On Thursday night time, 77-year-old Swedish ultrarunner Björn Suneson dipped his ft into the Atlantic Ocean on a abandoned seaside in Sayreville, N.J. Other than Suneson, his son Erik and a photographer, nobody in Sayreville knew the magnitude of what had simply occurred—it was his ninth solo transcontinental run throughout America.
In his ultimate weblog publish, Suneson wrote: “With two ft within the Atlantic Ocean and a brief swim, my ninth coast-to-coast (run) is completed. Is that this a ‘world file’? Since it’s not a contest, it will not be an actual file, however nobody on the planet has run so many instances throughout America.”
This journey, he writes, was the hardest but, highlighted by excessive climate, accidents and some scary moments on the highway. Over 105 days, he lined practically 5,000 kilometres, working from the Pacific Ocean in Lincoln Metropolis, Ore., to Sadowski Parkway Waterfront Park in New Jersey. Suneson’s first U.S. transcontinental run was in 2007 at 59, when he ran 95 days solo from Florence, Ore., to Virginia Seaside, Va.
71-year-old Swede completes his seventh run throughout US
“I’ve been working day-after-day regardless of a long-term irritation in a tendon behind my knee,” Suneson wrote. “Fortunately, I haven’t had any ache currently and recovered.”
Averaging 47 kilometres a day, Suneson even survived what he known as a near-death expertise in Wyoming, when a distracted driver got here inside “millimetres” of hitting him on the shoulder of the highway.
All through the run, he posted day by day updates and reflections on his weblog. For Suneson, these transcontinental crossings usually are not about charity, information or media consideration. He says they’re merely simply “a enjoyable journey,” and a option to expertise America past the vacationer spots.
In his personal method, he’s like a modern-day Forrest Gump, solely with a weblog as an alternative of a beard.
