Bob Foos
Amy Goddard says she feels lucky to have played a part in Zach Fiske’s 2,400-mile transcontinental run on Route 66 from the Navy Pier in Chicago to Santa Monica Pier.
A physical therapist, Amy was naturally drawn to Zach on Monday to find out more about his sign counting down how many more miles he has to go to reach the end of Route 66.
It was Day 28 on Zach’s trek, that’s in part to commemorate the 1928 Bunion Derby, which helped promote the new route.
His website shows how his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts are tracking his progress as an experiment and how there will be a documentary about him.
As they were talking, Amy asked Zach where he stays at night. He told her he sleeps in his tent or with or people he meets who provide him a bed to sleep in.
“It’s like 102°,” Amy says she told him. “You can stay with me tonight.”
Zach was grateful for the bed and meal, and at 3 a.m., Amy and her fiancé, David Pinion, drove Zach to the west side of Joplin to resume his run. They also ran with him for a mile.
Amy says Zach runs up to 30 miles per day. Starting at 3 a.m. allows him to avoid the heat by being done running by 10 a.m.
According to his website, he plans to be in Tulsa by Memorial Day and finally in Santa Monica on Veterans Day. You can track him and see all the pictures he posts on this map.
“It was just fun to be a part of that,” says Amy.
