Father, Son Begin Cross-Country Run

A father-and-son team has begun a 3,300-mile trek across the United States of America to raise funds for the Wounded Warrior Project, the Challenged Athletes Foundation, San Diego California, and the Sunshine Foundation, Feasterville, Pennsylvania.

Ironman competitors Tom Knoll, 75, and his son Warren, 44, started the 2008 Freedom Run across America on March 1 and will average 30-mile runs each of the next 112 days. Warren Knoll will not only run the 30 miles, but he will be driven back to the starting point each day and bike the same distance, marking the first time an individual has run and biked cross country in the same event.

The run started at the San Diego, California, Marine Corps Recruit Depot on March 1, and is scheduled to finish July 4 at the Marine Corps Memorial in Washington, DC. Throughout the run, other runners, joggers, walkers, and wheelchair racers are encouraged to join in for a portion of the event. The Knolls will do some public speaking on the route to promote physical fitness among children, adults, and senior citizens.

Tom Knoll, an original Ironman from 1978, has completed 185 marathons and ultramarathons, as well as one previous run across the United States. Additionally, he has completed nine charity runs of 250 miles and another 500-mile charity event which circled the island of Okinawa, Japan. He also ran a 300-mile event in three days and seven hours, raising more than $25,000 for muscular dystrophy.

Tom Knoll has raised more than $500,000 and expects to reach his lifetime goal of $1 million-plus with his 2008 cross-country run. He spent 33 years in the Marine Corps and is a veteran of the Korea and Vietnam wars. After September 11, 2001, at the age of 70, he served in Afghanistan and Iraq for a government intelligence agency. He now teaches aboard Navy ships for Central Texas College and resides in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Warren Knoll has completed 40 marathons and is a second-generation Ironman and a writer for Triathlete Magazine.

For more info, visit www.usfreedomrun.com