One 97-year-old WWII veteran inspires all with his legendary coast to coast run.
Six years ago, Ernie Andrus was in the middle of the Arizona desert on his cross-country run. He was trying to become the oldest person to ever run coast to coast! A few years later, he succeeded and made it to the Georgia shore.
Right after that, Ernie decided to turn around and start running back the other way toward California! He is now a year into his return trip and Ernie has no plans of stopping.
But Ernie got some news about his health a few weeks ago when a doctor told him he has congestive heart failure.
“Yeah, that’s what they told me,” said Ernie in an interview. “But he’s selling pacemakers.”
“So, you think that’s all just a sales pitch?” said Steve Hartman, the man interviewing Ernie.
“Yeah,” Ernie said with a smile on his face. “There’s a chance that he could be telling you the truth though Ernie,” Steve said. “Does that change anything?”
“No, I’ll run till I drop,” replied Ernie. “I always said I would die with my running shoes on.”
During his run across the country, Ernie is raising money for the LST memorial. This was the ship that he served on during WWII.
In addition to raising funds, Ernie has also raised an interest in others that want to join him on his journey. Thousands of people have joined Ernie for at least a leg of his run, listening to his life stories along the way. And all of this helps Ernie with his drive to keep pressing forward to his goal.
While he may be slower nowadays, he is determined. Despite what the doctor might have said, Ernie says he plans on reaching the Pacific sometime around his 101st birthday.
God bless this optimistic man and his tenacity for life!