It’s not so much a boast as a proud proclamation. The back of the T-shirts worn by the Hanover (N.H.) High School girls soccer team states “Together we ran 142 miles to Maine.” And together that run from their hometown in the Granite State to Higgins Beach in the Pine Tree State helped raise money for numerous charities in a memorable two-day event.

“The run accomplishes two things,” said Hanover High girls soccer coach Hank Tenney. “We bond as a team. We get to know each other. And we raise money for the club and for charities. Everybody makes out and it’s been a fun thing.”

There are 22 girls on the soccer team and every one of them took a turn running after the squad left Hanover at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 22. They arrived at Higgins Beach at 1:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

“We had about five or six girls on four vans and each girl in the van for take a turn running about two-and-a-half miles and then hand off to the next girl,” said Hanover senior co-captain Megan Cain who also took part in the inaugural run in 2006.

“Hopefully it’ll become a tradition that we run here every year,” said Abbe Schickner, another Hanover co-captain. “It’s a sense of accomplishment when you finish because you could never do this by yourself.”

The players ran non-stop with a large support group of parents and coaches providing assistance and encouragement. “They run through the night and I follow the kids in the car (all night long),” Tenney noted. “And a parent bicycles alongside all the runners.”

They took turns sleeping for two to three hours as they made their way to Maine and they all ran and enjoyed the final mile of the trip that ended with a shoulder-to-shoulder dash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Hanover team has developed a nice relationship with the Cape Elizabeth girls team and that’s proven to be beneficial for both squads.

“The first week we go up (to New Hampshire) and play them on Friday and we play in their jamboree on Saturday,” said Cape Elizabeth girls soccer coach Kevin Harvey about his team’s pre-season trip to Hanover on Aug. 17-18.

“We used to go to the Windham tournament, but we’ve been playing in the Cape Elizabeth tournament for a number of years,” said Tenney. “We have a good rapport with the parents here (in Cape Elizabeth). They stay with our kids when they come up and we stay with them the following week.”