Run Rosie Run: Meet the 68 Year-Old Welsh Grandmother Jogging Across the U.S.

Imagine a brilliantly blue-eyed young woman in her 68th year who once ran 27 marathons over the course of 27 days, and you can begin to picture a human dynamo long on energy and never short on patience. She’s also currently running solo across the United States – all while pulling a 300-pound sled that functions as her home on wheels. Literally.

The Green Transit News team was fortunate enough to run into Rosie in Maryland recently and her energy is still pulsating with us as she single-handedly elevates the notion of green transportation to new heights of human potential.

But first, a few facts. Our Green Transit hero is Rosie Swale Pope and she hales from Wales. Accompanying Rosie is the brightly colored contraption on wheels that provides shelter, storage and a genuine challenge. It is an eye-catching device that stopped us dead in our tracks and led us to knock on her “door” early one morning when we literally stumbled upon it, parked on a small grassy patch at the bottom of a steep hill. It’s a companion she has named “Icebird.”

As she explains, “Iceberg is my contraption. Like a Ferrari, it get’s attention. It’s great fun. Very, very fast. It’s a fast way to learn about people. It’s a voice.”

Rosie’s run is also about a cause. She is a fervent advocate for screening for prostate cancer, the disease that killed her second husband and the love of her life, Clive Pope.

But Rosie’s run is also about her attitude towards life in perpetual motion and life as a source of continuous exploration. Consider some of her other momentous adventures. In 1971 she sailed round the world with her first husband, Colin Swale, and their daughter, Eve. In the 1980s she sailed solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and according to a recent account in the Annapolis Capitol, “took a 3,000-mile horseback ride across Chile.”

But it wasn’t until she was almost 50 that she took up running. For her, it became a refuge, a way to turn the darkness of her husband’s death into the light of hope. And hope she has spread.

In 2008, she completed a five-year, 20,000-mile ride around the world and raised money for charity in the process. Capping off that adventure, she was named a Member of the British Empire by none other than Queen Elizabeth.

As for what in means to transport herself under her own energy, Rosie is every eloquent: “Running is amazing. You see everything along the way.”

So, our advice is really straight from Rosie, who told us to: “Get on and do it. You only have to take a little step. So walk around the block. Help a lonely person. Every little step is a big step.”

Her final words, as she pulls away to the next stage of her adventure, ring loud: “Life is not a rehearsal.“

Tags: featured, Rosie Swale Pope

Category: People