Run Across America - 23rd August - Day 71

It was the last day of running in Illinois and by the end of the 40 miles we ended up crossing into Indiana. The last day in Illinois was again hot and it started from early morning continuing through til early evening. Today I started running from Tuscola heading towards the Indiana state line. Matt joined me for a 30 mile duration as he said it was important him continuing on the road every day. The roads I run on are very boring with not much to see with towns few and far between with only 20-50 houses in each.

I have now run over 2230 miles and even though the team are getting excited about New York, which is only 26 days away to me it’s still a long way to run and I don’t like to get too excited until we are a few days away from New York City. All the team members are now realising the importance of having them on the road at times with me even with Matt joining me most of the time on the bicycle it’s not fair he does every mile. Today Ben got on the bicycle for 10 miles and he did okay saying he enjoyed being out of the RV for a few hours as he said he was becoming rather lazy just sitting around awaiting my return.

We have now crossed into our 9th state and it’s become a routine which I look forward to when crossing a new State name (closer to New York) but once crossed it becomes just more miles to run through but a different state name.

Even though we’re getting closer to the finish line there is still a lot of work that needs to be completed before arriving at our final destination. Today I had to change our flight dates for nearly two and a half weeks earlier and also making sure we have a hotel to stay at in New York. As I said before I find it hard to talk about what’s going to happen after the run because I still have so far to go but these things have to be done.

News – A couple of my sponsors (Jimmy Archer, Drew Breeeze and Steve Pointer) are hopefully all coming out to New York City to see me finish, which I can’t wait for as my family are not coming to New York (my decision) and will be meeting me at Heathrow airport instead.

Regards, Jackson and Team