[UPDATED at Finish Line:] Charity Runner Who Began Cross-County Trip in Surf City Ends in NYC

Matt Coker | Posted on


UPDATE, AUG. 9, 12:08 P.M.: Despite that rock-throwing incident in Pennsylvania last week, Brit T. Mark Allison reached Coney Island just after 2 a.m. this morning to complete a 3,100-mile charity run that began May 1 in Huntington Beach.

He only missed his goal by two hours of reaching the fabled New York City neighborhood by Monday, Aug. 8. But any disappointment will be wiped out by the fact he lost what the British refer to as 5 stone, what others on the Metric system call 31 kilograms and what us Yanks would add up to be around 70 pounds in 100 days. Eat roadside gravel, Jenny Craig!
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Allison tells BBC News he used to be an “18st obese Geordie who loved bacon sandwiches, football and pies”, before becoming a charity runner. (The original post below explains what a Geordie is.) “The USA run brought [that] to a successful end.”

But Allison is more pleased that he raised more than 55,000 British pounds sterling for The Children's Foundation and the St. Benedict's Hospice that cared for his late mother back home.

That's nearly $90,000 U.S. (sayeth the Google).

ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 4, 7:53 A.M.: Man, Pennsylvania, tough crowd!

A British fellow began a
cross-country run May 1 in Huntington Beach to raise money for
charities, including the hospice that cared for his mother while she
died of lung cancer.


The run had begun with such promise, according to the Day 1 diary entry from Surf City.

It was an emotional start to the run across the USA this morning and I
was very surprised and delighted to see a merry band of supporters at
the start at Ruby's Diner. This was stark contrast to the start of the
John O'Groats to Lands End run back in 2007 where Katy and Jack were the
only people to cheer me on. I remember the weather that day too. It was
lashing down and the wind was howling. Fast forward 4 years to this
morning and a warm sunny backdrop of Huntington Beach.

The run got off to a good start and
exiled Geordie Nick Davison kept me company for the first 4 miles. Kind
of like a tug boat pulling a huge ship out of port and then out to sea.

Allison, who draws strength from the people he's running in memory of, covered 32.4 miles that first day and learned a new American slang word, “Badonkadonk.” Indeed, it created a goal besides running across the country: coming up with a new word each day of his American adventure.

Too bad he ran into four Badonkadonks in Pennsylvania.