Alexandria Runners Carry 9/11 Flag 485 Miles to Ground Zero
Old Town Run Club completes its third annual remembrance relay from Shanksville to the Pentagon and Ground Zero on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
ALEXANDRIA, VA — They started at the place where Flight 93 went down, carried an American flag through the Pentagon and kept running until they reached Ground Zero.
For members of Alexandria’s Old Town Run Club, this year’s 9/11 remembrance was not a single ceremony. It was a 485-mile journey.
The club completed its third annual Race for Remembrance on the morning of Sept. 11, tracing a route from the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to the Pentagon and then north to New York City. The relay was organized to honor those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks and to support the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
A 485-Mile Tribute
The relay was divided into two demanding sections. Runners first covered the route from Shanksville to the Washington area, then began the second leg from the Pentagon to Ground Zero. The official race page said the New York-bound group departed Sept. 8 after a reading honoring the 184 people killed at the Pentagon.
The scale of the run is extraordinary, but the point is remembrance.
Old Town Run Club organizer Eric Danesi, speaking after the group reached New York, put it simply: “This is bigger than all of us.” He added, “25 years ago, we said we’ll never forget, and here we are.” His remarks were captured in a video interview from Ground Zero.
An Alexandria Club With a Service Mission
Old Town Run Club is rooted in Alexandria but has built much of its identity around service. Volunteer Alexandria describes the club as a community running group that organizes fundraisers benefiting Tunnel to Towers, which supports fallen and catastrophically injured first responders, military members and their families.
The Zebra first wrote about the club’s ambitious remembrance-run plans in 2024, when organizers Eric Danesi and Ono Margioni were preparing an earlier version of the relay. That story chronicled how a local running group turned miles into a mission.
Two years later, the run has become a tradition.
Why This Year Felt Different
The 2026 relay carried extra weight because it marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Along the route, runners passed through communities that greeted them with police and fire escorts, flags and local supporters.
That response underscored what the runners were trying to carry with them for all 485 miles: not only the memory of the people who died in 2001, but the promise made afterward that they would not be forgotten.
For an Alexandria running club, that promise meant lacing up, taking the flag and carrying it all the way to New York.
