Ultrarunner Robbie Balenger Runs 3,175 Miles Across America on a Vegan Diet

Vegan ultrarunner Robbie Balenger has finished his run across America, arriving in Central Park after 3,175 miles from Huntington Beach, California. He crossed 14 states in 75 days, averaging 43 miles a day. That's more than an ultramarathon every single day for two and a half months.

He did it to show what a plant-based diet can do. His bright blue support van carried the branding of the vegan ice cream maker NadaMoo! and the dairy-free nonprofit Switch4Good, and he spent the run talking to people in towns along the way about what they eat.

Fueling that kind of distance takes around 8,000 calories a day, and VegNews got a look at the plan. Breakfast is hot oats with chia seeds, maple syrup, bananas, walnuts or peanut butter and raisins. On the road he has a smoothie every ten miles and some carbs every five, plus vegan cheese quesadillas, tofu wraps and Soylent. His nutritionist, Jackie Howard, wasn't worried about protein:

We are working under the basic assumption that when you get enough calories on a whole foods plant-based diet it is impossible to be protein deficient.

What surprised Balenger most was how many people already knew about veganism, even in the most rural parts of the country:

Everyone is really aware of [veganism]. It's something people are thinking about or at least have even just heard about even in extremely rural areas.

He says several of his non-vegan friends who joined him for a stretch went home and went fully vegan, or at least started eating more consciously.

Back in 2016 we covered David Carter, the 300lb vegan NFL lineman eating 10,000 calories a day, and last summer Catra Corbett set a fastest known time from San Francisco to Yosemite at 53. For anyone still asking where the protein comes from, we answered that here.

Coast to coast on plants. No meat, no problem.