Dennis Godby estimates he’s heard quips related to the 1994 film “Forrest Gump” perhaps 1,000 times.
The title character of that film runs across the United States more than once. Godby, a 70-year-old naturopathic doctor who lives in West Sacramento, likes to tell people that while “Forrest Gump” was a movie, he’s the real deal. In September, Godby finished a roughly 3,450-mile walk that he made across the U.S. in five stages over five years. It was only his latest adventure.
In 1978, Godby ran about 1,420 miles, from Corvallis, Oregon, to near Calgary. He ran across the U.S. in the mid-1980s and again in 2011, the second time with his two sons and his nephew. On a recent day, Godby said he felt like he could immediately start walking from Seattle, where he finished his recent cross-country walk, to Sacramento…