SANDPOINT - On May 1, 2010, Mike Ehredt set out on a solo run across the United States. His journey took him from the shores of the Pacific at Astoria, Ore., to the Atlantic at Rockland, Maine.

Over the course of five and a half months, the U.S. Army veteran covered the equivalent of a full marathon and a 5K race on a daily basis, going through 18 pairs of running shoes along the way. In total, he covered 4,424 miles on the trek, which he called Project America Run.

Ehredt envisioned the coast-to-coast route well in advance. The exact number of miles he would travel, however, was determined by forces outside his control. Project America Run, he explained, was undertaken to pay tribute to the soldiers who died in the Iraq War. When he began the run, the list of the fallen numbered 4,424.

To honor each individual, Ehredt carried small American flags, each one bearing a yellow ribbon bearing the hand-written name, rank, age and hometown of a service member who died in Iraq. At every mile along his route, he knelt to place a flag in the ground and stood at attention, offering a salute and a moment of reflection and remembrance.

Next spring, Ehredt plans to pick up where Project America Run left off, planting flags in honor of the additional 50 soldiers who have since been killed in Iraq, as well as the more than 1,800 who have been casualties of the fighting in Afghanistan. Once again, he will stay with host families at the end of every running day, setting out first thing the next morning on what he has come to see as a personal mission to revere those who served and died, while reaching out to offer comfort to their families.

This next run will span the miles from the Canadian border to the Gulf Coast.

Just as before, he will push a 20-pound running stroller equipped with a locator beacon, GPS system and an iPhone carrying the names of the service members. At every mile, Ehredt will scroll to the next soldier's name and click on it to mark the precise place, date and time for the flag left in their honor on the route.

The banner on the side of that stroller says it all: "One Life. One Flag. One Mile."

Before Project America Run, no one had ever attempted a run of more than 4,000 miles, much less doing so as a solo effort. But as one of the world's elite ultra-marathoners, Ehredt was well suited to the task. Over the past 10 years, he completed the 250-mile Trans-Himalaya Run in Nepal, Eco-Challenge expedition races in Borneo and Fiji, finished the 160-mile, 6-day Marathon des Sables across the Sahara Desert twice and became the 34th person ever to cross the finish line of all four, 100-mile ultra-marathon races that make up the Rocky Mountain Slam in a single season.

This Friday, Mike Ehredt will host a commemorative Veterans Day video presentation chronicling Project America Run. The program - to be held in Sandpoint's Panida Theater at 7 p.m. - is free to all veterans, with a suggested $5 donation for others who attend. Proceeds will be donated to the non-profit organization, Honoring Our Veterans.

Let's start with the Panida Theater presentation - who is it for and why did you decide to do it?

I came up with this idea for Veterans Day to honor the veterans of Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry and the surrounding area, because we do have a number of them, as a way to tell the story of the run across America and the planting of the flags, but also to honor our veterans for their service and say thank you to them.

It has been a little over a year since you completed the run across America. How has that experienced changed, in your own mind, since that time?

I still have a hard time comprehending it and absorbing the time I spent on the road, the people I stayed with and the whole project itself. It's taken a good year of reflection to understand the meaning of it and, actually, what it meant to people. Someone told me, 'You'll never see the ripple effect this had.' But when I get an e-mail or a text message from a person saying they remember where they were a year ago with me on the road, or as we planted a flag, then I see that it's still touching people.

You visited a lot of schools on your way across the country - did the kids understand what your run was all about?

I think they did, for the most part. They were very appreciative and very solemn - and grateful. In Vermont and in Washington, when you'd see the whole student body lined up in silence as you went by, it was very touching. They understand the sacrifices that were made. They're a good generation. They're a great generation.

After such an intimate relationship in honoring those who died in the Iraq War, what's your reaction to the recent news about a final pullout of our troops there?

I'm grateful for the families and the service members involved that they are coming home. Iraq was a long time, a very long time, and I'm just grateful that they're coming home. But there is a sense, for me, that my job is not finished, because now I focus on Afghanistan.

What are your plans when it comes to honoring U.S. service members who have died in Afghanistan?

Originally, I focused on the Iraq War and there have probably been 50 casualties in Iraq since the run ended. I felt that I needed to account for those who served and died there and in Afghanistan. So I felt that my mission was not complete and that it had to be completed here on U.S. soil. That's how I decided to do a continuation of the run, this time going north to south.

Do you know the route and how many miles you'll travel on this next run?

In Project America Run, the number of miles was determined by the number of fatalities in Iraq. Thank God, we don't have as many in Afghanistan, but because of the fatality total there, it made sense to run from north to south.

I'll start on the Canadian border in northern Minnesota and more or less go straight south along the Mississippi River before going over to Texas to finish on the gulf. It will come out to about 1,800 miles. Of course, the first flags to be placed will be to honor the last fatalities in Iraq.

