Ultrarunner Shan Riggs Proposes After Finishing First-Ever Run of East Coast Greenway
Working 3,000 miles over the course of 78 days, 43-year-old Shan Riggs grew to become the primary individual to run all the East Coast Greenway from Key West, Florida, to the Canadian border. After making historical past with the 15-state journey that completed on July 2, there was nonetheless one thing else the extremely runner wished to do: get down on one knee.
Crossing the end line on the northern terminus in Calais, Maine, Riggs proposed to bicycle owner Joshuaine (Josh) Grant, who had biked alongside him on the journey.
Riggs ran roughly 40 miles a day to finish the greenway, taking solely two days of relaxation. The couple are not any strangers to long-distance runs and bike rides. In 2020, Riggs ran over 3,200 miles from California to Connecticut to boost cash for the hunger-fighting group Foodshare. He has run 46 ultramarathon races. Grant began working ultramarathon races final 12 months and can also be a long-time bicycle owner.
With the run, Riggs and Grant aimed to boost cash to assist the nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance, which is working to attach path methods in 15 states into one steady route that’s nonetheless in growth. As of July 11, they’d raised $17,079.
“We wished to do it as a fundraiser and to boost consciousness as a result of the East Coast Greenway Alliance want(s) neighborhood assist to have the ability to get the funding and the permits,” Riggs mentioned.
The East Coast Greenway presently comprises greater than 1,000 miles of protected paths. The objective of the greenway is to create a fully-protected pathway for pedestrians and bikers, permitting straightforward journey for the 25 million folks that stay inside 5 miles of the trail, in addition to guests.
In 2020, the greenway hosted 50 million bike rides, runs, and walks, however solely round 100 cyclists and three walkers have accomplished all the path to date.
BRO spoke with Riggs and Grant to debate each the feat and their engagement.
BRO: Shan, how did it really feel to be the primary individual to run all the 3,000-mile Greenway?
Riggs: It’s a unprecedented feeling—I love to do issues that nobody’s performed earlier than.
BRO: In what methods was your 2020 run completely different from this run?
Riggs: Once I did the run from San Francisco to Connecticut, that’s actually distant. You principally go round cities, even while you’re getting near them. It’s additionally very mountainous.
The large problem relatively than the hills on this expedition was the warmth. It was actually scorching and actually humid, particularly within the South, however even by the point we received to the North(east) it was June, so it was scorching, even once we have been in Maine.
BRO: How did you each get into long-distance working and biking?
Riggs: What received me into actually long-distance stuff is I learn Dean Karnazes’ e-book (Ultramarathon Man), possibly 16 years in the past or so. I feel lots of people thought, wow, that man’s loopy. And I learn it and I believed, I wager I may try this.
Grant: I received into it with mates, who had been doing these sorts of issues and requested myself, ‘is that this one thing I’m truly able to doing?’ And it began by simply placing one thing on the calendar. It’s additionally helped me be extra disciplined in my coaching. Then it simply sort of went from there, when you understand what you are able to do, you simply wish to maintain doing it.
Riggs: I feel lots of people that do actually lengthy stuff,that the drive is to see what you’re made from, how far you possibly can push your self earlier than issues actually begin to disintegrate. Sort of looking for the sting.
BRO: What lesson or takeaway have you ever gotten from this journey?
Riggs: I discovered that Josh and I get alongside very well, which is why I requested her to marry me.
BRO: Shan, when did you resolve that you simply have been going to suggest–was there a sure a part of the journey while you made that call?
Riggs: I can’t bear in mind what state it was—in New Jersey or New York or one thing like that—however I simply had a revelation that I couldn’t think about my life being a lot better than it was at that second.
I figured if I used to be this glad doing one thing this uncomfortable then I’ve received a reasonably good scenario.
BRO: Josh, what was your response? Did it come as a shock?
Grant: I used to be actually shocked when he received down on one knee. Sure, thrilled and glad. However I used to be shocked that he selected to ask me proper in entrance of all people, and getting down on one knee after working so many miles and figuring out how sore he should have felt as he began to get again up once more.
BRO: Did you guys have a favourite a part of the journey or favourite sight that you simply noticed alongside the Greenway?
Riggs: The overarching factor that was simply unimaginable was all of the folks that got here out and supported us, the folks that gave us locations to remain, the folks that got here and ran and donated—that was simply extraordinary, and that occurred just about on daily basis.
We received to go by so many iconic issues. We undergo each main metropolis, we go proper via the center of downtown. We went previous the Lincoln Memorial at some point on the mall in D.C., and we ran up the Hudson River proper via Manhattan. And so issues like that you simply get to do on foot and bike, you get to bodily really feel how the nation is all tied collectively.
All photographs courtesy of Shan Riggs
