Independence Day. What a perfect day to pay tribute to one of my favorite patriotic movies, Forrest Gump. You can’t help but feel a sense of patriotism watching this epic film supported by an amazing soundtrack. The best scene in the movie, of course, is the one where Forrest runs across America for three years and builds a large following of equally psychotic runners. Even though it’s completely unrealistic, I still watch in awe every time and wished it was possible. I even try to do the math in my head.
What kind of numbers are we talking about here? If you account for sleeping and eating, Forrest probably ran at least 12 hours a day. Based on my expert pace detection skills, I’ll assume he was moving at an eight-minute mile pace. That works out to 90 miles/day, 630 miles/week and 32,760 miles/year. He went through a pair of shoes every four days. He must’ve been on the Michael Phelps diet, because he was burning over 10,000 calories a day. Yikes. It can’t be possible! Or is it? I guess I’ll never know.
If you ever decide to take a sabbatical from work and try the Gump training plan out, I recommend making sure one of those runners following you is a chiropractor. And please, bring a razor.
