One day many decades ago, a young executive found himself contemplating his future. He’d achieved so much in life already including securing a job with IBM and becoming a top sales earner – he was living the life others could only dream of. But in this moment of reflection, it all rang hollow. Charlie Bell found himself at a crossroads.
As an avid long-distance runner, Bell aspired to become an Olympian. He took his running very seriously. As thoughts of ditching his career and the desire to officially become a marathon runner merged like converging rivers, Bell struck a plan. It wasn’t fully formed but it excited his imagination – running the perimeter of the United States. Run Charlie run.
Bell knew he’d have to, number one: convince his parents, and number two: believe he would be safe. It was the nineteen-seventies, people were hitchhiking all over the globe. What could go wrong? Bell was young, strong, and fearless.
Using his training in salesmanship, he eventually gained his parents’ agreement. Albeit there were caveats such as staying in touch, keeping them informed, and not taking chances. The biggest chance, of course, would be trusting others to do him no harm. Thus, Bell began planning the trip and pushing away any unsolicited anxiety. Dreams of marathons got him out the door.
Another aspect of the journey was Bell’s plan to keep a daily diary. He hoped to chronical the thousands of people he would meet and the thousands of places he would see. He came to find that many days were uneventful, just a day running his prescribed twenty-five to thirty miles. Yet each day brought with it the kindness of strangers.
Bell began his trip heading south, away from the advancing fall and winter months of the north. Then heading west, then north, and east towards home. Roughly ten-thousand miles. He planned for the run to take him fifteen months. It would take nineteen. In spite of sustaining a knee injury he ran all but the last four hundred miles which ultimately, he had to walk. At no time did he consider quitting.
And what about those thousands of people he’d encounter along the way? They live on in the eight hundred pages Bell has written.
Still unpublished but looking for an editor or possibly self-publication, Bell is now comfortably ensconced in Mattapoisett with his wife Kay Lindsay, an educator, and his daughter Amelia. Bell produces a podcast chronicling his adventure. The podcasts are aired on ORCTV to whom Bell is very appreciative, as well as other venues.
But wait, what about the people? Bell said, “What I came to realize is that people are basically good.” Of course, that included his mother who sent him a pair of new running shoes from the supply he left in her care when he would contact her to do so.
On September 29, Bell spoke for forty-five minutes to a rapt audience at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library. From coast to coast, he ran (this time from memory), sharing stories of the people he encountered along the way.
There was the family from Louisiana who fed him Cajun food and, considering him a new family member, included him in celebrating the birth of a new grandchild by insisting he go to the hospital with them. There were the countless good folks who offered him overnight lodging which several times included a jail cot and churches willing to leave their doors open for Bell. The man who Bell would later realize was trying to hit on him, today he only feels compassion for his closeted life, “Imagine how lonely he must have felt.”
Catching up with Bell we asked if he has stayed in touch with any of the people he met. “Yes, the family with the baby.” He said that through Facebook he has been able to stay in contact with some people, the “good people” he knew he would find.
Visit ORCTV and watch Bell’s podcasts titled long/run stories of America or visit his website at longrun.us.
By Marilou Newell