wfn.org | Lutheran Pastor Completes 50-State Unicycle Trek

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

December 16, 2002

LUTHERAN PASTOR COMPLETES 50-STATE UNICYCLE TREK
02-291-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A one-wheeled odyssey that began April 9 in
Alaska concluded Nov. 16 in Hawaii.  The Rev. Lars J. Clausen, a
pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), rode his
unicycle on a route that took him through all 50 states of the United
States and into the Guinness Book of Records.
     In Alaska, Clausen began training for "One Wheel -- Many
Spokes," which was to be a cross-country trip to raise money for the
Seward Peninsula Lutheran Endowment Fund and to raise awareness of
the Inupiat Lutheran Eskimos.  The trip began April 29 at the shore
of the Pacific Ocean in Neah Bay, Wash.
     When Clausen reached the Statue of Liberty in New York on Aug.
10, he had ridden for 111 days and traveled 5,032 miles -- breaking
the Guinness world record of 3,876 miles for distance on a
unicycle -- but he did not reach his goal of raising $5 million Seward
Peninsula Endowment Fund.  So, he turned his unicycle around and
headed back for the Pacific Ocean on a route through all the states
he hadn't visited already.
     Clausen arrived back at the Pacific in Santa Monica, Calif.,
his boyhood hometown, on Nov. 12, after pedaling a total 9,136 miles.