Days earlier than the New York City Marathon, Jenny Hoffman, a Harvard physics professor, completed a greater than 3,000-mile run from San Francisco to New York City.
Hoffman, 45, set out in September to break the women’s Guinness world record for the quickest crossing of America on foot. The present file — set by way of Sandra Villines in 2017 — is 55 days, 16 hours and 23 mins. On Thursday, Hoffman arrived at New York town corridor in 47 days, 12 hours and 35 mins. She should nonetheless publish her documentation and have it ratified by way of Guinness World Records earlier than the file is bureaucratic.
“I still have processing to do,” Hoffman stated as she walked to Coney Island Beach on Friday to look the Atlantic Ocean, her youngsters in tow. “There’s parts that still feel out of body, like ‘Who is that person who did that thing? Is that me?’”
Hoffman stated she had all the time been intrigued by way of crossing the rustic, and have been impressed by way of each Villines and Pete Kostelnick who holds the file for males. She made the travel on foot quite than by way of motorcycle on account of her operating background.
Hoffman has been a aggressive runner for greater than twenty years. While she has run many marathons, she excels at ultra-running, which comes to distances longer than the marathon. She has received the U.S. Track & Field National Championship 24 Hour Run thrice — in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Crossing the United States on foot felt like the correct subsequent problem. She had in truth tried to move the rustic in 2019, however needed to forestall 400 miles wanting her function after tearing her meniscus on her proper facet.
Hoffman stated a chum’s critical automobile coincidence led her to check out once more. She stated she idea to herself, “‘If I’m healthy and I’m fit now and this is a life goal, I should do it when I can.’”
So she and her group set out from San Francisco on Sept. 16, and she ran no less than 60 miles every day to wreck the file. She crossed deserts, mountains, prairies, highways, and different terrain. She essentially ran in silence excluding for a 169-mile stretch of a barren region highway in Nevada, right through which she listened to Des Linden’s memoir “Choosing to Run.” Linden is the one American lady to win the Boston Marathon this century.
“People are so friendly, red state, blue state, whatever their yard signs, people have been so kind to me all the way across the country,” Hoffman stated.
Zephyr Larson, her 14-year-old son, stated he adopted his mother’s tracker as she ran. “It’s super cool to have a mom who’s inspiring and who teaches me that I can do anything I set my mind to,” he stated.
Hoffman now should accumulate the entire documentation of her race and publish it to Guinness; she stated it will take a yr for it to be ratified. Until then, she’ll be swimming and understanding in preparation for her subsequent race.
In December, she’s going to compete within the International Association of Ultrarunners 24-Hour World Championship in Taiwan. Her personal record for that race is 145.4 miles.
“I probably won’t be able to match that because I’ve just done a lot of work with this body,” she stated with a snicker.