From Team Type 1 SANOFI's Run Across America: Whatever it Takes

Whatever it Takes by Marcus Grimm

As Team Type 1 SANOFI heads into less than one thousand miles to go in their amazing run across America, the excitement of their new strategy coupled with some solid sleep has the runners moving at a more rapid pace than on any stretch of their journey so far.

Utilizing their new plan of seven men running fast pulls during the day, and three men running slower miles through the night, spectators in Illinois were surely to be disappointed if they weren’t paying attention, as the team crossed the entire state in a mere twenty-four hours.

“We’re in a totally different place now,” said Kevin Powell, “There’s chatter in the van, again, and all kinds of excitement.”

But recent calculations determined the team still was behind their goal of the East Coast by Sunday, so the men have ratcheted up the logistics of the journey. Now, the van drops a single runner off, moves another mile and then does the same and repeats the process until six runners have been dropped off. Just as quickly, it circles back and picks up each runner at the conclusion of their respective miles. If they do it well, and after a full day of practice, they are doing it very well, they can cover six miles in the time it previously took them to do three.

“Logistically, it’s crazy,” said Powell, whose bum knee relegated him to spending most of the day behind the wheel, assigned to the unenviable task of driving the van and managing who got out when and, as important, when they got picked up. “But we’re making up time and that’s what it’s all about now.”

The day-time crew also found themselves energized by their three teammates on the overnight crew, who passed their own fifty mile goal and decided to keep going.

“Unbelievable,” said Powell. “This whole trip has been about just missing our goals, just missing our marks, and these guys blow right through the stop sign and pile on fifteen extra miles. Epic, completely epic.”

The same can certainly be said for the entire team, putting more and more of the country in their rear-view mirror with each passing minute.