You approached the first run in a very solemn fashion. Does this upcoming run carry even more emotional weight because of that experience?

Well, certainly there's a personal distinction between the two. The first run took a tremendous mental and physical toll, as well as dedication and perseverance. With this next one, there's the same thing. However, Afghanistan is still going on and I'll be there to honor people in this way because of that. Hopefully, there will come a point where it will be ended - maybe by the end of the run.

Is it tough to keep politics out of something like this? Or, at least, to keep your own counsel about what those politics might be?

No, I actually find it pretty easy to keep my personal views and opinions out of it, because I know that if I went down that road with someone else, it would taint the purity of what I'm doing. The basis of this project was never about politics or an administration or the country's stand on what we're over there for. It's strictly about service.

What was it like to stay with a different host family every night?

It was almost as if I was coming into a home that was part of my family. I had never met the people who hosted me until that point, but they felt like they were part of the project, because they knew it would have been virtually impossible to do what I was doing without their assistance. Without them, there would have been no project.

Other than your primary motivation to honor service members, do you also have a desire to get back on the road?

I find it hard to describe what it is that drives me to do something like this - again. Perhaps it's the feeling that I get when I'm on the road, not knowing what's around the next corner, who I'll meet or who I'll stay with.

There's also the satisfaction of being able to achieve what you conceive by believing in it strongly enough. That's very addictive. It's something soothing that fills my life, but knowing that it helps ease the pain for others gives me an even deeper satisfaction.

We all have our impressions of America, but what's it like out there when you're actually on the ground, running it step by step?

It's a pretty big country. (Laughs) You get a feeling of vastness and tremendous open space. I wouldn't say that it's a lonely feeling, because you're never really alone, but you're totally responsible for moving down the road. No one's going to get me down the road except for me and my two feet. That's overwhelming, but it's also calming.

What's it like in a nutshell? It's very real. It's very honest. There's nothing synthetic about the road and the wind and the rain and the cars going by.

You've done several extreme runs. Is there one that stands out in your mind above the others as being especially grueling?

Aside from last year's run, if I had to pick one thing, it would probably be crossing the Sahara Desert. It can be hot and miserable, but there's something beautiful and mysterious about the desert. And when you look up at a million stars at night and you realize where you are, that makes it all the better.

What's the longest single race you've ever run?

The longest, in one shot, was 100 miles. Just a shade over 22 hours. I was never particularly gifted with being fast, but I can just keep going. I think of myself as an average Joe. The things I've done were just part of moving forward with my life.

That said, the Average Joe goes out for a jog, where you go out for 100-plus mile endurance races. Take us into that runner's head - what drives a person to keep going for such extreme distances?

So many times you'll hear people say, 'It's all mental.' Well, in a sense, it is.

There's a saying that always pops into my head: 'The mind determines what is possible, but the heart surpasses it.' You truly have to believe in what you're doing and you truly have to love it. If you have those two things, you can achieve anything.

In that 'ultra' world of long-distance running, mental strength is probably 70 percent of it - maybe even 80. But you need that extra 20 percent of something else to achieve it. If I had to point to one trait, it would be having an exceptional ability to deflect negativity. There can be no doubt, because, once you open the door of doubt, you can never get it shut again.

In Project America Run, did the names on those flags pull you forward and give you that extra something it took to go the distance?

I could never leave one flag, one fatality behind. So perhaps it took me above and beyond what I was capable of doing. When there's a name on a flag and you know you have to go the next mile because you can't leave anyone behind, it's an overpowering pull and it gives you a strength that moves you down the road.

At every mile, with every flag, you stopped to remember a person and their service and sacrifice. Did that exact an emotional price, mile after mile, or did you find it uplifting?

If I was to dwell on each name, how they died and the life they could have had, it would probably take me down a black hole that I could never crawl back out of. So I focused on where I was at the time with that person. That was their spot. I turned it around and made it a positive thing.

How far along are you in putting together this next run?

We're in the planning stages of the route. From there, we'll have some community get-togethers where we'll write the names on the ribbons for the flags and put them in order. Because the first run was so big and we learned so much from doing it, this next one won't take nearly as long to prepare for. It certainly won't take three years, like the first one did.

It's interesting that, if you were to look at the route from above - and you can interpret it any way you want to - when you place this next run over the first one, it creates a cross that lays over the whole country.

By way of a personal invitation, what would you say to people about this Friday's Panida event?

It's your chance, on Veterans Day, to say thank you to the vets who will be there. And it's a chance to hear a story you probably won't ever hear again. When you actually see it for yourself in this presentation, you can truly appreciate the sacrifice our veterans have made. We wouldn't be where we are or have what we have without that sacrifice. It deserves to be recognized.