11/25/2009 6:00:00 AM
66 runner makes it to Kingman
just in time for Thanksgiving
71-year-old Emory Duick is jogging the Mother Road
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| ERIN TAYLOR/Miner
Lauren Duick cheers on her father, 71-year-old Emory Duick, as he jogs past the Route 66 sign in front of Lewis Kingman park Monday. The Duicks, who are from Chicago, are on a cross-country trek following the original Route 66 all the way to Santa Monica, Calif.
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KINGMAN - More than 1,900 miles may have taken its toll on 71-year-old Emory Duick's shoes, but not his soul.
Duick has spent the last 160 days jogging the original Route 66, with his daughter, Lauren, following close behind by car. The Duicks, who are from the Chicago-area, began their journey in front of the Art Institute on Michigan Avenue July 25. They'll be in Kingman most of Thanksgiving week.
Duick spends an average of four hours each day on the road.
"My brother didn't think I'd get out of the Ozarks," Duick said.
Duick was sidetracked for about nine days by severe pain in his sciatic nerve near Oklahoma City and again briefly in Tucumcari, N.M., after the pain returned, but it isn't only physical pain he's had to deal with.
In St. Louis, it was the 100-percent humidity. In Ford Leonard Wood, Mo., it was a pack of wild dogs.
The trip has also tested the endurance of Lauren, 31, who admits to not caring much for camping. The father-daughter duo spent the first portion of their trip sleeping in a pop-up camper they towed. They've resorted to hotels since the weather has gotten colder.
Lauren, who took a seven-month unpaid leave of absence from her job as an occupational therapist for the trip, said she's gotten much closer to her father, learning things about him, such as when he expressed a fear of heights during a visit to the Grand Canyon.
Duick, a veteran of both the Army and Navy, has run 18 marathons since 1991. He does it, he said, simply to stay active. He hopes that this road trip will inspire other seniors to do the same.
"There was a 64-year-old woman in Tulsa who read about us in an article in the Tulsa World and said she decided to stay active after hearing about us," Duick said. "You should want to participate in life until you go."
The Duicks aren't sure they'll be able to stay true to the original Route 66 while traveling through California since portions of the road are private property, but that doesn't bother Emory.
"It's the journey, not the destination," he said.
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Posted: Thursday, November 26, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
do it on harley more fun
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
I tip well!
If I had known he was coming, I would've asked him to pick me up a Lou Malnati's pizza...I'm dying out here for some REAL pizza!
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Wow, good for you, Emory!
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