Running across the world part 2: Dustin Johnson runs across Europe in 2019-20 global trek, but Australian wildfires end world record attempt


Dustin ran through France in December 2019, taking in the sites and running by the Eiffel Tower.

He spiffed up, purchased a nice outfit and took himself out for a birthday dinner at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant in Bordeaux, France.

Dustin’s European route often took him on muddy and otherwise difficult roadways. Many of the main highways in Europe have no shoulder, meaning he could not run on the roadway like he did in the United States and a lot of South America.

Dustin Johnson struggled with Europe’s narrow structures, including bridges like this one, which requires those walking or running to use the pedestrian walkways on either side. The walkways were too small for Dustin’s push cart. It took him an hour to cross this bridge.

In his free time after running or on rest days, Dustin took in the sights of the area. He took this photo of the Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal, shortly after arriving in Europe.

The weather was cold, often well below freezing, and rainy almost every day of his journey through eastern Europe.

Most nights he camped alongside a roadway wherever he ended that day’s run. Dustin’s push cart and small tent are featured in this photo of his campsite in rural Europe.

Editor’s note: This is the second article in a three part series detailing Dustin Johnson’s world record run attempt and his preparation for his second attempt at the run, all while bringing awareness to veteran suicide. To following along with Dustin’s journey, follow “Dustin Johnson’s World Record Run” group on Facebook, the “Runningforvets” Instagram profile and the WorldRunner YouTube channel. 

 

Dora High School graduate Dustin Johnson is set to leave his Missouri home on March 27, and if all goes according to plan, he won’t be back for over a year - and once he does, he’ll have achieved some pretty impressive accolades. 

After running over 16,300 miles across four continents, he’ll be the first American, youngest person in the wold and fastest, to ever run around the world. His run is dedicated to bringing awareness to veteran suicide. 

Johnson first attempted the world record run in 2019-20, but the run ended due to devastating wildfires in Australia that kept him from entering that country. 

Last week’s Ozark County Times detailed the first leg of Johnson’s 2019 attempt, which spanned the United States and South America.

This week, we’re following up with the second half of his journey, which took him across Europe and from California back to Missouri. 

 

Portugal: narrow bridges, pouring rain and more police-escorted back tracking

Dustin left South America from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Oct. 31, 2019, and flew to Lisbon, Portugal to begin his run across Europe. His mother, Tina Johnson, who had helped him for three weeks in South America, flew back home to Missouri. 

He had a new running cart shipped to him there, and after a short three-day break when local residents drove him around to see some of the sights, he took off again.

On day one of the European run, Dustin hit a new set of challenging conditions. Almost immediately after starting his first day’s run, he encountered a bridge that had a very narrow pedestrian crossing - so narrow, in fact, that Dustin couldn’t get his cart across it, despite trying for more than an hour. 

He decided to find a new route and ran north where he encountered another bridge, which also had a narrow pedestrian path. It took him another hour to make it across the narrow bridge, and the only way he was able to do it was by holding his cart out over the river and hoping he didn’t drop it. 

When Dustin was halfway across the bridge, it started to rain - and continued almost every day for nearly a month. 

Dustin’s tent began leaking, and his sleeping bag and other items were drenched. 

In addition to the constant wet weather, the Google-chosen route that Dustin was following took him down many rural, dirt and rough back roads, which had him back-tracking quite a bit. After several days he was at a mere 40 countable running miles, far from the 150-plus he should run by that time. 

“Last night, I had a 46.2 mile push trying to catch back up to where I should be… I finally got to a decent area, and the military police rolled up on me, threw me in the back of the car, took my cart and put it in a truck, with very little communication. They were not happy at all.”

Reminiscent of a similar police encounter in South America, Dustin braced for what was to come. After patting him down, they drove him off his course. 

“I still had my GPS device on me, so I knew they ended up taking me 27 miles in the opposite direction, three miles further than where I started the night before. They told me that ‘This is where you can be. I don’t want to see you again.’ Then they threw my cart out of the truck and left me there.”

The complications from the route and unwanted police escort doubled Dustin’s Portugal trip from a planned four days to eight days.

 

Spain: Wile E. Coyote finding the silver lining of hard times

The rain continued to fall as Dustin left Portugal and entered Spain. Nearing the end of November, Dustin was battling intense rain and freezing conditions as he tried to hammer out 30-plus miles each day. 

He also hit road blocks as he learned that several sections of his planned route were marked “no pedestrian traffic,” meaning it was illegal for him to run on the road in those areas. That meant reevaluating and trying different routes, often backtracking in order to eventually make forward momentum again. 

