PEORIA, Ill. – It’s almost time for this year’s St. Jude “Memphis To Peoria Run”.
A caravan of RVs, filled with runners and support team members, will leave Peoria early Tuesday morning. It’s the run’s 43rd year.
St. Jude Runs Co-Founder Mike McCoy tells WMBD’s “Greg and Dan Show”, after arriving in Memphis and touring St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, they’ll hit the pavement Wednesday around 11 a.m.
The 465 mile run from Memphis to Peoria is divided up between the Blue and Gold teams.
“Each team is responsible for running about eight hours, about 48 miles. And, that 48 miles is divided into three or six mile segments, and each runner will run a segment. At the end of eight hours, one team will stop like they start…the Gold team will leave the hospital, and at 8:00 that night, the Blue Team starts running…and we run all night, and then we switch off in the morning at someplace and say hi to each other,” McCoy says.
The runners don’t get a lot of sleep when they’re not running, but they know what they’ve signed up for, McCoy says.
“You know you can get a nap here and there, but one of the things that makes it hard is that you think…well I’m off for eight hours, so you think you’ll get some sleep. But, it doesn’t work that way…you have to travel 60 miles, you’ve got to take a shower, you’ve got to get some food, you’ve got to get some gas, you’ve got to do all the things, and if you’re a runner, you’re a driver,” McCoy says.
The runners are well-fed and taken care of along the way, McCoy adds. They’ll meet up with satellite runs from across the Midwest Saturday afternoon in East Peoria…crossing the Bob Michel Bridge, before heading to the Peoria Civic Center together for the St. Jude Telethon.
The telethon can be seen on WEEK-TV/25 News Saturday evening at 6:30.
There is still time to donate to St. Jude runners ahead of the telethon. For details, click HERE.
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