Marshall Ulrich is a modern-day Forrest Gump.
The 57-year-old ultraendurance athlete from Idaho Springs is within a week of completing his transcontinental traverse of the 3,200 road miles separating San Francisco and New York City, all of it on foot.
The endeavor, which began at midnight on Sept. 13, originally was attempted to break the world record of 46 days to run across America. But after making it no farther than Ohio by Monday — Day 45 — Ulrich remains about a week behind schedule. The “senior” record, however, still remains within reach.
Ulrich’s running partner in the project designed to bring awareness to youth fitness and children’s obesity, Charlie Engle of North Carolina, was forced to give up on the run after injuring his ankle around Day 18. He has since continued the trek on a borrowed mountain bike, primarily in an effort to support Ulrich, who also has been hampered by a foot injury.
The men would have needed to average 70 miles per day to break the record. Although that pace proved un-realistic once the pavement pounding took its toll, Ulrich is still averaging more than a marathon a day. Given Ulrich’s so-called “Triple Crown of Extreme Sports” resume of 116 ultramarathons of more than 100 miles each, 12 complete expedition-length adventure races and first-attempt success on each of the Seven Summits, the pace appears to be well within his realm.
The run is being filmed by NEHST Studios for an upcoming documentary titled “Running America.”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
