Is the lore of the whale actually working? Tuesday’s winter storm might just say so.
Salt Lake City residents Carson Cronk and Diego Duke, ran 630 laps or 26.2 miles around the 9th & 9th neighborhood’s “Out of the Blue” whale sculpture this past December.
But what may sound like a nontraditional marathon, or some type of fitness trend is an organized movement calledThe Whaleathonto raise awareness about protecting the Great Salt Lake.
“There's no like order or time that you need to complete it in,” Duke said. “But you just have to complete the 630. So, it's like 0.04 miles every lap and the only goal is to finish that. And that's really what we set out to do.”
The idea for the Whaleathon came about in 2022 when SLC resident Evan Service jokingly threw out the idea while training for the Salt Lake City Marathon.
That idea would later become a reality through collaboration with Caleb Leftwich, Jackson Bradshaw, and Wyn Barnett, who finalized the specifics of the Whaleathon while on runs throughout the city.
The first-ever Whaleathon was completed on October 21 2023. And since then, 34 more people have completed it, including Cronk and Diego.
“But it turned into a like almost like a rain dance,” Cronk said. “And I guess when other people have done it, previous to us, the idea was to help the snowpack and to get it to have a you know, pretty epic winner.”
Since its completion in 2022, the iconic public art installation has become a symbol of a heavier snowpack. Even the city acknowledged its supposed powers.
“We've seen an over'whale'ming amount of jokes about people praying to the whale, but we're starting to believe... especially if it helps with our drought,” Salt Lake City said in a tweet back in 2022.
Some residents have even called it the snow whale.
No awards are given for completing the unique accomplishment, so Cronk and Duke made sure to keep their tally clicker as the reward.
“It’s a funny thing to do in and of itself,” Cronk said. But yeah, clicking over that last lap and we’ve both kept the clickers that say 630 is better than any medal I’ve gotten.”
Think you could complete 630 laps around the brightly life-sized whale sculpture to support saving the Great Salt Lake? Here's how to participate:
- Run around the whale for 26.2 miles which is 630 laps.
- Take a picture of you with the whale (not required)
- Send a screenshot of the activity from your favorite tracking app like strava, map my run, etc. to hail@whaleathon.com
- Don’t want to run but want to support the cause? Organizers of The Whaleathon are encouraging people to donate to theFriends of the Great Salt Lake in lieu of running.
If you plan to participate, be careful crossing. There aren’t any crosswalks to get to it so make sure to look all ways.
