DAVE MCGILLIVRAY MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF EPIC RUN PORTRAYED IN 'FORREST GUMP' WITH FENWAY EVENT

USA TODAY

Dave McGillivray completed a cross-country run from Oregon to Massachusetts in 1978 -- a feat that was later portrayed in a little movie called "Forrest Gump."  

On Thursday, to mark the 40th anniversary of his epic "Run Across America," McGillivray re-enacted the last leg by running into Boston's Fenway Park.

Before the first pitch between the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, McGillivray took a victory lap around the field and across home plate.

Runner’s World magazine in 1978 dubbed his cross-country odyssey from Medford, Ore., to his hometown of Medford, Mass., “the first cancer fundraising run.”

The last leg of that run, which benefited the Jimmy Fund, ended at Fenway Park. 

Averaging 42 miles a day, McGillivray, now the race director of the Boston Marathon, ran 3,452 miles across America over 80 days. The feat has been duplicated hundreds of times, but he was the first to accomplish it. 

“I knew in my own heart I had trained really hard and I earned the right to do it, and I was going to do it and I had to get to Fenway to prove it,” he told CBS Boston. “There was no better place, no better place, because… my goal was always to play second base for the Boston Red Sox. Well, if I can’t play on the field, I’m going to run on the field.”