Sport Ultramarathon Education Cleveland High School | Country United States Name Jeremiah Godby | |
Born July 6, 1993 (age 30) ( 1993-07-06 ) Portland, Oregon Highest world ranking 2nd youngest male to run across the United States | ||
The Run
Jeremiah Godby (born July 6, 1993 (pronounced god-bee), is an American ultramarathon runner, who ran 3,103 miles across the United States of America (coast to coast). Jeremiah is regarded across the country as, "an inspirational figure amongst young teens."
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Overview
Jeremiah was born and raised in, Portland, Oregon - the son of Dennis and Wilma Godby. He has one older brother, Isaiah, who often, throughout their lives, challenged Jeremiah in sports that was critically important in fueling his competitiveness. But as Jeremiah grew up, he had a love for food that kept him overweight until the beginning of his senior year in high school.
Jeremiah didn't start running until his senior year in high school. He weighed nearly 210 pounds when he played football as a junior on his high school football team. But, his senior year Jeremiah elected to not play football again and to give running a try. He decided to run on his Davis Senior High School cross country team. For the first several races, he placed towards the end of the pack, since he didn't run prior to the season starting, and carried about 40 extra pounds more than most of the other runners. He continued to train, his teammates and his dad, also an avid lifelong runner, kept on encouraging Jeremiah, he began to make drastic improvements in his conditioning and overall times. In four months, he lost 40 pounds, while discovering running was his main passion. Jeremiah began to like running so much, that he reportedly became obsessive with it, and he decided to join up with his dad and brother on a run across America.
Jeremiah is a 2011 graduate of Cleveland High School
The run across America
Jeremiah Godby started from San Francisco on July 17, 2011, and ended in New York, NY, on November 11, 2011, Veteran’s Day, and then additionally he ran a final leg to Bridgeport, CT, ending on November 17, 2011. Jeremiah Godby, 18, is the youngest male to run cross-country since 1928. He ran 3,103 miles in 124 days to average nearly a marathon per day. Godby and his support crew traveled through 16 states including the Nevada desert at the hottest time of the year. The weather often reached up to 100 degrees with no escape to the shade.
Founding of "The Run"
Godby is an adviser to the management team, and a co-founder to an emerging non-profit organization called,The Run: Moving Natural medicine forward. The goal of The Run is to transform the health of the American people through healthy lifestyle and natural medicine, and to teach America about Naturopathic Medicine as an alternative medicine to pharmaceutical drugs. The Run was originally designed to be a one time run in 2011, but after receiving growing support from local and national media, they decided to pursue a non-profit continuous organization. Through this run, Jeremiah is now a sponsored athlete, on the List of Mizuno sponsorships.
Godby has also helped The Run to receive city and state proclamations. The Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper, issued a proclamation, Friday, August 26, 2011 as “Natural Medicine Awareness Day” to The Run. Also, Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, awarded a proclamation to Jeremiah and the other 3 runners of The Run, as well as, proclaiming November 10 – 13, 2011 as Natural Medicine Awareness Days. Godby also met and conversed with over 24 congressman, in Washington D.C., gaining their support and encouragement of the organization, The Run.
The 5,000 mile Achievement
In Jeremiah's first 16 months of running, he didn't stop running for a period longer than two weeks. Jeremiah Godby recently documented that he has now ran 5,000 lifetime miles through December, 2011.