Running from Chicago to Milwaukee for ALS - Never Again Every YEar

2013 - World's Longest Turkey Trot #1

In 2013 my friend Alfredo Pedro Perro wanted to run one last 100 mile race for the year.  I came up with a much worse idea.  "Let's just get a backpack and credit card and run from Chicago to Milwaukee...it's about 100 miles."  In doing so I created a monster.  You can read about the first Turkey Trot here: http://urbanultra.blogspot.com/2013/11/worlds-longest-turkey-trot.html.

The following year Alfredo was diagnosed with ALS.  

I found a few friends dumb enough to join me once again.  http://urbanultra.blogspot.com/2014/12/worlds-longest-turkey-trot-ii-aka.html This time we flipped the course and ran from Milwaukee to Chicago instead.

In 2015 Alfredo lost his battle with ALS.  So we did it again.  From Chicago to Milwaukee.  Each year I swore I would never do it again.  It's so cold and miserable.  It's so much concrete.  There are long stretches of nothing in the middle of the night.  Bad neighborhoods.  A lack of reliable plumbing.  Bonks.  I mean, if I was going to be 100% honest with you I would say the first two hours are awesome.  After that.  Well, you know.

So of course this year I returned.  Again.  For the fourth "last time" and joined an even larger group of people with questionable decision-making skills and we ran from Milwaukee to Chicago.  Although this time, there were a few differences.

First.  We had a much larger group (12 people) of really crazy folks.  

Rocketts at Wisconsin/Illinois Border

Second, we had about 20 angels who spent the day bringing us almost every possible type of food or drink you can imagine.

Example of random aid station someone unaffiliated with the race set up in their office along the route.

Aid station, hot home made soup, and hugs from MILF's available.

But most importantly, we decided that if we were going to continue to do something this stupid, we should do it for a cause, so we re-named the event the Alfredo Pedro Perro World's Longest Turkey Trot for ALS.  We set and achieved our goal of raising $5,000 for the Les Turner ALS Foundation (which treated Alfredo for his disease free of charge).   If you want to add to the donation please do so here:

 https://secure2.convio.net/ltals/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app294a?idb=0&DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=1&df_id=1982&mfc_pref=T&1982.donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=FD6F1E0C5A120E20A0531A1AD1B1FA45

You can also read more about what it was like and what happened on Andrew's Blog here:

 http://clutchrunner.blogspot.com/2016/11/worlds-longest-turkey-trot-wltt.html

The great thing about this event isn't that we actually made it almost 100 miles:

 https://www.strava.com/activities/787407688

or that people received a buckle, though both those things are cool.

Commemorative Buckle

The amazing thing is how it brought the community together.  People that loved and cared about Alfredo wanted to run, to cheer, to pace, to support.  They set up aid stations over the 100 mile course randomly.  They showed up on the course and ran.  They hugged us and offered whatever they could give to keep us moving and get us to our destination.  People also sent us inspiring messages on social media.  We ran together.  We waited for each other.  We shivered in cars and slept in gas stations to re-group.  No one wanted to win.  No one worried about losing.  The only time concern was to try to finish before the sun set.  In all, it took us roughly 32 hours.  During that time we ran and sang and goofed around.  We made new friendships. We took over a Starbucks

We ate several sit down meals.  We laughed and cried.  And in the end, we had a journey we will never forget. 

And one that I will never do again.  Until next year.  Again.