For awhile, he ran on the Camino de Santiago trail, known as “the way of St. James.” The popular trail is a network of paths across Europe that lead to a shrine of the apostle Saint James in the Great Cathedral of Santiago de Compstela, in northwestern Spain, where, if tradition holds true, the remains of the apostle are buried. While it was a neat experience to take part of the trail, the rough terrain led to more flat tires on his cart. 

His challenging moments were balanced with times when he felt truly alive.

“I’ve had good and bad days. I’ve had good and bad nights. I’ve had days that started good and then turned bad. I’ve had times where I feel like Wile E. Coyote running into a wall in the road,” Dustin wrote to his followers on Nov. 29, 2019, after posting a photo of the scenic Spanish countryside, explaining that he found comfort in the beauty of the surroundings despite the harsh conditions.

“Our best medicine is in the sound of the birds singing, it’s in the cotton candy sky, it’s in the roar of the river. That’s where we heal,” he wrote after a particularly hard day and beautiful sunset. 

 

France: Dustin’s birthday dinner and a run through Paris

France was up next, ushered in with more inhospitable winter weather. A pattern had developed featuring daily frigid temperatures, high winds and pouring rain. 

Dustin purposefully set his sights on being in Bordeux, France, for his birthday Nov. 29. He marked the special occasion by going to a thrift store, buying a nice shirt and having dinner at Le Pressoir d’Argent, a restaurant owned by famous chef Gordon Ramsey. 

A nice couple who had been following Dustin asked to fund the dinner and a night’s hotel room as a birthday gift. 

Although he said he enjoyed an amazing dinner of Beef Wellington, afterward Dustin wrote a post sharing his feelings about a subject he hadn’t discussed much on his run to that point: the loneliness of the journey.

“I don’t like sitting at a table all by myself just looking around the room until I get my food. Seeing couples laughing and even one that looked nervous enough to be on a first date. It makes me wish I could have someone across from me. And many of you would think when I get to big cities I would feel less lonely. It’s actually the opposite. Big cities make me feel extremely lonely like I did at that dinner…”

The weather in France continued the trend of the rest of Europe in winter: cold, windy and rainy, making his 30-plus daily mileage goal more difficult and taxing on his mental health. Added to the stress was the fact that most European roads have no shoulder, meaning Dustin was running and pushing his cart in sand, deep mud, chest-high grasses at times. 

But he consistently ran forward, making his way to Paris on Dec. 10. He saw the Eiffel Tower and some other Parisian sights before struggling to get out of the busy city on pace. 

At that point, there had been less than 10 days since he began the European run without rain. 

“The major problems so far in Europe have come from my cart. Not having shoulders on the roads here makes for a rough ride. Many flat tires, and I’ve ran on every surface imaginable. The rain makes it worse because it all gets muddy and makes it very difficult to push the cart through. Needless to say, when I am able to get on the road I take full advantage of it.” 

He mostly found places to camp alongside the roadway, but occasionally someone following his journey asked to sponsor his night’s hotel room fee, allowing him to get out of the rain and dry his gear in warm accommodations. 

 

Germany: a warm welcome

Dustin ran from France into the tiny countries of Belgium and onto the Netherlands. The cold, wet weather continued, and one night there was even hail. 

His original route would have taken him south out of the Netherlands to Switzerland, but struggling with running full days in the pouring rain for more than a month, Dustin decided to change his route to head into drier-forecasted Germany instead. The change meant he’d have 40 fewer miles in Europe, but he planned to make up an additional 40 miles in the second half of his United States trip that would make up for the loss. 

Dustin had a large following in Germany and several people met with him to run or hosted him at their home. 

He spent Christmas in Konken/Kaiserslautern, Germany, with Jeff and Rosie Hall, a couple who had followed his run on social media. Dustin posted how thankful he was for the family to welcome him into their home for the holiday, cook him Christmas dinner and even gave him a stocking to open Christmas morning. 

Stuttgart, Germany, home of a United States military base, was an especially welcoming city, and Dustin got to meet lots of people, have dinner with many of them, participate in several runs and other events with military families in the area. 

 

An attempt at breaking another record within his world record run

Leaving Stuttgart, Dustin attempted to break another world record - running non-stop for five to six days from Stuttgart to Berlin, a 440-plus mile stretch. 

The record indicated that the runner had to be moving non-stop between the two cities in a forward momentum at all times with  the exception of a two minute break every four hours that is typically used as a time to use the bathroom or change shoes. 

