Fairfield, CT - In 2020, Fairfielder Joe Walewski took on and successfully completely the personal challenge of running every street in Fairfield. It reminded some folks of Forrest Gump who started running and just kept on running, across his state then across the country. That comparison got Joe thinking and, after his Fairfield tour, then doing the same in New London, he began running the perimeter of Connecticut."More specifically, I'm trying to run a giant loop around the whole state on the closest road/trail/open access beach to either the state border or coastline," Joe explained.He's allowing himself some flexibility in the pursuit, for practical reasons. "Going into bordering states (MA, NY, RI) is allowed so that it can look as clean as possible."He's already set off on his challenge and made great headway. "So far I've done 144.61 miles out of an estimated 572, meaning I am approximately 25.2% of the way done (as of September 8, 2021)."The trek hasn't seemed that different from his first challenges. "In many ways it reminds me of the running every street challenges. There are countless "hidden gems" along the route to admire, paper roads (roads that exist only on maps, to prevent map plagiarism) to avoid, and all sorts of unexpected twists and turns that make each and every run unique," Joe explained.There has been one key difference in the journey, however. "While Fairfield and New London were almost entirely individual efforts this challenge has truly been a team effort, with other people stepping up to help drive me from one end of my run to the other. I do this so that I can cover twice as much of the route at once," Joe shared.In order to honor his supporters' contributions and show off all the amazing places he's discovered, the former Fairfield Warde High School track star has set up a public Instagram account @jwalewski_ , to which he has posted about every segment of his run so far.Check out his trek! GO JOE!!
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