Run Across America - 4th September - Day 83

Today was a full day in Pennsylvania and even though the mountains are beautiful to run through they are also very tough when running mostly uphill. To be honest if the hill was too much I would run half and then walk the rest as my calf muscles are getting very tender and every night I’m getting a lot of cramp (I do have plenty of salt in my diet).

The day started at the bottom of a big hill so Matt and I decided on walking for 15 minutes just to get warmed up. We were about 10 miles short off a place called Washington, PA which was where the first pit stop was. The first 10 miles were mainly uphill and not the best feeling first thing in the morning, but it had to be done. Once we got to the RV, I checked my emails (good news from Camp America) and then had two pieces of toast with peanut and jam on them (try it) and a cup of tea. The route changed today, so the new route firstly went onto Highway 19 south and to be honest I kept thinking why is the run going south but it then changed after 10 miles and went onto the Highway 21 East. The team took it in turns today with Matt doing the first 20 miles on the bike then Natasha ran with me for 10 miles with Ben on the bike, where we entered into a City called Waynesburg.

The last 10 miles Matt got back on the bike and we hit a big, big hill almost straight away, which took 20 minutes to run/walk up but once at the top I started running at a faster pace because luckily the hills stopped and it was either straight roads or downhill into a town called “Carmichaels” which was a our 40 mile finish point for the day. The RV is parked up next to the Town sign and we’re going to stay here tonight, so in the morning we can leave straight away from the RV and hopefully finish earlier than usual.

Skills – Ben has taken over from Alex when it comes to skills on this trip as Ben took apart the bike and fixed the brakes, which were really bad and with the hills were going down it had to be to sorted.

Regards, Jackson and Team