4,000-mile jog honors troops killed in Iraq

By Rachana Dixit

Published: August 16, 2008

Jon Bellona has run more than 3,500 miles, and he’s not tired — just a little sunburned.

“Every day is a new layer of burn,” he said.

Bellona is the founder and director of the Run for the Fallen, a cross-country run of more than 4,000 miles commemorating every soldier killed during the five-year conflict in Iraq. Saturday, day 63 of the journey, Bellona and a team of runners passed through the Charlottesville area, with a handful of local runners joining up.

“This town is very good that way, with charity events,” said Joan Van Dyken, whose 25-year-old son, a Marine, has returned from his second Iraqi tour.

Bellona is a Clinton, N.Y., native whose college roommate — 1st Lt. Michael J. Cleary — was killed in Iraq on Dec. 20, 2005. Strictly non-political, the run’s mission is straightforward: to run one mile for each soldier killed as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, honoring them by marking each mile with an American flag.

Jim Collins of Rosehill, Mich., drove into Charlottes-ville on Friday to walk one mile for his son. Collins’ son, Army Sgt. James S. Collins, was killed in Iraq on Aug. 28, 2007, and on Saturday his flag was placed just outside of Shadwell.

“It’s unbelievable,” Collins said, referring to the run. “It’s so different from what I remember after the Vietnam War.”

Bellona said he came up with the idea while on a run, looking at the New York City skyline.

“I started thinking about it looking over at ground zero,” he said.

The run began June 14 just outside of Fort Irwin, Calif. Saturday, the runners moved from Afton Mountain to Charlottesville — running up the Downtown Mall and East High Street at about 10:30 a.m., with Bellona holding an American flag and leading the group of about 30 — and on toward Shannon Hill, a distance just shy of 50 miles.

Carol Barnett, who served as a local liaison for the run, said she heard about it through a soldier’s blog.

“It’s quite an undertaking,” Barnett said. “I have a lot of friends and family in the military, and I could see how much it meant for them.”

Albemarle County resident Bob Arms is one of those people astounded by the effort to honor American soldiers.

“It’s wonderful that our country remembers,” said Arms, whose son Brad was killed in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004. Arms said his son’s flag is in Colorado. Bob Arms ran just over a mile in Charlottesville on Saturday.

“Brad loved to run,” Arms said. “He’d probably be out there encouraging the other guys.”

The runners will reach Arlington National Cemetery on Aug. 24 and do a 10K memorial run around Washington to culminate the 13-state journey.

About halfway through Saturday’s run, runners and supporters gathered at the Pantops Mountain BP Station to recoup with fruit, water and Gatorade.

Anastasia Crihfield, a student at the University of Virginia and a volunteer on the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad, ran about five miles with the group just after she finished an overnight shift.

“It was a good experience, a good way to get in a run with other people,” said Crihfield, who is training for a marathon.

Ellen Bradley, an engineer with the Army and another rescue squad volunteer, steadily drank a bottle of Gatorade while standing in the parking lot.

“It’s a good way to give attention to the people, not the politics,” Bradley said.