Southbury man runs 3,000 miles up east coast, from Florida to Maine

HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) - There’s a man from Southbury in the middle of a 3,000-mile run.

Shan Riggs is on a mission to run from Florida to Maine in less than three months.

He just made it to Hartford.

His is running 40 miles a day, for 80 days. Sounds impossible, but Shan Riggs is doing it.

Today is day 62. He just ran into Hartford and finished at the riverfront.

He met with tons of support from the Hartford Marathon Foundation.

In April, Riggs started this mission in Key West, Florida. He’s been running on the East Coast Greenway, a trail that covers 15 states and 3,000 miles up to the Canadian border in Maine.

He’s trying to become the first person to run the entire trail.

But he’s also doing this to raise money and awareness for the East Coast Greenway.

“There’s 3k miles of trail but 1k is actually separated trail. The rest of that is on roads or sometimes sidewalks and the whole mission of the greenway to put that together so that it’s safe for cyclists and walkers and runners. And so, as the first person that’s running the whole thing is point there’s a lot of work still to be done,” said Riggs.

Some of the work is meeting with local and state governments. Shan is about 700 miles from Calais Maine. He hopes to be there in less than three weeks.

He’s been staying in hotels, but his friends have been helping along the way with supplies. The public has also heard about his journey. Some have even offered to have him crash at their house for a night while he keeps pushing on.

Tomorrow is a rest day for Riggs. Then Saturday, another 40 miles.

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