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Canton runner makes 162-mile ‘double cross ultra run’ around St. Lawrence County

Posted 11/20/18

CANTON -- Runner Dan Dominie has added to his growing list of personal adventure runs by completing a 162-mile double crossing of St. Lawrence County on foot in six days recently. Averaging 27 miles …

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Canton runner makes 162-mile ‘double cross ultra run’ around St. Lawrence County

Posted

CANTON -- Runner Dan Dominie has added to his growing list of personal adventure runs by completing a 162-mile double crossing of St. Lawrence County on foot in six days recently.

Averaging 27 miles a day for six consecutive days, the 54-year-old Dominie ran and walked, starting in Ogdensburg on Oct. 5 to the Jefferson County border outside of Oxbow by way of Morristown and Hammond, then back across the county to the Franklin County border outside of Rooseveltown via a route through Gouverneur, Canton and Norwood, before finishing the journey with an Ogdensburg-to-Massena leg Oct. 10.

The longest day of foot travel was 47 miles while the shortest day was 13 miles. He crossed the Oswegatchie, Grasse, and Raquette Rivers and went through 17 of the county’s 32 townships. Poor weather conditions, which included a number of days and nights of rain and below average temperatures, played a role in choosing an alternate route to his original plan for a roughly 200-mile journey circumnavigating the county at its border.

This self-supported trek, in which Dominie either carried all his needs in a backpack or purchased them along the way, was aided three times by the St. Lawrence County Public Transit System, which operates out of Canton by St. Lawrence NYSARC. The bus allowed Dominie to travel from his Canton home to remote locations around the county so he could take up stages of the trek without otherwise using a crew.

Dominie described the bus service as “an incredibly inexpensive, useful and fun alternate means of commuting for adventurous pedestrians and bicyclist exploring off-the-beaten-path regions of the North Country and beyond.”

He also used the county transit system in 2017 when he completed the second leg of the first known double crossing of New York State on foot, west to east (281 miles from Buffalo to Albany in five consecutive days aided by crew in 1992) and north to south (271 miles from Massena Intake on the St. Lawrence River to the Pennsylvania border outside Binghamton in eight consecutive days self-supported in 2017). Routes, schedules and other information on the local transit system can be found at slcnypublictransit.com.

Dominie publicly speaks on his 45 years of running and racing, including his unique ultra-distance adventure runs. Defining his long distance endeavors as some of the most spiritually holistic and important means of peace and balance in his life, Dominie shares with others his love of running, challenging his physical and mental limits, while rediscovering a bygone era of long distance travel by foot in less hurried exploration of our region and local communities.

Those interested can contact Dan for more information at 315-379-9290.