The song “Everytime We Touch” by Cascada has about 142 beats per minute, which puts it slightly below the 150 to 170 steps per minute of your average recreational runner.
For Navy Lt. Paul Johnson, the song makes him feel like he can run through a brick wall and will be a featured track on one of his many playlists as he steps off Friday on his attempted record-breaking run across the continental U.S.
The active-duty surface warfare officer will begin his 3,000-mile run from Los Angeles to New York City on Friday, a feat he hopes to accomplish in 40 days — two days faster than the current time recognized by Guinness World Records. Running at an average mile pace of 10 to 12 minutes, Johnson aims to run 75 miles per day, putting in about 13 to 15 hours of running.
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“I really want to do it for how much running has done for me in terms of dealing with mental health issues and having just really dived into running the past 18 months,” Johnson said. “It’s a pretty ridiculous challenge, but we think that we might be able to give it a shot.”
The current record is held by ultrarunner Pete Kostelnick, whom Johnson watched run through the Pennsylvania State University campus while he was a student there.
“I knew I wanted to run across the U.S. at some point, after I had seen Pete Kostelnick run in 2016 past State College there on his…
