Documentary chronicles treks to honor fallen soldiers

SANDPOINT — In 2010, Mike Ehredt began building a wall. It now traverses the United States from west to east and from north to south, covering a total of more than 6,500 miles in both directions. 

It’s not a barrier grounded in fear, not built to keep anything or anyone out. This structure is held together with the mortar of love and remembrance, a wall that Ehredt thinks of as “one invisible hand holding the other.”

His only tools were his own two feet, a 20-pound stroller equipped with a GPS system and bundles of tiny American flags bearing the hand-written name, age, rank and hometown of a service member who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the coast-to-coast span he completed about five years ago, Ehredt stopped at every single mile to place one of the flags in the ground, salute and remember a soldier who died in Iraq. He did that 4,424 times between Astoria, Ore., and Rockland, Maine, as part of what he called Project America Run.

Two years later, Ehredt set out on Project America Run II, this time to honor the fallen in Afghanistan as he placed 2,146 flags between his starting point in International Falls, Minn., to the finish line at the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas.

On Veterans Day — Wednesday, Nov. 11 — a documentary chronicling those events will premiere at the Panida Theater. The film, titled “12 Million Steps,” takes its name from the rough math used to calculate the number of footfalls it took to complete both runs.

That tally, however, means little compared to the number 6,570, which signifies the flags that were placed in remembrance.

“This was never about ‘Mike running far,’” said Ehredt, a U.S. Army veteran. “It’s about each name — it’s for them.”

The decision to preview the documentary on Veterans Day was based on a desire to honor all who have served, according to Ehredt.

“Sure, the film focuses on those two wars, but the wall could be for any generation,” he said. “The documentary is for anybody who’s a veteran or has a veteran in their family.”

Over the course of both runs, he ran at an average pace of a little more than 10 minutes per mile. Along the way, he stayed with families of soldiers who had died, heard their stories and shared their grief. But he also gave them a way to heal, a tangible sign that those who fell were not forgotten.

Ehredt’s wish is that the movie will bring even more peace to those families — an outcome he already has witnessed after a preview screening in Texas, where multiple individuals came up to him to say they knew, or had served with, people whose names appeared in the film.

“There are connections everywhere,” the runner said. “This impacted every little community.

“The main purpose of the film was to get the word out so that families knew there was another way to honor their loved ones,” Ehredt added, explaining that the exact location of where each flag was placed is listed online. And although most of those flags are now gone, the virtual wall will stand forever.

Some people have taken road trips to those sites, he said, while others have sent notes of appreciation.

“I got one out of the blue that said, ‘I had no idea this was going on. Here’s a picture of my husband. Thank you for doing this,’” Ehredt shared. “When someone reaches out to you like that, it validates the whole project.”

As an elite runner — the Army vet has completed the 250-mile Trans-Himalaya Run in Nepal, Eco-Challenge expedition races in Borneo and Fiji, finished the 160-mile, 6-day Marathon des Sables across the Sahara Desert twice and became the 34th person ever to cross the finish line of all four, 100-mile ultra-marathon races that make up the Rocky Mountain Slam in a single season — Ehredt was well suited to the physical challenges of his cross-country ventures.

It was the emotional demands that caused him to suffer a form of post-traumatic stress after the runs. In that way, he fully understands the limbo soldiers endure when they return from battle. Back home on both occasions, Ehredt spent weeks staring out the window at the lake from the home he shares in Hope with his wife, Peggy. Many times, he found himself wishing he was “back out there.”

“There was always a presence around me on the road — a presence that diminished as each run came to an end,” he said.

Even with a total of more than 200 days of running and thousands of miles completed, the sanctity of the flag-placing ceremony never lost its strength.

“Each flag was personal and important,” Ehredt said. “There wasn’t any one that meant more than the one before it or the one that came after it.”

On his two runs, he went through 19 pair of running shoes; had six flat tires on his stroller, which he named Lieutenant Dan; picked up $27.84 in change; drank 60 gallons of chocolate milk; and consumed 423 Starbucks mocha frappucinos. The metrics that stick in his head, however, are of a more serious order.

“Sometimes I still don’t comprehend the magnitude of it,” said the runner. “I get overwhelmed. I put a big chunk of my heart and soul into those 223 days and I spent that time with 6,570 people I had never met. We built a wall together.”

The special Veterans Day showing of “12 Million Steps” will take place Wednesday Nov. 11, at 6 p.m. on the Panida’s big screen. The film is free and open to the public.

Information: www.projectamericarun.com