Run Route 66 - 3,788 km from Chicago to Santa Monica

There are few roads anyone can picture from the name alone but Route 66 is one of them. The Mother Road ran from Chicago to the Pacific and turned into the symbol of American road travel: diners, motels, neon, and a lot of empty desert in between. It was decommissioned in 1985, but long stretches of it survive as historic route, business loops and frontage roads, which is a very generous way of saying you can still drive most of it if you are patient.

How long does it take to run Route 66?

Or, in our case, run it. The full virtual route is 3,788 km (2,354 miles) from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, crossing eight states and three time zones. At 5 km a day that is a little over two years. At 40 km a week you are looking at about a year and ten months. Neither of those is a small commitment and that is the point — the whole idea behind In the Long Run is picking a goal big enough that you have to keep showing up for it.

What you run past

You can read more about Route 66 on Wikipedia. Then do the virtual run and see how Illinois farmland gives way to the Ozarks, then the Texas panhandle, then New Mexico and Arizona, and eventually you are at the pier in Santa Monica, having run there from your own neighbourhood without ever leaving it!

Connect your Strava account and your daily distance gets added automatically — you run, the map moves west. Start Route 66 whenever you are ready, or look at the Pacific Crest Trail if you would rather cross the country the tall way.