(Newswire.net — July 13, 2015) — Inspired by the Academy Award-winning film “Forrest Gump,” a 23-year-old man from Michigan decided to run 100 days from coast to coast across the US. The reason, his charity program to fight poverty, Reuters reported.
Passionate Runner, Barclay Oudersluys, has run several ultra-marathons and triathlons over his 23 years of living. His current run was inspired by his favorite movie “Forrest Gump” starring Tom Hanks.
In the movie, Forest Gump is a man with autism who does his best to make others happy. Oudersluys, the ‘Forest Gump’ from Michigan, actually holds a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, and simply loves to run.
Unlike the movie, Oudersluys didn’t start running to run away from a problem, but to outrun himself in an epic endurance run from California to Maine. Oudersluys founded his own charity called ‘Project Gump,’ in order to raise funds for his run.
“I decided if Forrest Gump could run across the country, I could do it too,” he said in a telephone interview after he had completed his 61st day of running, reported Reuters.
On his rout across the US, he’ll run from Santa Monica, California to Marshall Point Lighthouse in Maine, exactly the same route that Forrest Gump and an undocumented number of other runners have taken.
Reportedly, the 23-year-old from Birmingham, is rising every morning around 6 am, and has kept a daily pace of 30 to 33 miles (48 to 53 km), a distance greater than a marathon.
According Dr. Paul Thompson, a sports medicine specialist and chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, it is not known if a man can endure such a run.
“From a medical point of view, we don’t really have that much knowledge about what that can do because there aren’t that many people that do that sort of thing,” he said.
If everything goes according to plan, Oudersluys will finish his run on August 16. Joining his campaign, Oudersluys’s home town is aiming to raise $10,000 for the Hall Steps Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2009 by distance runners Ryan and Sara Hall aiming to raise awareness to global poverty.
On his mission, Oudersluys is running over 3,150 miles (5,070 km) across 14 states.