When high winds and heavy snow pelted her tear-soaked face in the mountains of New Mexico, Katie Visco’s bid to jog solo across the country took a hit.
“Everything I couldn’t control was hitting me at that moment,” said Visco, whose inspirational run began in Boston on March 29. “Mountains, wind, snow. All those things were incredibly hard, and it just hit me at that moment — it doesn’t matter what the hardship is you just have to keep going.”
And so she did, dipping her toes into the Pacific Ocean in San Diego four days after Christmas and becoming the
second-youngest female, at 24, to ever accomplish the feat.
Visco, of Somerville, covered 3,132 miles in all and motivated countless people to follow their heart.
She inspired a mom in Pennsylvania to open a food shop, a student in Texas to play basketball, and an old friend to give up a corporate gig and work on water systems in third-world countries. Each simply did what they had a passion for, the mission of Visco’s cross-country crusade.
“It’s like they needed something,” said Visco, who will retrace her route in a van, starting in San Diego next week.
