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OGDEN — For most, celebrating a birthday means cake, candles, presents and parties.
For one Ogden resident, however, birthdays mean running — and lots of it.
For the past four years, Josh Bryant has spent this particular day running 100-mile distances. And with this year being his 30th birthday, he decided to start this new decade off with a bang, running the 453-mile distance from the Utah/Arizona border to the Utah/Idaho border.
“I thought it would be fun to run the 300-mile distance from my home in Ogden to my brother’s home in Cedar City, then realized that it wasn’t that much farther to run border-to-border,” he said.
So Bryant cashed in some vacation time from his job as a mechanic, packed his running stroller full of all he would need for the journey ahead, kissed his wife and three kids good-bye, and started his run the evening of Jan. 21.
The runner planned six rest stops along the way in Cedar City, Milford, Delta, Payson, Salt Lake City and North Ogden. At each stop, he planned to eat, sleep and shower and make sure not to rest for more than eight hours at a time.
When asked what his wife, Rachel, thought of his run, Bryant said that she thinks it’s a bit crazy, but is very supportive.
Other family members, including brothers Jake and Andrew, say they are very proud of their brother.
Jake, who plans to join in for a few miles once his younger brother reaches the Salt Lake Valley, said, “It is cool to see him push his personal boundaries. I am a proud older brother.”
Josh Bryant has been called anything from crazy to inspiring, and was even deemed “Utah’s Forrest Gump” by stgeorgeutah.com.
While a few have joined in for parts of the journey — much like was portrayed in the movie — Josh Bryant has found that much of his time is spent solo. When asked what he spends his time thinking about, he said he thinks about his family and friends and what he would like to accomplish in life.
He then joked, “But then sometimes I am just talking to the animals and trying to make songs out of everything I see. I would probably be locked in an insane asylum if people saw me out here.”
Bryant said there have been many highs and lows throughout his journey, but he has been grateful for the warm weather and continued kindness of others.
“I’ve been able to see a lot of good in lots of people, and it inspires me to keep going.”
Bryant is about 16 hours behind schedule, due to underestimating the compounding miles day after day, but he intends to keep going until he is officially welcomed to Idaho by the billboard that says so.
And it might as well read, “happy birthday.”
Arianne is a mother to six young children. Her down time is spent running the mountain trails of the Wasatch Mountains and beyond. Contact her at ariannebrown1@gmail.com, follow her on Twitter @arimom6 or search her Facebook page, "A Mother's Write."
