Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Spending a mile with each one

By Travis Lazarczyk tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

If you aren't looking for it, you might miss it. A small United States flag, planted in the grass along Route 201, just a couple hundred yards from the intersection of Route 23. Attached to the flag is a yellow ribbon.

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IN MEMORY OF: Mike Ehredt, center, runs along Route 201 on Monday in Fairfield with members of the Waterville Senior High School cross country team. Ehredt, an Army veteran from Idaho, is running cross country from Oregon to Maine to honor servicemen and women killed in Iraq.

Staff photo by David Leaming

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The ribbon reads: "Marine Lance Corporal Patrick Ray Nixon, 21, Nashville, TN."

If you drive north a mile, you'll find another flag. And another a mile after that, and another a mile after that, all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

For more than 4,000 miles, Mike Ehredt has planted flags every mile. On May 1, he dipped the front wheel of his jogger stroller into the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon. At approximately 11 a.m. Friday, he'll roll the stroller -- loaded up with food and water, flags and rain gear -- it weighs 50 pounds -- into the Atlantic in Rockland. It will be the 4,425th mile of a nearly six month run.

Each flag Ehredt, an Army veteran, plants is in memory of a serviceman or woman killed in the line of duty in Iraq.

"It's a personal tribute for me, being in the service 30 years ago," Ehredt said after Monday's run, which took him 20 miles from Skowhegan to Waterville. "I didn't know anybody from Iraq, but I just wanted to create my own memorial.

"I never meant to be political, or say anything about the policies. I just wanted to go down the road and put a flag down. Spend a mile with each one."

In front of Lyman's Farm Store in Fairfield, there's a flag in memory of Marine Private Nolen Ryan Hutchings, 19, of Boiling Springs, South Carolina. Ehredt placed it there shortly after 10 a.m. Monday morning, with the help of members of the Waterville Senior High School cross country team, who ran with Ehredt. Hutchings' friends and family can go to Ehredt's web page, projectamericarun.com, and see a map of where Nolen's flag is.

"I never focus on the death or loss. It's a cesspool you can never crawl out of," Ehredt, an Illinois native who now lives in Idaho, said. "I focus on what's around me."

Monday's run with the Purple Panthers was only the third time Ehredt has been joined by a high school team, he said.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, I'm by myself," Ehredt said.

For most of the trip, Ehredt averaged approximately 30 miles a day. Now that he's nearing the end, he's doing 18-20 miles each day to ensure he finishes on time on Friday. A journey three years in the planning is almost over.

Even before starting, Ehredt knew he had the athletic chops to handle such a strenuous undertaking. As a solider, he won the Army Cross Country Championships in Germany. He's run a marathon in 2 hours, 52 minutes, and a 10K in 33:54.

An accomplished cyclist, in 1996 Ehredt rode 474 miles in 24 hours to raise $12,000 to fight Muscular Dystrophy. An adventure racer, in 2006 Ehredt completed a 250 mile Trans-Himalayan run in Nepal. Twice he's finished in the top 150 in the Marathon des Sables, a six-day race across the Sahara. In 2008 he became one of 34 people to finish the Rocky Mountain Slam, which consists of four 100-mile races.

Between Colorado and New York, Ehredt went 75 consecutive days without a drop of rain. Then in Vermont, it poured. Ehredt estimated he spent 200-300 hours in front of a computer, mapping out his route and lining up host families to stay with throughout the journey. It took a year to label all the flags.

"I meet somebody different every night, which is neat," Ehredt said, stretching against the back of a truck and feeling his 19th and final pair of running shoes. "The culture changes so much, sometimes county to county."

At 10:30 a.m. Monday morning, Waterville junior Danny Pham took a flag from Ehredt and placed it off the side of Route 201. It was in memory of Marine Sergeant Nicolas Michael Hodson, 22, of Smithville, Missouri. Pham's coach, Kurt Hoffman, watched from his car, a few dozen yards back.

"Sometimes we're removed from other people's sacrifices," Hoffman said. "It's good for our kids to see this."

The names are written on 1,000 feet of yellow ribbon. On Wednesday and Thursday, Ehredt's flags will be in memory of those killed since his trip began. Ehredt is placing the flags in reverse chronological order by date of death. The last flag he plants, the one that will signal the end of this incredible journey, will have significance to many who greet Ehredt in Harbor Park.

Marine Major Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, Skowhegan, Maine.

Travis Lazarczyk -- 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com