By The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- An Iranian exile who spent the past six months running around the perimeter of the United States says he's waiting for Guinness to certify his 11,000-mile jog as a world record.
Reza Baluch returned to New York, his starting point, on Friday.
The London-based certifying body needs to declare the feat a world record for longest solo run around the U.S. perimeter.
Baluch, who obtained political asylum in the United States five years ago, says the goal was to promote world peace. He dedicated his 50-mile-a-day journey to his father, an Iranian rice farmer who died in 2006.
"I want people to know that the Iranians want peace,'' Baluch said. We are peaceful people.
Baluch left New York last June 17, on Father's Day, running along the eastern seaboard, across the southern border, up the West Coast and across the northern states.
The previous Guinness record for the same course was 10,608 miles in 280 days, or about nine months. Robert Sweetgall set the record in 1983, starting and finishing in Washington D.C.
The 36-year-old former member of the Iranian National Cycling Team left Iran 12 years ago. When he's not running or bicycling, Baluch works as a mechanic in Denver.
Baluch, who was sponsored by the Iranian-American community and others, said proceeds will go to Denver's Children's Hospital. |
