Forrest's cross-country run lasts exactly three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours, starting shortly after Jenny leaves him in 1976 and ending in 1979. From a structural standpoint, the run is not a logistical puzzle to be solved, but a physical manifestation of Forrest's unprocessed grief. When Jenny slips away in the night, Forrest is left with an emotional void he cannot articulate. Lacking the intellectual tools to analyze his sorrow, he converts his psychological paralysis into kinetic energy. He survives logistically through the sheer momentum of his fame; as his run becomes a media sensation, supporters, sponsors, and followers provide him with food, shelter, and gear, which Forrest accepts without greed. He stops just as suddenly as he started because the physical journey has finally completed its therapeutic work. When he halts in the middle of the desert monument valley road and says, I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now, it marks the exact moment his grief has run its course. The physical exhaustion of his body has finally quieted his restless mind, allowing him to return to Alabama ready to face whatever comes next, which ultimately leads him to Jenny's letter and his son.■