Mattapoisett man recounts running perimeter of United States

MATTAPOISETT — It was a Sunday night more than 45 years ago, and Charlie Bell was standing at a train station in Connecticut. He was waiting to head back to his New York City apartment after a weekend visiting his older sister when a routine thought popped into his mind: “Ugh, I don’t want to go to work tomorrow.”

“I thought to myself, ‘What would I do if I didn’t,’” said Bell, now a Mattapoisett resident.

Over the next seven minutes, many ideas crossed his mind: Learning an instrument or a new language, trekking the Himalayas and lastly, running around the perimeter of the United States.

Bell went to work the next day and for the next 15 months. But as he did, he kept a secret from his coworkers — that on the side, he was training and saving money to quit his high-paying job at IBM and run around the country.

“I wanted to see the United States, and I wanted to see how good of a runner I could become,” said Bell, who played soccer at Princeton University before picking up marathon running as a hobby after graduating.

Bell turned the idea that came to his mind on a whim at the train station into a reality — running around the entire perimeter of the United States while sleeping in his tent, churches, and for one night per month, a motel — a rule he made for himself.

Bell’s odyssey started in August of 1979. He didn’t return home until March of 1981.

“The adventures were ridiculous,” said Bell. “Each of them seemed to offer some insight into the world that I didn't have at that point.”

At no point along the way Bell had any regrets about what he was doing. At some point along the way, he actually fantasized about his adventure lasting forever.

Since completing his journey, Bell has been writing a detailed account of the things he saw, people he met and lessons he learned.

“I started working on it and working on it, and lo and behold it took me nearly 40 years to get it right,” he said. “I finally reached a point just a few years ago, where every word was right.”

The “mammoth account” will be released in three volumes, each with a unique perspective, according to Bell.

He said that constantly rereading and rewriting about the trip has made him further cherish the journey and lessons he learned.

“I probably learned more of importance or value in the first month or two on the road than I did in 16 years of learning at school,” Bell said.

He said the biggest lesson that he learned on the 10,000 mile journey was simple: that people are good.

Bell is currently in the process of deciding whether to find a publisher for the story or to publish himself.

In the meantime, Bell and his daughter Amelia co-host a weekly podcast called “long/run” that follows Charlie along as he remembers his journey.

Bell recently moved to Mattapoisett with his wife, who started a new job teaching at Friends Academy in Dartmouth.

On Sunday, Sept. 29, he will be giving a talk about his travels, which included blizzards, drunken cowboys, spending a night in jail and falling in love, at the Mattapoisett Free Public Library at 1 p.m.

Bell said that most interactions and occurrences on the trip revealed something, “but by far it was the accumulation of small things which added up to more than any one of those stories.”

The long/run podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean.

More information on Bell’s journey, visit longrun.us.