Skateboarder pushes himself toward new goals

If you ask Marion Karr about skateboarding, it might be best to have a nice cup of coffee and a comfortable chair on hand.

And his story got a little longer after the Fourth of July weekend, when Karr skated more than 100 miles on a trail in Alabama and Georgia.

A member of Statesville's Downhillbillies, Karr is so passionate about skateboarding that three of the nine descriptions about himself on his Twitter account are about the sport.

And that doesn't even include his latest pursuit, the emerging sport of long-distance pushing.

Like long-distance running or cycling, long-distance pushing is not a difficult sport to describe. One gets on a skateboard and uses it to travel long distances.

Karr, the owner of a Statesville business consulting firm, became involved in the sport earlier this year for a number of reasons.

"The stress from the bad economy was starting to get to me," he explained. "And I found out this is a great way to relieve stress."

At 46, Karr also realized he was no longer living in the glory days of his youth. On top of that he had gained a few pounds and was also not in the kind of physical shape he desired.

"Part of this was to stop making excuses," he said. "And to stop living in the past."

So he got out and hit the road.

"I used to ride (a bicycle) and run some," Karr explained. "But I'm not your typical endurance athlete."

He also is not ambidextrous and keeping a skateboard moving for hours on end was going to require work from his left and right legs and feet.

"That was tricky, teaching myself how to push from both sides," he said. "But there is no other way to do this."

After a few months of putting in the miles in and around Statesville, Karr decided to tackle a nearly 100-trail he had heard about that straddles the Alabama-Georgia border.

When the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia linked with the Chief Ladiga Trail last September, it became what is thought to be the longest paved continuous walkway in the United States.

"I did a lot of research on this before I did it," he said. "And I just got more and more excited about this trail."

Karr learned, among other things, that no one had yet skateboarded the entire trail and he wanted to be the first.

But Karr, a self-described "Jesus Freak," also found a deeper meaning or impetus for his odyssey.

"God put it on my heart that this had to be more than just pushing for 100 miles," Karr said.

He then alluded to a kind of spiritual experience he had during his training that firmed up his belief that there was a higher purpose to the trip.

"This wasn't just going to be about me," he said. "It was going to include the people in my path that God wanted me to pray with."

He talked about two young girls — the daughters of a man who'd read about his trip —who biked along with him for about five miles.

And there was a college professor named Eric, who biked alongside him and encouraged him through nine up-hill miles and 30 other people he prayed with along the way.

"That part of the trail was really remote," Karr said. "At times you are really in the wilderness. But Eric paced me and we talked and he was really helpful."

Then there was Alvin Davis.

"He's a 60-year old man who rides the trail every day." Karr said. "He's like the unofficial trail patrol.

He rode with me for six of the toughest miles of the whole trail. He was like my guardian angel."

Karr said it was the praying that got to him the most. He said the prayers were simple ones and that the response to them was overwhelmingly positive.

"I talked to 32 people," he said. "And only two were not receptive to it and even they were nice about it. They told me it was a private matter. And that was cool. And with each person I became more emboldened and more confident."

Aside from the people, Karr said the scenery alone would have been worth the trip.
"It was incredible," Karr said. "It is beautiful there."

As far as the sport of long-distance pushing, Karr said it is becoming more popular in the Pacific Northwest, but he is not sure how well it will catch on in these parts.

"I want to be clear about this," he said. "This is really on the fringe. It is an odd, kooky sport."
And yet Karr can't get enough of it.

From his home in Statesville, he skated to Union Grove and back last Saturday — about 45 miles round trip — and followed that up on Sunday with another 12-miler.

"This isn't about competition. It's about setting goals and getting fit," Karr said. "And it's about having fun. Don't get me wrong, this is very hard — it's brutal — but it's also fun."

The Silver Comet/Chief Ladiga Trail is a total of 95 miles. Karr's route to and from the hotels he stayed in added another 10 miles to the journey.

He did it over the course of two days — July 3-4 — and now has his sights on doing it in one day.

"That's the way this kind of thing is," he said. "It's always, 'What can you do next?' "