When Wareham High School Principal Patrick Clark was hired in 2006, he noticed something interesting about his 35-minute commute from Barnstable.

"It's exactly 26.2 miles," Clark said. The same distance of a marathon.

A runner since college and no stranger to marathons, Clark decided that one day, he would make the run from Wareham High School to his home in Barnstable.

"I put it on the 'big picture' to-do list," Clark said. "Thinking I'd be here for 10 or 20 years, I put it on the back burner."

But time was running out. Clark accepted a position with Barnstable Public Schools in March, and he will leave Wareham High at the end of this month. "I said, 'Oh, I've got to get this done!,'" Clark recalled.

So Clark decided to embark on his personal marathon Thursday, June 17. He ate a good breakfast and got a ride into work. "I'm stuck. I really have to run home," he joked before the run.

At 2 p.m., Clark traded his suit and dress shoes for a Wareham Vikings t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, and started running. He made it to East Wareham around 2:30 p.m., and was met with cheers - and water - from several Wareham High employees and students.

Friends met Clark in Bourne and accompanied him on his journey down the Cape Cod Canal. He made it home to Barnstable in 3 hours and 46 minutes.

"I got back to the house and had much of my neighborhood there to greet me," Clark said. "It was fantastic."