On October 26, 1825, New York State opened the Erie Canal at a ceremony in Buffalo. At the moment Governor Clinton declare it open a cannon was fired. A few miles east a second cannon crew was stationed and when they head the first one roar, they fired their cannon. And thus the news of the opening was relayed across the state and down the Hudson to New York City in a few minutes.

In 1975, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the canal, a running relay traversed the towpath of that canal, this time from Albany to Buffalo. I got to run a leg of that relay - from Adam's Basin to Sweden-Walker Road, about two and a half miles out of the 360 mile relay.

A 360 mile relay was but inspiration to a really long relay.

In the spring of 1976 the hot topic of discussion in my world was the number of mega celebrations planned for that year's Fourth of July. For those of you who don't remember this bit of ancient history, the celebration was referred to as the "Bicentennial". Not "a bicentennial", but "The Bicentennial". NASA painted the Bicentennial Logo on their Vehicle Assembly Building, New York City hosted the first Tall Ships/Operation Sail, new coin designs were minted, Queen Elizabeth II (yes the same one) presented the City of Philadelphia with the Bicentennial Bell.

But what about in my home town, Brockport, New York (population 8,000)?

I know the plan was born at my lunch table in High School during period 5B. The "B" means that our allotted lunch time was during the second half of the 5th period of the day. Since periods last 45 minutes, this meant that you had 22minutes 30seconds to eat your lunch. Which was more then enough time for me to wolf down my three sandwiches, apple, carrots, cake or cookies and milk (I had a superior mother who was master at assembly line lunch construction).

One day, in the idle minute at the end lunch, while waiting to be allowed to dash off to trigonometry, the idea of a relay was born, and I made a flawed calculation which was to (slightly) mar the event.

Tom Rich (alias "Captain America" and the man who later earned the title of "Most Physically Fit Marine") probably conceived of the idea, and most certainly was the driving force behind its realization. According to the Guinness World Records, the "Longest Relay" at that time was 200 miles.

In retrospect I don't believe that. I had been in a 360 mile relay the previous fall. And Olympic Torch Relays are much longer. But for some reason Guinness said 200 miles, and Tom contacted them to confirm what information they would need from us to confirm we had broken it. And we were off and running - as it were.

How long would it take to run 1,776 miles? The question fell to me, since I was the only one at the lunch table to carry a "slip stick" (a slide rule). Eight miles per hour meant nine days, whereas seven miles per hour meant ten days. We agreed that seven miles per hour was reasonable, and so planned our start for Thursday, June 24.

That was my flawed calculation - or perhaps the flawed assumption.

In the few weeks building up to the event word went around town, or maybe it was just Tom in his red Pinto with a white stripe, and local merchant started donating thing. First, and perhaps most import, the Board of Education gave us permission to use the school grounds 24 hours a day for the duration of the event. And they also give us permission to use the lobby of the big gymnasium - which meant access to bathrooms and water!

Stull's Lumber donated wood and paint and we constructed a large sign next to our HQ which listed all the sponsors and also had a large chalk board where we displayed miles run.

And tee shirts! None of these hi-tek wicking fabrics, these were real genuine white cotton, and they looked like they should be worn under another shirt. Except the words "BI-CENTENNIAL RUN - 1776" had been silk screened on to them.

The assistant cross-country couch was also the shop teacher. So he and Tom turned our baton on a lathe, out of a piece of mahogany. Mahogany look beautiful, but also turned out to be the heaviest baton it was possible to construct.

Thursday, June 24th at noon we were launched! The day was overcast, but still, according to the newspaper "22 men and 4 women" (ok 22 boys and 4 girls) ran that first mile together. By using the distance wheel from the shop we had measured and marked three, one-mile loops on the school grounds. (Who know you could measure cross-country courses and lumber with the same tool!) and we were off.

Originally people would sign up for half hour blocks, but soon we discovered we had more fun if we paired up. So two runner would run for an hour, but handing off every mile. One of the math teacher had let me use the school's computer - we had 1 computer with 4k of memory - and a lot of continuous feed paper to create a sign-up sheet for every half hour, for ten days - that is 480 slots to fill.

On the second day one of the local bakeries came by at the end of the day and unloaded all their un-sold calories, and within a few days none of us needed to go home to eat anymore. Crates of fruit just appeared. Cartons of doughnuts, trays of deli meat, platter of rolls. And every evening Tom was carefully stenciling the names of the new supports onto our sign.

One night there was a pretty spectacular lighting storm and the Athletic Director showed with keys to the large gym. There were already tape marks on the floor for a 10-laps to the mile "track". I personally missed that night because I always signed up for the "dawn-patrol" at 5:00am, but I got reports from my brother (I think I heard that a baton may have been tossed - but I wouldn't say that since that might disqualify the whole relay.)

On Monday, June 28 it was again pouring, but the gym was already occupied by commencement. So the local college (SUNY Brockport) invited us to run on there "all-weather track". The high school track, 100m from HQ was cinders and given to flooding, but the collage track, 500m away, was a delight to run on, even in a light rain.

Our under estimation of our speed soon became apparent, if we keep up this rate we would reach 1776 miles on July 3rd. We huddled and discussed various options. We could tack on an additional 200 miles - it was the Bicentennial - but there was something about the number 1776. Or we could declare a "walk-day", but that would be to humiliating to even contemplate. July 4th was a Sunday, and the whole nation was celebrating a three day weekend, and the Village of Brockport was already planning to start the weekend with a street fair.

Now I'll confess that I missed the end of the relay. At daybreak, July 3rd I got to run mile 1700 for the relay and mile 100 for myself, and then I was on the bus to Boy Scout camp where I was a counselor-in-training.

Our mayor, Jim Stull, (remember the lumber - that was his mom) arranged for the grand finale. The last mile was accompanied by police cars and fire trucks down Main Street. Volunteer firefighter (some of whom ran), know how to make a lot of noise if they are allowed. About two dozen runners, including the mayor, shared the honor of racing down Main Street, through the street fair, to break the ribbon at the corner of Main and Market.

In the end I don't really know if it was a "world record", if so only in the category of relays that don't actually go anywhere. But it most certainly was an event! There were two dozen core runners, but we had about a hundred community members just showed up and ran a mile. This was when running was not very common for anyone over the age of 18 - and I expect we were close to a lot of heart failures.

I marvel at the freedom and support our town gave us. I don't recall once hearing anyone even suggest we might not succeed.

And if anyone was to hand me a half-pound mahogany baton, I'm ready to run my mile.