This past summer, Penn State student Bobby Longenecker and three high school friends pedaled their way across the nation, going between time zones and over the Rocky Mountains.
Early last month, Longenecker (junior-kinesiology) and six friends won the Tussey Mountainback 50 Mile Relay and Ultramarathon as a relay team. Longenecker's goal is to run a marathon in every state. He spent eight weeks this summer biking 3,827 miles from the California-Mexico border to the easternmost town in the nation -- Lubec, Maine.
Longenecker's more recent step was the Marshall University Marathon in Huntington, W. Va. which he ran Sunday with the friends that biked alongside him this summer. He took 8th place with a time of two hours and 56 minutes.
But the bike trip this summer was nowhere near as comfortable, Longenecker said, especially with all the changes the group couldn't prepare for.
"Crossing time zones was hard," he said. "It's crazy. It's mind-boggling."
As runners, Longenecker said he and his friends were prepared for the cross-country journey, even though they had not spent excessive time training on their bikes.
Calling themselves the "Tour de Four," the friends hitched two bike trailers to their bikes, filling them with essentials such as bagels, extra clothes, water, sleeping bags, a tent, cell phones and a Frisbee.
In late May, they flew to San Diego, where they had their bikes shipped. They set off en route to Colorado Springs, then their hometown of Lancaster, Pa., and finally to the tip of New England.
Longenecker said it was fairly easy finding places to stay. When they finished the day's mileage, they would go door to door in nearby neighborhoods, where they would explain their mission and ask for the family to help them out.
Some hosts went above and beyond, Longenecker said.
"They'd feed us dinner, make us brownies and get a movie," he said. "In the morning, we'd wake up to smiley face pancakes."
Many days were draining, but Longenecker said those in Pennsylvania were the worst.
"Western Pennsylvania was brutal because we were so close to home," he said. "I would say that was worse than the Rocky Mountains."
Another member of the Tour de Four, Dietrich Linde, a junior at Virginia Tech, said the hardest part for him was eastern Colorado.
"We came off the Rockies and thought we'd be sailing," Linde said. "We hit the plain, but there wasn't a town for another 120 miles. That was pretty demoralizing."
The men faced multiple challenges during the journey -- from flat tires and broken bike parts to monstrous mountains and extreme temperatures.
Longenecker and Linde agree that the best parts of the trip were the people the group met along the way.
"I could go anywhere in the country and have a place to stay," Longenecker said.
During Sunday's marathon, Longenecker had an opportunity to meet more people who encouraged him, he said.
"During the race, I talked to a couple people who are going for 50 states as well, so it definitely makes me feel like it is possible," he said.
Longenecker's next marathon will be this February in Myrtle Beach. He is trying to start a marathon club on campus, but until then, he'll keep training on his own.
As for biking, he plans on making a weeklong trip next summer with six friends.
"We'll bike again, but it's all pretty much running right now," he said.
