British man ran 15,000 miles across US to recreate Forrest Gump route

A British man spent 19 months and managed to run more than 15,000 miles across America recreating Forrest Gump’s run across the country as seen in the 1994 Hollywood film.

Rob Pope, the 39-year-old marathon runner from Liverpool, England, has been making his way across the US since September 2016 and completed 15,600 miles on May 11.

“Finally worked out the (15) grand total. No wonder I got tired. Add in the running of Boston, Oregon State 10k Championships, Manchester, Brighton and London (WR) marathons and that makes 600 marathons in total. 600!” he wrote on his Facebook page.

In April, Pope ran for the London Marathon dressed as Tom Hanks’ Oscar-winning character in Forrest Gump. He created the world record of the fastest runner there by the completing the marathon in 2 hours, 36 minutes and 28 seconds.

“I could run like the wind blows,” Pope wrote on his Facebook page on April 22 after completing the London Marathon.

His real motivation behind taking on the 15,600 miles run across the US was to raise funds for two charities he supports - London-based Peace Direct and WWF in Switzerland. Out of 50,000 British pounds that he aims to collect, Pope has managed to cover 64% of the target.

“I did my bit as I ran from Alabama to California to Maine to Oregon to South Carolina and on to Monument Valley, following in the footsteps of a certain Forrest Gump!” Pope wrote on Virgin Money Giving, a UK-based fundraising website.

According to Pope’s estimate, he has been running 37 miles a day and taken 24 million steps.

Run, Forrest, run! @runroblarun has just broken the record for the fastest marathon in a film character costume (male) – dressed as Forrest Gump – in a time of 2:36:28. He’s raised money for a variety of charities including @WWF and @peacedirect . #LondonMarathon pic.twitter.com/jbXCPMGxqy

— GuinnessWorldRecords (@GWR) April 22, 2018

“I first had the idea to run across America 15 years ago. I’d had a number of half-hearted attempts trying to put a run together, but after watching Forrest Gump one night, I had a light-bulb moment,” the multi-marathon runner was quoted as saying by the Bored Panda.

After finishing his US marathon, the first thing Pope did was propose to his girlfriend.

“It meant everything to me to have (my girlfriend) Nadine and our newborn daughter, Bee, there at the finish line,” Pope told the Daily Mail.

“Nadine has been my rock, I couldn’t have done it without her - proposing in that moment felt right,” he added.