Open Letter

Dear WLR for ACS followers,

The finish of our trip was just like the start: small with no fanfare. We were greeted by my Mom and girlfriend at the border of Florida. It was incredible to see them after being away for a month. A month's worth of pressure and frustration was relieved. The finish was surreal. Rather than being overjoyed, I felt strange. "We don't have to keep going?" and "What am I going to do now?" were my prevailing thoughts.

It seems like it was almost impossible. We were just two regular guys going for it. What were the chances that we would actually finish? How did we make it out without getting hit by a car? How did we make it out healthy? It's hard to believe what we accomplished.
  
For the past couple weeks, my Dad and I have been adjusting to life at home. I'm back to school, student teaching at Bangor High School in Bangor, ME. My Dad is back to work at General Electric in Bangor, ME. Dad has been running. I have been running, but not half as much as him. That's nothing new.We both entered the "real world" so quickly that we never really debriefed from our trip. Every day the fact that we finished the WLR sinks in a little more.

I've tried to sit down and reflect on my experiences. The only problem is that there is so much to say. The task of boiling down our trip to one blog post is too much. I don't feel like I can do it justice. It feels like we could fill a book with all of our experiences.

The emotions we went through on the WLR were intense. A good summary of the trip can be seen in a picture of a dumptruck we took in New Jersey. I took the picture while we were going through a construction zone because the road was too dangerous.  The giant tailgate of the truck had "<--Good Times" and "Bad Times-->" painted on it. Nothing could have been more fitting. We had the best of times and the worst of times. The bottom line is that no matter how hopeless we felt we never stopped. In our minds, we weren't allowed to stop. We never wanted to look back on the WLR with any regrets.

The support we got from complete strangers throughout the country has restored my faith in people. We were on the receiving end of countless acts of altruism. Honestly, the support we got was overwhelming at times. We never knew that people would care about what we were doing so much, and we certainly didn't realize that their support was what would enable us to complete our journey. We would have quit without the support on the road, at home, and online. All of the calls, conversations, honks, waves, and posts kept us moving.

It wouldn't feel right to get too specific in our thank yous. We could never list every person that helped us out. We thank our family, friends, teammates, and all the kind strangers who helped us. I would like to especially thank my girlfriend, Alaina Harris, for keeping me going and being there at both ends. My Dad and I would also like to thank my Mom, Regina Marquis. Mom was given a lot of responsibility. She was responsible for keeping all of our followers informed by being our blogger/webmaster. She also kept my Dad from going crazy on the road. Again, thank you to everyone who helped us along the way.You enabled us to live out a dream. We look forward to sharing more our experiences with you all in the future. Just give us a little more time to let it all sink in.

Sincerely,
Hogan

Hogan Marquis
WLR for ACS 2010


More quick notes below from Roger

Hogan you were a force both physically and mentally. Maine to Florida 1371 miles biked and 1371 miles run in 27 days. I could not have done this run without your superhuman effort.

This was a very challenging experience with many highs and lows but it was nothing in comparison to those trying to beat cancer. Thanks to our family, friends and all the new friends we met along the way. You guys inspired us to exceed our own expectations. I was honored to be able to take on this challenge in support of the American Cancer Society and wish you all good health!



Thanks,
Roger