Alicia Abelson
WMAL.com
Arlington, VA. — (WMAL) Jan Walker’s feet are tired.
After 3,000 miles and seven months of walking and running the Knoxville, Tennessee native has reached her official destination, the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.
Walker started the trek in Ocean Side, California on March 1st and reached her official end in Arlington on Tuesday. She braved through the spring winds in the west, 110 degree weather in Texas, and a pneumonia in New Mexico.
Aside from being a personal goal, running across America was a way for Jan Walker to raise awareness for the September 11 National Memorial Trail.
The trail is 1,300 miles connecting the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the World Trade Center in New York. David Brickley, the President of the September 11 National Memorial Trail Alliance said the motivation behind the trail itself is to remember “the perseverance, diligence, and fortitude that America has to respond back when tragedy occurs.” This, of course, was a motto Jan Walker could get behind.
Apart from a cart that carried her belongings, Walker made the journey across the United States without any assistance or company, making her, at 57, the oldest American woman to do so. While the Pentagon is her official end, Walker will continue to Ocean City, MD. to make it a true Atlantic to Pacific crossing.
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