do you realize how difficult it was for me, watching the constant line of people waiting for you to sign their copy of your book, while I sat there hoping someone would buy a copy of my book? Actually, I loved your book, and it fully deserves the attention it gets.
I am very proud of your success with the 50/50 effort and wish I had been able to join you on the journey. I will be running the CIM in Sacramento in three weeks, and with some luck, and good weather, I hope to get close to Boston qualilfying time. Last year I ran a 4:19 in Sac - just 19 minutes off qualifying time for this post 60 year-old. You may not be home yet, as you run across the continent, but I'll be thinking of you as I run that race, and wishing I could tag along on your shoelaces. You are an inspiration.
John
Co-chair Team Parkinson

[Kirstina Moore]

Dean,
You have been a great inspiration and I have read your book, twice. I have also just ran the New York Marathon, my first marathon. As the pain set in I thought of what I had read in your book and just kept going. I think i was sitting in front of you on the bus to the start as I heard someone talking about running 50 marathons in 50 states which made me think of you and I even mention to the guy next to be about this amazing ultrmarathon guy and his book . I didn't find out about your 50 marathon's till after the race, I wish I'd known as I'd love to have meet you. (i'm guessing it was you as not many other people would have been running 50 marathons!!) My first marathon will not be my last and am looking forward to the next challenge. I hope you'll write another book, look forward to hearing your stores.
Keep running and enjoy your run home
Kirstina Moore
New Zealand

[j grace]

Dean,
I am a highschooler from Louisiana. I was hoping to go to the Baton Rouge Marathon and meet you, but we never did get me set up to get out of school and stuff (hecktick classes and what not). You're video of the whole 50 marathons ordeal has inspired my love of running back into me. Early this crosscountry season i was hospitalized with heat exhaustion during a race. They had to pull me off the course in order to stop me, unconsciously my mind would not give up. That was my attitude towards running, never give up, always hurt. After that though, it became very difficult to push it at the end of the race ( i was 300 meters from the finish when they pulled me off). The heat exhaustion was a big deal to me, maybe not to the other classmates at school who heard it as a prayer request to somehow get my guts back. But i believe your video did it. Thank you Dean. God bless.

J Grace

[Bill Willcox]

Dean,

My Endurance 50 just ended at the Richmond Marathon, where the Endurance 50 shirt, drew admiring glances from a few "in the know." I completed the marathon in 4:01, a personal best, but more importantly raised $1400 for my friend Gert who suffered a stroke in March and is trying to regain the ability just to walk. A photo is available at www.chapelhilljournal.com. But I just wanted to thank you for opening up a new paradigm for running for me...a desire to seek out the frontiers of endurance as a positive goal...It seems like I am uncovering new paradoxes of running...for example, the persistent revelation that it is actually more "restful" to run than to sleep sometimes, because more of what may be upsetting me in my life gets processed out in my long runs...negatives change into positives and I get tremendously renewed in my attitude...and feel that anything is possible. You had a big part in getting the funds to Gert, a former runner, and it is a continuation of the good work you do on so many fronts.

[Andrew Guitarte]

Dean, I was so inspired running with you in SFO last October that I decided to do my own "endurance" test. I ran three marathons in three consecutive weekends. I did the Nike Women's marathon, Metro Silicon Valley marathon, and the NY marathon in good time! I've never done this but I wanted to get a glimpse of how it is to devote myself to one thing and believing in myself that I can do it, no matter what. I believed and did it and then some. Continue to believe in what you're doing!
-Andrew Guitarte

[marta arato]

hi Dean!
your are really incredible!
My Brazilian friends and have run those 50 days with you , now 2 of them and i are preparing to Arrowheadultra in Minesota, Fev, so while you run back home, we will be runnung too!
GO KARNO GO!

