How can I show a column that gives me a running duration of the project. Ex: Task 1 takes 2 days; Task 2 takes 3 days. I'd like a column that shows total duration to date "5 Days".
If they are linked with the proper predecessor relationship, you can simply make them all subtasks, in which case, the roll-up will have the cumulative duration
Alternatively you could, using tools/options, check the box against "Show project summary task". This will put in a task with ID "0" and will show you your whole project as a summary bar giving you all the information that all the tasks have, for example duration, work, baseline information etc.