Kevin Kline has run, and run, and run, always for a reason, but never quite like this. Extreme runners are used to pushing the envelope, but this is a big one even by their standards. Kline is running 62 miles a day for seven straight days, all at the Stafford Centre.
"The ultimate goal is to bring awareness to the lack of funding for pediatric cancer," Kline explained.
Kline and his wife run the Snowdrop Foundation, dedicated to raising research money and scholarships for pediatric cancer patients. In the past six years, he's completed a variety of distance running feats, always with young cancer survivors in mind.
"I've been surprised by everything he's done," said cancer survivor George Bember. "It's crazy how he just keeps running and running and running."
It may seem monotonous to run laps around the Stafford Centre, but that's the point, to simulate the experience that cancer patients go through in their daily chemotherapy rituals.
"This is to symbolically show what the children have to go through, through their chemotherapy," Kline said. "There is nothing comfortable about this; they actually experience pain. I just experience degrees of discomfort."
Kline began this pursuit after meeting 15-year-old cancer patient Chelsey Campbell several years ago. Now he is often joined on his runs by cancer survivors, families, and fans eager to see him complete 62 miles a day for seven straight days.
Kline's coach Tim Necker said, "You see survivors, you see kids in process of chemo out here, so it's really motivating."
Kline plans to finish his seven day stretch of 62 miles a day by January 1.
