Passing of a Friend

I received horrible news today that a good friend of mine, Chris Douglass, died in a head-on car crash over the weekend. Chris was so full of life and a total free spirit, which makes it come as a huge shock to me. In many ways he reminded me of Christopher McCandless, doing what his heart desired and not afraid to follow his dreams. His positive attitude and extremely outgoing and friendly personality made him hard to miss, and he touched the lives of many... including mine.

Chris was about to embark on an epic walk from Colorado to Maine. He was so excited about this trip, and we had been talking on the phone about it at least every other day for the past few weeks, often multiple times a day. When his walk was to be over and he returned to Maine, we made plans to run the Vermont 50 again together, a race we did together in 2006.

His girlfriend, Amy, was driving him to a campsite the day before Chris was to begin his trek, when a drugged up punk speeding in an SUV swerved over and hit their car head-on. Chris was killed instantly. Amy is currently still unconscious and in critical condition as I type this.

Chris loved running, and just plain out loved to be alive and live life to the fullest. It's a big loss for all those who knew him, and a big loss for those he would have met if we were still alive.

More on Chris and his trek.

Local news article.

Another news article.

Chris and I. We were about to go flying with his Dad over the Vermont 50 course:

Pic I took of Chris in the plane:

Chris at our campsite when we ran the MDI Marathon in 2006:

Chris at the "Mile of Champions" tree along the MDI Marathon course:

Chris at Somes Sound:
Chris with some of the Trail Monster gang:
Chris running: