Virginia Ultra-Runner Running to Raise Money for Bauman, Marathon Victims

On Tuesday morning, Arlington, Virginia resident Frank Fumich left the Pentagon’s 9/11 Memorial and started running toward Boston.

The money they raise will go to the family of Martin Richard, an 8-year-old boy who was killed in the marathon bombings, and to Jeffrey Bauman, who lost both legs in the bombing and was integral in identifying the Boston marathon bombing suspects.

In late April, Fumich ran the equivalent of three consecutive marathons in Northern Virginia to raise money for the Richard family and Bauman.

Fumich and his friend Matt Nelson, of Lake Worth, Fla., are running from Arlington to the finish line of the Boston Marathon — about 450 miles — to raise money for Boston marathon bombing victims.

With a goal of raising $100,000, they have already raised more than $55,000 online.

To donate and learn more, go to their website at standunitedrununited.org.

You can follow Fumich’s progress on Twitter at @endurancetrust and by using the Twitter hashtag #dc2bos, and you can follow Fumich and Nelson via GPS here.

A description of the full route is also available. The pair plans to run through Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., Princeton, N.J., Newark, New York City — through Ground Zero — Hopkinton, Mass., and Boston.

Fumich and Nelson will have a vehicle accompany them for medical support, food and shelter.

“I’ve run tons of races,” Fumich told the Washington Post, “and I know how easily it could have been my family standing at the finish line. When I heard about the little boy being killed and his family being injured, it blew me away. I’m a runner, we run for causes, and that’s why I’m doing it.”

Fumich runs a couple of marathons every month and has competed in the Virginia Triple Iron Triathlon, according to a 2011 Washington Post profile.