Noah Coughlan finishes his 5,500 mile run early Sunday evening as he enters the Pacific Ocean below Don Davis Park in Newport. Coughlan started his fifth cross-country run last October in New York state. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle
NEWPORT – The Pacific Ocean was colder than Noah Coughlan expected, but on a warm Memorial Day weekend it felt better than the freezing temperatures of New York and Minnesota.
After walking and jogging 28 miles Sunday, Coughlan finished his 260-day 20-state journey at Don Davis Park as dozens of well-wishers and holiday visitors were drawn to the man walking into ocean holding a large American flag.
“It’s been a journey,” said Coughlan, who turned 42 last October in 5 degree temperature while running across New York state. “The continent will be complete when I hit the water.”
Noah Coughlan of Nashville, Tenn. had a police escort during the last leg of his cross country run Sunday as he jogged down Olive Street in Newport on his way to the Pacific Ocean. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)Sunday’s arrival – with a police escort the last miles of U.S. Highway 20 — is Coughlan’s fifth run across the United States, all well documented on his website RunforUSA.com.
Coughlan said this effort will be his last – after he runs north to south through Alaska in June and reaches Hawaii in time for the country’s 250th anniversary celebration on July 4. In Hawaii, he said, Marines will fold and put away the U.S. flag that he began using since 2013 to signal his presence along the road.
“This is it,” he said Sunday. “I’m just trying to get to the finish line and run through every state in the continental U.S.”
If so, the ultra-distance and marathon runner says he will be just the third person to walk or run through all 50 states.
Coughlan’s first cross-country trip was in 2011 when he traversed eight southern U.S. states in 132 days to bring attention to rare diseases afflicting two friends. The second came two years later through the Midwest, covering 17 states in 107 days. In 2015 Coughlan went from New York City to San Diego in 127 days, again to raise awareness and get congressional support for rare disease research. Coughlan spent two months running through Ireland in 2020 and, from Memorial Day to Veterans Day 2023 ran from Blaine, Wash. to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to honor World War II veterans.
“I had no idea one thing would lead to another,” he said on Monday, Memorial Day, while recuperating. “It wasn’t always about raising money. It was raising awareness and putting a human face on rare diseases. It’s not a nonprofit; I’m a bartender paying his own way.”
For his final effort, Coughlan is using a GoFundMe account to raise the $30,000 to pay for food, lodging, social media efforts and a planned documentary. He’s raised $20,400 of that.
“It’s been a journey,” said Coughlan, who plans to eventually return to work bartending in his hometown of Nashville. “This is the best use of my time … it’s very organic. There is no script.”
Beth O’Neal of Florence, left, and Mario Villa of Carey, Idaho had been following Noah Couglan’s Run for America since he crossed Idaho a month ago and met up with him Sunday as he finished on the beach in Newport. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)Onlookers and followers
Although the hubbub of police lights and man with a large American flag in his 12th pair of ragged running shoes drew a crowd Sunday in Newport, Mario Villa of Carey, Idaho and Beth O’Neal of Florence had been following Coughlan’s journey for weeks.
Villa met Coughlan when the runner passed through his tiny south-central hometown of Carey a month ago. Villa’s family planned a Memorial Day week on the Oregon coast – and when he saw the runner’s schedule booked a rental in Waldport.
“I insisted on being here,” Villa said, eyes welling with emotion. “It’s such a trek. It’s amazing.”
O’Neal used to live in St. Anthony, Idaho and picked up on Coughlan’s effort 45 days ago when he ran through her hometown. She and her husband, Patrick, watched from the water’s edge with her hand over her heart as Coughlan waded into the ocean.
“It was colder than I thought it would be,” Noah Coughlan said after finishing his 5,500 mile run Sunday by wading into the Pacific Ocean at Newport on Sunday. (Quinton Smith/Lincoln Chronicle)Although he inspires patriotism with the American flag attached to his pushcart, Coughlan said he began displaying the flag on his second run simply to warn motorists of his presence along busy city streets and narrow rural highways.
But doing so added a whole new symbol to his efforts.
“It’s community. It’s pride. It’s bringing people together,” he said. “I’m not a veteran, I’m not a police officer, and none of my runs have ever been political. Just the opposite.”
But, Coughlan said Sunday, that displaying the flag has given his effort a whole new meaning.
“The one thing we have in common is the flag,” he said. “Let’s just stop for a bit and celebrate that we got this far.”
Whether that’s the edge of the Pacific on Sunday or 250 years on July 4.
“What’s the flag mean to you?” he asked.
- Quinton Smith is the editor of Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]
What does the American flag mean to me? Carried by Noah across the country, it represents freedom and determination, and a willingness to help others [by bringing awareness of the illness that is not mentioned once in this article]. This is not an individual effort that we see in Russia, China, or the UAE. I pray that America will remain a country where people are able to peacefully express themselves, whether by our political choices, clothing styles, local cultural expressions influenced by our roots in other countries~ or displays of compassion like Noah has created for his friends and others who suffer from the unnamed illness. Fly that freedom flag high, Noah! Well done, son!