Ehredt passes halfway mark in PAR Part II

SANDPOINT — We catch up with Mike Ehredt just past the halfway point in his trek to honor fallen U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

A steady “Thwack! thwack! thwack!” adds a drumbeat to his somber message — the sound of his running shoes hitting the pavement. Behind that, an almost constant “Swoosh!” punctuates the conversation — the sound of cars and trucks passing by within inches of the runner.

Ehredt has been down this road before. Not this exact road, it's true, but the highways of America. And he continues to run for the same cause.

In 2010, he traveled about 4,400 miles from Astoria, Ore., on the Pacific Ocean to Rockland, Maine, on the Atlantic as part of what he called Project America Run. At every mile, he stopped and planted a small American flag bearing the name, age, rank and hometown of a service member killed in the Iraq War.

A brief moment of remembrance, a salute, and the U.S. Army veteran was back on his way.

One mile, flag, one life at a time, he transected the country on this coast-to-coast vigil.

Now two years later, Ehredt is embarked upon Project America Run Part II — a run that will cover more than 2,100 miles in honor of those who have died in the war in Afghanistan. He started the run about six weeks ago at the Canadian Border in International Falls, Minn., bound for the Gulf of Mexico just outside of Galveston, Texas. Once again, he is pushing his running stroller — nicknamed “Lt. Dan” — and carrying flags for the fallen.

And though we can hear the footfalls and passing vehicles, what we can't see is the entourage that accompanies Ehredt as he passes through Clarksville, Tenn. On the border between Kentucky and Tennessee and home to nearby Ft. Campbell, Clarksville was once voted The Most Patriotic City in America. It was also the base for many of the soldiers who died in Afghanistan.

“Right now, there's a police car in front of me and a police car behind me,” Ehredt said, his voice over the cell phone giving no indication that he is running in what turns out to be an impromptu parade. “And there are several members of the military from Ft. Campbell running along with me.”

Once he completes his north-south journey, the combined routes for both segments of Project America Run will form a cross that lies across the continent. But there is no religious import in this endeavor, nor is Ehredt attempting to make any kind of political statement. His aim, he says, is to build “an invisible wall of honor.”

Somewhere along the Great Plains or along a lonely mountain pass, there are likely some small flags still fluttering in the breeze from two years ago. As he sets these new symbols of tribute into the ground — now having placed a total of more than 5,600 of them — the flag ceremony remains as moving and meaningful as ever.

“It never changes,” the runner said. “It's like a river flowing with the same current and the same feelings. The names on these flags are connected to faces I'll never see and hands I'll never get to shake. The importance of what I'm doing hasn't wavered at all.”

In 2010, Ehredt found that awareness of the run was building as he moved ever closer to his East Coast finish line. This time around, the word seemed to be out almost immediately, providing a rolling support network that has met him with honks, waves, media coverage and running partners along the way.

“As I go along, it has snowballed and things are getting larger and larger,” he said.

Part II in this ambulatory memoriam has been more challenging in one sense — the roads are narrower and Ehredt often finds himself traveling along highways with little or no shoulder to separate him from traffic. Apart from that, his run has been blessed with good health and no real mishaps.

Covering a daily average of about 26 miles, Ehredt has been running the equivalent of a full marathon for the past 50 days in a row.

“I'm on my fourth pair of running shoes and Lt. Dan has only had two flats so far,” he said. “I'm kind of on cruise control this time. I'm older and slower, but my body knows how to take care of me.”

On his route, the runner picks up loose change he finds on the road. The money, he explained, is starting to add up. Still, it won't come close to covering the cost of the more than 200 bottles of Starbucks mocha frappucinos he has downed so far.

“Kentucky was good for finding change,” Ehredt said. “I'm up to $9.23 right now. Kentucky was very generous.”

Like Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota before it, Kentucky gave way to Tennessee, which will, in turn, be followed by Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana before the veteran finally reaches Texas and his destination on the gulf. The serious nature of his trip notwithstanding, Ehredt has encountered loads of smiles and even a few laughs on his route.

“The quote of the week came from a middle school student,” he said, noting that his run often includes quick talks at schools where he explains that his mission also includes blogging and posting pictures onto the Internet to chronicle each day's activities. “He listened to me and then said, 'So, basically, you're a hobo with a web site.'”

For Project America Run, Ehredt reconfigured his course in order to add miles and honor the hundreds of additional soldiers who died in Iraq since he first planned the cross-country tribute. For Part II, he understands that he won't have a chance to do the same. There will be more casualties, in the end, than he has flags with which to honor them.

“There will still be a sense of completion when I finish the run,” he said. “My intent was to do it in this way. I just do what I can.”

The sound of running feet keeps pounding in the background as the conversation winds down. Ehredt turns to shout “Thank you!” to a well-wisher who has called out from the roadside. An 18-wheeler blows by with a growl and a “Whoosh!” that momentarily drowns out the runner's voice.

And Mike Ehredt stops to place one more American flag, keeping up the pace that will get him to Galveston on his target date for the finish.

“The morning of Nov. 11,” he said. “Veteran's Day.

To learn more about Project America Run Part II, read Ehredt's blog and locate the runner in real time, visit the web site: www.projectamericarun.com.