Photo from Garth Watson's 7th place 3200 in May, 2007
- by Timothy O'Dowd, IrishRunner.com
Garth's Run Across PA is the senior project, track-building, fundraising brainchild of Canton HS rising senior Garth Watson. Canton is a small town in north central PA. Despite the track team's accomplishments in recent years (champs of the Northern Tier League six of the past seven years), the school has never had an all-weather track.
Plans are underway to have the track finished by next spring, but Garth wanted to so something to help with the funding. So... coming off a state medal performance by taking 7th in the AA 3200 at PIAA States, he decided to combine academics (school credit), training (386 miles) and fundraising ($14,500 and climbing) in one very long run from border-to-border, up the mountains and down into the valleys of PA.
You can follow Garth's June 10-July 3 386 mile journey in quite a few ways. Listen to the interview following his run; check out the photo gallery; check out the map of his journey; read his journal, and then make a donation. And for those wondering how Garth did in XC the past two years, he was 45th in AA as a sophomore, and 15th this past year. We think he has the start on a great summer of base... not to mention he hill work he got in...
Garth Watson talks with Don Rich a few days after completing his Run Across PA...
Donate to Garth's Run Across PA
Garth's Run Across PA Web Site