One man's quest to run 26.2 miles a day in 50 states in 50 consecutive days to benefit Katrina victims

	Sam Thompson hit the road for a noble cause and earned respect, admiration and money for charity. Daniel Arciniegas

By Cory McCartney, SI.com

For six miles I stayed in stride and held my own. Ultramarathoners Sam Thompson and Dean Karnazes led the way, but I was keeping pace. I felt like I could go the distance and stay with these two for the entire 26.2-mile jaunt through the streets of Atlanta. But then it happened: Out of nowhere, the two seemed to find another gear. As I slowed to a more pedestrian pace and watched them devour the pavement, it hit me: This was Thompson's 43rd marathon -- in 42 days (he ran two within a 11-hour period).

About 10 of us had gathered outside of Underground Atlanta to run on a Friday morning in August -- at 6 a.m. Clad in running shorts and microfiber shirts, we milled around, waiting to join Thompson on his traveling marathon tour. But I soon realized I was out of my league. On hand was Joe Bowman, who has run 50 marathons in 50 states in under three hours (a quest that took 5½ years); Karnazes, author of Ultramarathon Man, who famously ran 350 continuous miles; and me, a four-hour marathoner.

But this wasn't about times, accomplishments or stature -- it was about the cause that Thompson has thrown himself into, a trek of 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days he took head on, 26.2 miles at a time, to raise awareness and funds for the Katrina-ravaged Mississippi Gulf Coast.

A grassroots crusade

Initially, Kirsten Sellereit thought Thompson was crazy. The two were in a meeting at the First Presbyterian Church of Bay St. Louis (Mo.), where Thompson had been coordinating a relief effort shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit. They were discussing which houses they would target next when Thompson caught her off-guard.

"He just kind of blurted out, 'Well next year I'm going to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days,'" Sellereit said. "I barely knew this guy. [I was] just thinking 'That's impossible. This is ridiculous.' [I] thought he was just talking."

But she would soon learn, just as those who doubted Thompson before, that he has a penchant for taking on the impossible.

When Thompson was 17, his car hydroplaned and he was hit by another vehicle. He suffered a shattered leg and pelvis and a broken jaw and collarbone. He had a titanium rod placed in his left tibia and was told when the leg healed that it would be shorter than his right leg. Doctors also said Thompson's running days were over.

"I think that just kind of spurred me on to [say], 'Well, I'll prove you wrong,'" Thompson said. "That was kind of my motivation." Two months later, he completed his first race -- a 5K -- on crutches, and within 10 months he won the Mississippi duathlon.

"I have this drive for whatever reason, deep down inside of me, to test my limits and the preconceived notion of human limits," said Thompson. "I always have to push myself to something else."

That something else came to mind while he was running the 2,175-mile Appalachian Trail, a journey that took 99 days, 20 of which he spent resting. "You have a lot of time to think and a lot of time alone in the woods," he said. "I realized I was covering more mileage daily than a marathon distance, [and] the trail covers 13 states. That just got my mind wandering and I thought, Hey, why couldn't you run 50 marathons in 50 days in all 50 states? But at the time I was not particularly passionate about one thing, so I kind of put the idea on the back burner."

As he watched the attention of the media -- and the nation -- shift away from the devastation left behind by Katrina, Thompson decided he had to do something to show people this fight was far from over. "I felt like this was the time and the event to go out and run and raise awareness to get people fired up about helping the [Gulf] Coast again," he said.