Running News Daily

A Photographer Is Taking the Long Way to Eugene for Worlds

Jan Figueroa is making a 75-hour trek by Greyhound bus from Florida to Oregon next week.

Can you imagine hopping on a Greyhound bus and taking a 75-hour cross-country trip from Florida to Oregon for a Global track meet?

That’s exactly what Jan Figueroa is doing. The Florida-based content creator will travel 4,000 miles to Eugene, Oregon to serve as a photographer at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field next week.

The possibility and then the reality of Figueroa going to Eugene was brought to life by Ben Crawford of New Generation Track and Field. 

“I personally didn’t have the funds to go to Worlds,” Figueroa said. “My friend Ben Crawford and New Generation Track and Field were kind enough to sponsor my trip to the (USATF Championships) and they wanted to bring me back for Worlds. Ben threw out the idea of traveling by bus as a joke to create a sick travel vlog/documentary and create cool content along the way not knowing that I’m crazy enough and loved the idea and was so down to do it.”

“So it worked out perfectly because once again he covered my travel expenses to go to Worlds, which I’m extremely grateful for and I get to do what I love along the way, which is to create cool and entertaining content for the people.”

Flights to Eugene leading up to the World Championships have not been cheap, particularly when you factor in other travel expenses, like hotels.

Figueroa tweeted out about his upcoming journey to the World Championships on Monday. Since then, it’s been picked up by World Athletics and has been mentioned by companies such as On Running and athletes as well, including Fred Kerley. The attention that the tweet has gotten caught him by surprise. 

“I didn’t think it would blow up the way it did,” he said. “I thought it would do good numbers with a couple of retweets and likes and that’s about it. But to blow up to the magnitude it did when World Athletics shouted me out, brands were reaching out to me to send me merch, newspapers wanting to write about my story, and even pro runners and strangers offering to help me out if I needed anything along the way.”

“I could have never imagined that at all. It's been absolutely surreal and at the same time super gratifying to see the running community come together to support me like that - It makes me even more excited to be on a bus for 3 straight days as crazy as that sounds.”

Figueroa said that he’s grateful to Ben Crawford, New Generation Track and Field, Joe Hale and the Internet Friends IRL group chat for the opportunities for making him a better content creator and the opportunities provided, including taking photos at Worlds. He’s excited to make more connections, take his photography to another level and to see the world’s best.

“I’m beyond excited,” he said. “Worlds being on US soil for the first time and me being able to be there to witness it and create content is the opportunity of a lifetime that I just couldn’t miss out on.”