America’s run

When Run for the Fallen has arrived in Portland in years past, it has been to close out the opening day of a three-day tribute.

This year, it marks day 78. And the event will still be not quite two-thirds complete.

Rather than individual state runs, such as the one that has passed through Portland each of the last three years, this time around the event is national.

America’s Run for the Fallen began April 6 with a ceremony at Jack Rabbit Park in Fort Irwin, California, with the next 12 days spent traversing the southern part of the Golden State. It will conclude Aug. 5 when the final group of runners arrives at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The national run this year comes on the 10th anniversary of the initial 2008 run that Jon Bellona created in remembrance of his friend 1st Lt. Michael Cleary, who died in service in Iraq. Beginning on Flag Day that year, Bellona and a team of runners traversed a route of about 3,000 miles from Fort Irwin to Arlington.

This year’s run will cover more than 6,000 miles through 19 states in honor of the about 20,000 men and women who have lost their lives during the war on terror.

Portland’s Donald Gillespie, who is the national runners coordinator for the event, joined the run for a day in Kansas and plans to also run in Indiana, Tennessee and the final day into Arlington. He’s been working for two years to line up runners for each day of the run that spans five months.

The goal is to have about 20 runners on the course, allowing them to rotate in and out while covering about 50 miles each day. 

But because of the remoteness of some of the areas — the deserts of the southwest and the wide open plains — some stretches have had just a few runners involved.

Gillespie got a taste of that dynamic when he visited the Flint Hills area of eastern Kansas.

“That was a 62-mile stretch … we passed one town,” he said. “I saw the most cattle I’ve ever seen in my life. So it’s really tough to find runners who can fly in … and then try to get them out of their area, because if they run three or four days they’re 200 miles away from the airport.”

Though about a month later than it has been in the past, the run through Portland will be similar to what local residents have seen with Indiana Run for the Fallen. The day will begin in Fort Wayne with runners traveling south on U.S. 27 through Decatur, Berne, Geneva and Bryant and arriving in Portland at 4:30 p.m. They will stop every mile for a brief ceremony honoring one or more of the fallen.

For the national run, the tributes are being handled chronologically by date of death. Bryant’s Andrew Whitacre, who died in Afghanistan on June 19, 2008, was honored June 2 in Kansas, and South Adams High School graduate Nick Taylor, who died in Afghanistan on July 16, 2012, will be honored July 3 in Tennessee.

The stops in Jay County will honor those who died in March and April 2011. More than a dozen local residents have volunteered their time as “day runners” as part of a group of 23 for Saturday’s 52 miles. (Day runners commit to part or all of a day while core runners take part in the event for several days or more.)

“There will be some familiar faces,” said Gillespie. “Normally we have about 16 to 18 Indiana runners that do the three days (of Indiana Run for the Fallen in previous years).

“It’s a time commitment. Normally you’re spending three days on a weekend for the Indiana run. This year we’re in Indiana for 10 days.”

Saturday’s run will conclude with a ceremony at Freedom Park in Portland with an Honor and Remember flag being presented. Runners will then depart Sunday to run from Portland to Anderson.

After a day of rest, the run will continue through Indianapolis and Evansville, and then Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina before concluding in Virginia.

The goal throughout will be to honor those who have given their lives in defense of freedom.

“Most people know someone who has fallen in the line of duty,” said Gillespie. “There’s no greater sacrifice to this country for those who have left to go into the military and know that could be the consequences when they do.”