Runners honor friend who lost his life to ALS in 'World's Longest Turkey Trot'

MILWAUKEE -- A group of runners are paying tribute to a friend in a major way this Thanksgiving. It's being dubbed the "World's Longest Turkey Trot," all in the name of the disease that has no known cure.

The group is running 100 miles from Milwaukee to Chicago and the idea started six years ago as a joke between friends. The next year, one of them -- Alfredo Pedro Perro -- was diagnosed with ALS and couldn't run.

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Sadly, Perro passed away a year or so after that. Now, the run is being carried out in his honor.

"This event is really different. This isn't the kind of thing you train for. There's a lot of walking. It's self-supported. There's a lot of like stopping places to charge and to eat and dry off your clothes. It might get cold, we've had snow in this event. It's going to rain overnight," said Scott Kummer, event organizer.

The runners took off Friday morning, Nov. 23 downtown at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station. The runners are expected to arrive in Chicago sometime Saturday afternoon, Nov. 24. The money raised goes to the Les Turner ALS Foundation.