“No sleep, no sitting down, no stopping forward progression…eating has to be done while walking, and you are only authorized a two minute break every four hours for the bathroom…” Dustin wrote on Facebook. 

Dustin’s attempt was halted when he nearly was hit by a second car, causing an injury to his ankle. 

After 19 hours, he’d gone 84.3 miles. Dustin planned to use the bathroom during his allotted two minute break. His crew vehicle went ahead a few hundred meters to allow him privacy. 

During that time, a car overshot a curve on the roadway, likely due to icy road conditions on the 12 degree day, and drove right at Dustin. He leapt out of the way and onto an icy area of grass, where he rolled about 10 feet to the bottom of a concrete ditch. 

“I landed really hard on my right foot at a weird angle and hurt my ankle. It is swollen and has a constant sting,” Dustin wrote on Facebook. He limped his way through two more hours of forward momentum, but the injury was too bad, and he had to quit. 

“…it is with a heavy heart that I have to stop. I had to make the decision because my body has already been through so much. With 6,000 miles in 190 days, my body has been put through more than I ever imagined and this just added to that.”

The record for the non-stop run from Stuttgart to Berlin still stands by George Holtyzer of Belgium, who completed the 418.49 mile run over six days 36 years ago in July 1986. 

 

Devastating wildfires in Australia 

Dustin took some time off to rest and recover from the injury, and he soon realized there would be yet another road block to breaking the world run - one that ultimately caused the attempt to end. 

In January 2020, historic devastating wildfires furled through Australia, making Dustin’s journey across the continent impossible. 

On Jan. 5, 2020, Dustin posted an update to Facebook announcing that, although he’d continue his European and second leg of the United States run, his lack of the fourth continent meant he would not be able to break the world record. 

“I’ve reached out to many individuals including government employees, authorities, firefighters and locals. The wildfires are not only dangerous due to the flames, but they also create toxic air that will be stagnate for longer than the flames burn,” Dustin wrote. 

He explained that both emergency services and resources would be limited due to the efforts focused on the wildfires, meaning if he were in an unsafe area, it is unlikely he’d had any help. He also found out that the supplies he’d need for that run would not be available either. The threat to his health was not worth the risk.

“Since I will only run 11,000 miles and only across three continents, I will not be eligible for any of the records, and I have come to be OK with that,” Dustin said.

 

Eastern Europe and United States

Instead of just calling it quits and heading back home, Dustin continued his run where he could. 

He left Stuttgart and headed to Berlin and over to Poland. Then into Slovakia where he crossed a mountain range. 

Communication, both in the areas he was running and with those back home, was difficult in eastern Europe - and the January temperatures were absolutely brutal, he said. 

“It’s about the time everything started getting really complicated over in Europe. I lost signal all the time… every country uses a different currency of money, and they all speak different languages. Very few people spoke English,” Dustin said, recounting the second half of the European run. “I bounced back and forth between [locals speaking] Romanian, Hungarian, Slovakian, it was hard. It was extremely difficult.”

Dustin said he was in and out of countries within a week due to their small size, making it nearly impossible to pick up the local language before another language was needed. 

He ended his European run in Istanbul, Turkey.

He took a 17 hour flight from Istanbul, to Los Angeles, California, arriving back in his home country at the beginning of February 2020.

He began his route from Los Angeles to Missouri on Feb. 3, 2020, and ran until he arrived home in Sikeston, Missouri, on March 8. 

The Sikeston community wrapped their arms around him and celebrated his accomplishment at a huge benefit auction. 

Dustin said he was proud of the run he completed, although it wasn’t the world record run he’d first set out to complete. He said bringing awareness to veteran suicide was always his driving force, and there is no road block that could keep him from pushing forward with that. 

“…my journey was about the cause and not the records. My cause means more to me than any records, and the lives I am helping and affecting have given me more joy than what those titles would ever bring…” he said. “Also, not very many people can say they ran 11,000 miles ocean-to-ocean across three continents over two mountain ranges (the Andes at 18,711-feet high and Pyrenees), across a major desert (The Atacama), through a part of the Amazon rain forest, the Patagonia and through the places this journey has taken me in each of the countries. It’s even more amazing that all of that has happened in less than a year. Eleven thousand miles across three continents in less than a year! If someone would have told me that a few years ago, I would have laughed at them. That’s averaging a 50k a day, which I have been doing through everything you can think of weather and terrain wise.”

 

See next week’s Times for the final installment of this three-part series which will focus on Johnson’s plans and preparation for the second attempt at the world record run. 

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