Running the 2,900 miles from San Francisco to New York City takes a special kind of commitment. Fifteen-year-old Briar-Rose Honeywill of Kissimmee, Florida, has that commitment, and it will probably make her the youngest person ever to make the coast-to-coast trek.
Briar-Rose is making the long-distance run with her father, Ben Honeywill, while her mother, Kirstie Honeywill, drives the RV support vehicle where the family spends their nights.
Briar-Rose started the Running Rose Facebook page to chronicle her run for the record, and her her Instagram page is @the.running.rose. Achilles International, a charity that assists people with all types of disabilities to participate in mainstream running events, is the target for all donations to the Running Rose. Donations may be directed to Venmo @therunningrose or Paypal at therunningrose@outlook.com.
Aiming to cover 30 to 40 miles a day, the Running Rose passed through Carroll on Friday and Ogden on Sunday. In Ogden several members of the boys’ cross-country team joined the Honeywills for a part of their run, and the family has found favor everywhere they go.
The cross-continental run started in San Francisco on Father’s Day (June 20) and will end sometime in October in New York if progress continues steady. At 15 Briar-Rose is already a seasoned runner. She ran her first marathon in 2016 in Celebration, Florida, when she was 9 years old.
