Emory Duick takes a long walk to the Pier

Emory Duick, the 71-year-old man who decided to walk or jog Route 66 to encourage fellow senior citizens to be more physically active, reached the end of his 2,250-mile journey today when he made it to the Santa Monica Pier at the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, Calif.

Duick reached the “spiritual” end of Route 66 at 11 a.m., according to the Journal & Topics Newspapers Online. Starting in Chicago, he accomplished the feat in 209 days — an average of a little more than 10 miles per day. Duick had hoped to make it to the Pier by New Year’s, and accomplished that with days to spare.

This next excerpt is highly dubious, though:

He may be the only person who has actually journeyed on, or next to, the entire 2,200-mile length of the road, starting on Chicago’s lakefront on June 2.

That is incorrect. Jonathan “Willy” Williams did it a few years ago, as did Dennis “Pain Walker” Kinch and Steve “Fat Man Walking” Vaught (although Vaught’s journey remains in some dispute because he may have skipped walking some miles near Albuquerque). Then you had several dozen guys who ran it back in 1928 during the fabled Bunion Derby. And I’m fairly certain others have done it, also.

Nevertheless, Duick’s accomplishment is worth noting. I’ll post more links to more news stories about him as they come.

UPDATE: The Daily Herald in the Chicago area has a good follow-up on Duick’s feat.

UPDATE2: Journal & Topics Newspapers has filed an updated story on Duick.

UPDATE3: Here’s a story by the Santa Monica Daily Press from a few days ago.

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