Crossing the finish line
After losing his job when the pandemic hit, Glastonbury’s Shan Riggs saw an opportunity to run across America and raise $40,000 for Foodshare. On Tuesday, he completed a three-month journey.
On Giving Tuesday, ultra marathoner Shan Riggs and his crew chief and friend Callie Vinson jump into the waters of Hammonasset Beach as he completes a 3,250-mile run from San Francisco. Riggs began his run Sept. 1 in San Francisco after COVID cutbacks cost him his job as an events coordinator with the Hartford Marathon Foundation. The cross-country trip raised $40,000 for Foodshare, for whom Riggs volunteered his time at their Rentschler Field distributions. For story, see
“It’s a dream. You think, ‘Can you cross the continent on foot?’
It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain.”
— Shan Riggs
Like many Americans, Shan Riggs lost his job when the pandemic hit. But he turned it into an opportunity. An ultramarathoner, he’d always wanted to run across the country and now he had time. Hehad volunteered at Foodshare events at Rentschler Field and saw the need.
Riggs, 41, started running Sept. 1 in San Francisco. On Tuesday morning — Giving Tuesday — it was still dark at 6:30 a.m. when he ran through a large Foodshare arch set up in the parking lot of the charity’s building in Bloomfield for his final 50 miles to Hammonasset Beach in Madison.
At 3 p.m., his fluorescent green windbreaker appeared in the parking lot and he ran through the finish-line arch the Hartford Marathon Foundation had set up. Then, though it was cold and windy, he and his crew chief and friend Callie Vinson jumped into the Atlantic Ocean.
“It’s a dream,” he said. “You think, ‘Can you cross the continent on foot?’ It’s a feeling that’s hard to explain.”
Twelve states. Lots of mountains, more than he thought. Ten pairs of running shoes. An average of 40 miles per day, 3,120 total miles. Lots of cows and corn. Only one setback, due to food poisoning at an Indiana diner.
Along the way, Riggs, who lived in Glastonbury before he essentially moved into a van for the cross-country trip, raised $40,000 for Foodshare.
“This is incredible,” said Jason Jakubowski, the CEO and president of Foodshare. “Nobody’s ever done it for Foodshare, from coast to coast.
“We have a lot of people who do very interesting fundraisers for us, but this one definitely takes the cake. It’s incredible when you think of the enormity of it.
“I remember when he started it back in September, we were with him
on Facebook Live when he touched the Pacific Ocean. We would talk in our meetings about it every week, ‘Oh, where is he today?’ ”
And there he was, right in the parking lot in Bloomfield. Interestingly enough, Riggs encountered probably the worst weather of the entire trek — lots of wind and cold rain and even sleet — during his 33 miles Monday.
“Other than getting food poisoning in Indiana, things have gone surprisingly well,” he said. “We have gotten a huge amount of support, everywhere we go. Once people find out what we’re doing, they’ll just give [to] us —‘Here, here’s some food.’
“The van would be parked on the side of the road, a police officer would come out to make sure we were OK [and] we’d tell them what was going on. They’d radio ahead, and suddenly everybody in the town knew what we were doing.
“We’d get a lot of honks
and ‘Run, Forrest, run.’ ”
OnTuesday, people heard his story and came out to give him money and water.
Riggs has run about 50 ultramarathons, including 100 milers and 24-hour races. He worked as an events coordinator with the Hartford Marathon Foundation but lost his job when the pandemic hit and road races and events were canceled.
He got to know Foodshare and Stop & Shop contacts through his work at HMF; Stop & Shop became one of his sponsors.
“I’ve been working with Foodshare for the past couple years,” he said. “I volunteered at Rentschler Field, just seeing the need. … I’ve done other expedition-type runs. Similar format, where we tried to shine a light on a particular charity. This is a bigger magnitude, but it felt inevitable in some ways.”
Riggs lived in Glastonbury but moved out when he decided to do the run.
“Literally, everything I own is in the van,” he said.
Vinson, who works in
advertising in Chicago, signed up for the adventure and became his crew chief, driving the van across the country. She worked as she went, using her hot spot or trying to find Wi-Fi.
She is also an ultramarathoner and was able to train 70 to 100 miles a week while on the road in preparation for a 200-mile run that she plans to do soon (with Riggs crewing for her) in Chicago.
“He’s in debt to me for a couple of races,” Vinson said, laughing. “It’s worked out really well. He wanted to do it for a great cause.”
They spent a lot of time in small towns, avoiding major roads, and it was eye-opening to see howdifferent parts of the country responded to the pandemic as well as the election, Vinson said.
“It ’s been interesting seeing the different voices rising out of different communities and what they’re saying,” she said. “But as soon as they see us, they’re extremely supportive. It doesn’t matter where they come from, where they live. This is one cause that can bring anyone together.”
Jakubowski said that according to statistics from Feeding America, approximately 585,000 people in Connecticut are food insecure currently due to the pandemic. The money Riggs raised will provide 100,000 meals.
“It’s sad when you see the number of people who have never experienced food insecurity all of a sudden finding themselves not knowing where their next meal is coming from,” Jakubowski said. “For somebody like Shan to step up to the plate to partner with Stop & Shop and do this for us, it’s incredible.
“We did not recruit him; he came to us. We couldn’t do what we do if it weren’t for people like him. It’s incredible, absolutely incredible.”