Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 28, 1994 TAG: 9405300005
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: PETERSTOWN, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
Some would say Darrell Mann has more strength and stamina than a man his age ought to be allowed. A few would say he has more of both than good sense.
Even so, the 51-year-old grandfather has run from Delaware to West Virginia on his way across the United States and only suffered one "blister problem."
"I got back here a little quicker than I thought I would," he said this week from his home, where he's stopping over for a few days to visit his family and talk to school and church groups. The laid-off Radford Army Ammunition Plant worker began his ambitious "Run Across America" from Cape Henlopen, Del., on May 2, after he was unable to land a permanent job and his unemployment benefits ran out. He hopes to make it to the West Coast this fall.
Mann is running to emphasize the plight of the uninsured and unemployed like himself, but he also stresses good health and individual self-worth and ability when he meets with church and school groups along the way.
Through exercise and healthy habits, he says, "we can literally change the health care industry ourselves and not wait on Congress to do it."
Mann wanted to take that message directly to President Clinton, but the president's aides said he didn't have time.
"So I just kinda hollered as I came through past the Washington Monument," he said Tuesday. "I guess he didn't hear me."
Mann plans to head down U.S. 52 toward Welch, W.Va., this week. He's sticking to rural secondary roads for the most part.
While dogs and hecklers have posed some problems, his biggest concern is not having a sponsor for his food and lodging, though Nike has supplied his clothing and footwear.
A few donations from individuals have trickled in, though, and Mann said he's keeping a tight fist on his budget. "I've had to stay conservative," he said. "Believe it or not, I don't eat much."
Sponsors of the American Discovery Trail - which coincidentally begins at Cape Henlopen where Mann started out - have invited him to help inaugurate that cross-country hiking, biking and jogging route where it passes through northern West Virginia, as part of its grand opening on National Trails Day June 4. The trail stretches to Point Reyes, Calif.
For the first few days, Mann was entirely on his own. That meant either riding a bicycle or hitchhiking back to his van after a day's run - in essence, covering the same ground twice, sometimes under his own power. "But when I got into Bath County, the biking got a bit rough," he related. Lately, his son, Sean - one of his six children - or friends have taken turns dropping him off in the morning and picking him up in the evening. This summer, he hopes his wife can follow along with the couple's refurbished Volkswagen van as he runs across the Midwest.
A devout Mormon and regional church official, Mann's next major goal is to reach Nauvoo, Ill., by June 27, where he hopes to join other church officials to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of church prophet Joseph Smith.
Mann said it's been an education just meeting people along the way, including one man who had just lost his job but stopped to ask if there was anything he could do to help. Some - a school teacher cousin of his from Stuart's Draft among them - have run along.
"I've learned that there are a lot of good people in the world." But he also observed that most folks are so busy with their daily routines that they're often unaware of what's going on around them. "They're in a zone," he said.
He also was startled at the amount of trash along the highway.
Hecklers who try to startle him by making their vehicles backfire as they pass by sometimes have a salutary effect instead. "I always kind of hope their muffler will fall off," he said, "but it perks you up."
While he feels fine, Mann said he's lost about 15 pounds.
Starting out around 7 a.m. each day, he's been managing about 20 to 25 miles before sundown. But he's logged one 12-hour, 50-mile day already.
By September, he hopes to be in Portland, Ore. Then, he'll swing back toward Atlanta in time for the Olympics in 1996.
by CNB