[Albert Martens]

Dean

Wow! I checked your website Endurance50 and I thought the project was done. Great job, and congratulations on finishing the 50 marathons. And now you are enroute from NY to SF. Super. I will follow your running. I think this run should have a title as well. I think you are calling it a HOME RUN of a run. I have some ideas for you now. I think you are coming up north a bit, so I invite you to come across the Northern USA border, enter Canada near Fargo where you ran your 11th marathon. I think it may snow by then, and it will cool off a bit, maybe you would'nt have to do your ICE BATHS when you hit Manitoba. We have icy roads, good for ankle training while running on ice and maybe if you would join me, we could go even farther north and run with the polar bears. Just an idea, and seeing you are full of creative ideas, I would invite you to Canada at this time. Happy many wonderful miles. Keep positive, keep smiling, enjoy the roads, people enroute, the scenery, etc. Love to run with you.

God bless
Albert

[Benjamin]

Hope to see you running past Chicago on your way home! My friends and I are planning on running in the Detroit marathon next year. Reading your book has been a huge inspiration to myself and others. In training for the marathon, I don't think of the 26.2 miles I'm going to be trying for, but rather all miles you've ran, which makes 26.2 look like small beans.

[Stan Zychowski, ultrarunner]

Thanks for being who you are. You are a great inspiration for young and old alike. You are always in my prayers: thank GOD for people like you! ... GO! Dean GO! and never quit!

[chaff]

Hello from France !
You're doing great. I'm congratulate you on behalf of a bunch of marathoners. Some of us ran Chicago, we missed you. Some of us ran New York and missed you again.
We wish you a safe and pleasant way back home. When you'll have reach Pacific Ocean, take a rest. We 're waiting for you in Europe. Marathon in Paris will be in april, may be the new start of a new incredible challenge for you.
Our blog'name is under3, because running under three hour is our dream. It's in french, sorry, but a comment from you would be a great honour! our url : http://chaff.unblog.fr
Keep going, wild wild run to the wild wild west !

[Selima]

Dean,
I've been following your progress every day of the Endurance 50. I really wanted to run one of the marathons with you, but I couldn't clear my schedule. Now that you're doing a Forrest Gump-like trek across the country, maybe I can join you for a weekend and see how far I can run. I know it's not really on the way from NY to SF, but maybe you could swing by southern CA and I can find you and run with you. Even if you don't end up in SoCal, I'll still be out running, and you'll be with me in spirit.
Thanks for being such a great inspiration!
Selima, aspiring runner and ultrarunner

[Don Snyder]

Hi Dean.

I ran with you in Minneapolis...cloudy and cold...."Lobsterman"...hole in the back of my jacket.

What's your intended route on your way back to San Francisco? I would imagine that you are going in a somehat straight line and that getting up to Minnesota would be too far "off line". I say "somewhat" because I know enough about you now to realize that you would NEVER think the best way to get from "A" to "B" is a straight line!!!

I'd love to run with you again. I have finished reading your "Ultramarathon Man". Actually I devoured it!!! To say I loved it is an understatement. I have some questions that I would like to ask you.

I hope you have time to answer this.

BYE DON

[Jamie Aulwes]

Dean-

I am on the Olathe Kansas Marathon committee and we are looking forward to the day you are closest to the Kansas City area and hope to get to run with you.

God Bless!

[Ellie Hamilton]

Dean! I met you this morning! And I didn't even know it! (Nov. 21, Candy Hill Campground, Winchester, VA -- the woman behind the desk!)I described you and your transcontinental run, 24-hr run, 50-in-50-in-50, to a running friend and she clued me in. This is awesome! So are you! (So are your quads, which, yes, I noticed as you approached the campground store) :-)

[Julie Parrish]

Hi Dean,
figured you had something up your sleeve after E50. I ran with you in Grand Rapids (asked for a bucket of sanity and Western 100 entry). How do I find out where you are headed? I'd enjoy running with you again. I am in the Ann Arbor, MI area. MI, OH, or IL would work.

Too cool Dean. Wish I had thought of it. Keep running.