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'Jazzy' runs final leg to Times Square
By Todd Dills
Jasmine Jordan enjoys the end of her cross-country run in Times Square. (Courtesy of Lee Jordan)
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Just after 1:30 p.m. Eastern time today, June 15, Jasmine "Jazzy" Jordan of Dalton, Minn., at 17 years old became the youngest woman to ever run across the United States.
Jordan logged more than 3,150 miles from near Los Angeles to New York’s Times Square.
The final June 15 leg of Jordan's run was a 14-mile jog from New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan, during which members of her family cycled in and out to jog with her, including her younger brother, Levi, and her mother, Paulette. "My little brother Levi did quite a lot of miles," she said. "My friend from school was out running with me quite a few times, too."
Three New York Police Department officers, among others, joined her on the Manhattan side of the bridge for the final 6.9 miles down Broadway to a Times Square finish.
Jordan, who had been experiencing pain in her feet, shins and knees in the final weeks of the run, expressed joy at the journey's end. "But I'm going to miss a lot of it," she added, including the contact the run has afforded her with so many among the nation's trucking community for whom she ran. "Every place we’ve been has just been great," she said. "I won’t forget any of it."
She was inspired to undertake the run after the death of a family friend and employee driver in her mother's pilot car business after a battle with cancer and without health insurance. On her run, Jordan promoted the philanthropic medical assistance efforts of the St. Christopher Truckers Development and Relief Fund (truckersfund.com), a Knoxville, Tenn.-based nonprofit.
Jordan's father, Lee, owner of a small fleet prior to committing his time to driving pilot for his daughter for her more than 9-month run, expressed no small amount of relief at the culmination as well. "I am happy to be done as far as watching her go through the pain," he said. "That’s been a tough deal for me, very hard to watch." But he, too, was somewhat wistful at the end. "As far as the time I’ve been able to spend with her," he said. "I will most definitely miss that."
Jazzy Jordan said she will spend the summer finishing schoolwork for her junior year of high school, for which she received an extension, and will go sky-diving with her mother. After she completes high school, she added, "I’m not sure what I'll do. I might continue training for the Olympics [which she put off in favor of embarking on her just-completed journey]. It won’t be the 2012 Olympics, but I at least want to go and watch them."
Jordan and her father will appear at the Great American Trucking Show Aug. 26-28 in Dallas.
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