Brenton Scons, a resident of Washington state, completed an unusual marathon: he covered a distance of 7.46 miles (about 12 km) on all fours during the annual Bloomsday race in Spokane. This mass race has been held since 1977 and is considered one of the largest and oldest road races in the U.S.; it draws tens of thousands of runners each year—from professionals to amateurs of all ages. For the Pacific Northwest, Bloomsday is more than a sporting event: it’s a regional hallmark that brings the community together and promotes a healthy lifestyle.
Starting on Sunday around 11 a.m., Brenton finished only on Monday at 9:47 a.m., spending nearly 23 hours in motion. Volunteers met him at the finish with an improvised tape and a yellow participant shirt. Eastern Washington, where Spokane is located, is sharply different from the wet, tech-oriented West Coast around Seattle: it has a drier continental climate with hot summers and cold winters, and an economy historically based on agriculture and the timber industry. The region is more conservative and values independence, which is reflected in the cohesion of local communities and their willingness to support initiatives like this.
Scons dedicated this grueling feat to raising funds for his nonprofit BEAR (Build, Empower, Achieve, Recover), which helps people with addictions pay for further treatment after rehab. In Washington state, the support system includes government programs such as Medicaid, crisis lines, outpatient and inpatient rehab centers, but insurance often covers only a limited period—for example, 30 days of detox or short-term rehab. Long-term stays in therapeutic communities, supportive housing, psychotherapy, and help with employment often fall outside coverage because insurers consider such treatment less “medically necessary.” BEAR aims to fill that gap—the crawl has already raised about $9,000 in scholarships, and donations continue to come in.
Scons himself received such a scholarship four years ago and says it laid the foundation for his own recovery. The idea to crawl the distance came after he learned about a 27-year-old man who covered 42 km the same way during the New York City Marathon in 2020. The “bear crawl” is an exercise in which a person moves using only their hands and feet. Brenton admits that every part of his body ached at the finish, especially swollen joints and blistered palms, with skin peeling off.
In the toughest moments, especially late at night when he wanted to quit, friends and family supported him. The group regularly stopped to say prayers, read Scripture, and encourage the crawler. His mother, Lori Scons, walked beside him from 10 p.m. Sunday until 5:30 a.m. Monday, then returned 20 minutes before the finish. His father, Matt, accompanied his son from the start until the evening. According to Lori, her son not only saved his own life but inspired others: one woman said that every step he took reflected how she herself is fighting for recovery.
Brenton works as a hospice chaplain and sees it as a way to be with people in their hardest moments. He emphasizes that after rehab many people need supportive therapy and sober housing, but insurance often doesn’t cover those costs. Bloomsday organizers allowed him to participate in the unusual format about a year ago. Because of the heat and the need to keep his hands rebandaged, the time to complete the distance was much longer than expected: instead of 8–10 hours he crawled for nearly a full day. His previous record was 5.47 miles (8.8 km) on all fours, so the 12-kilometer distance was a serious challenge.
Scons’s immediate plans are lots of food and complete rest: swollen joints and peeling skin on his fingers need recovery. He doesn’t rule out future bear-crawls, but acknowledges it’s unlikely he’ll repeat 12 km in the near term. “Since I found sobriety and my identity in Christ, everything has changed—opportunities I never dreamed of opened up,” Scons says.
Based on: WA man bear-crawls 7.46 miles for addiction recovery organization