MAN RUNS ACROSS U.S. IN 42 DAYS

29-year-old Pete Kostelnick has landed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest man to ever run across the country. Kostelnick started on one side of the U.S. – on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall on Sept. 12, and just kept running. He hit the Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge on Monday, exactly 42 days and 2,900 miles later, setting a record. The previous record was 46 days. He ran about 70 miles a day, at a consistent nine minutes per mile, occasionally walking up hills or slowing toward the end of the day to let his muscles cool down. And, just like Forrest Gump, along the way he gathered fans who started running with him. When he finally stopped running, Kostelnick said, “All I want is a beer and my wife.”
* Notice the order.
* Did he get a congratulatory phone call from Tom Hanks?
* He would have done it quicker but, somewhere around Colorado he realized he’d forgot his keys and had to go back and get them.
* Even quicker would be to do it north-to-south.
* Nine minutes per mile? Sounds like my car.
* He ran about 70 miles a day? I don’t even run 70 miles a decade.
* Not this decade anyway.
* Hey, it isn’t easy sitting on the sofa every day either.
* Sometimes I have to get up and move to the recliner.
* Usually these wacky athletic feats are subjects of ridicule and scorn, but I must admit – and it isn’t easy for me to do this – but this time I am genuinely impressed.