75 year
HONEYVILLE – Bjorn Suneson was pushing a blue three-wheel baby jogger while trotting along Highway 38 near Honeyville on Thursday, June 1 on his way to an Ogden hotel.
The 75 year-old man from Stockholm, Sweden had a sign that read Coast to Coast on his three-wheeled stroller with all his gear enclosed.
"This my eighth time running across America," he said. "I started in Oregon, and I will finish in New York."
He doesn't attract much attention because he runs where it is legal to run. He can't run on freeways, so he takes roads that are less popular.
"I’ve go a hotel in Ogden and tomorrow I will go from my hotel in Ogden to a hotel in Morgan," Suneson said. "From Morgan I will go to Wyoming, I will have to camp in Wyoming. There are large stretches where there are no cities. It's wild there."
He stays in hotels and eats at restaurants and fast-food places along the way. When he can't find a hotel he has everything he needs in his stroller.
"I’m not running to sponsor anything," Suneson said. "I just do it for myself."
The former journalist said a lot of people his age sit around and don't do anything. But for him the journey across the U.S. has helped him meet some wonderful people. He has a blog with pictures of the families he has met over the years in some small towns along the way.
"I was older when I started running and I have done some marathons," Suneson said. "I did my first distant run when I was 59 years old."
Suneson made his first trans-continental run in 2007 then three years later in 2010. He continued in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2019. This is possibly his final time.
This year's route took him from Oregon through Idaho and Utah then onto Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.
Suneson's journey will take 102 days straight with an average of 32 miles a day. He should finish somewhere around Monday, Sept. 11, barring any setbacks or injuries.
He said he happened on to a town in Nebraska named Gothenburg and it became his favorite because it is the same name as his hometown, Gothenburg, Sweden. It gave him a feeling of home.
Suneson said he has heard about a lot of people walking from coast to coast but there are only about eight runners that he knows who have made the challenge of running all the way. And no one that he knows of who has done it eight times.
Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!