He’s not your average athlete–and certainly not your average runner. Dean Karnazes has run fifty marathons in fifty days and pushed the limits of human endurance. He’s now pushing them again with a run across America, which started in February from southern California and plans to run fourteen hours a day, covering fifty miles across seventeen states, to reach his “finish line” in New York City on the Live! With Regis and Kelly. But there’s a reason the show’s hosts, Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin, are teaming up with Karnazes. His “run across America” aims at promoting fitness, especially among younger Americans.
Ranked by Time magazine among the world’s one hundred most influential people, Karnazes grew up in Los Angeles. Both his parents are from Greece and, as he likes to note in interviews from Tripoli–close to where Pheidippides, the runner who brought Athenians the news of their victory over the Persians at Marathon.
Regis and Philbin will broadcast updates from Karnazes’s run which is also being tracked on his website as “where’s Karno”.