Tom Hanks and I have at least one thing in common. We’ve both run through the lofty landscape of southern Utah.

Here, colossal rock formations rise from desert in an exquisite geological tapestry millions of years in the making. Admittedly, my own nine-mile (15km) run is significantly shorter than that of Hanks’ character, Forrest Gump, in the movie of the same name. By the time Gump reached Monument Valley, he’d been running for three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours. Then he famously declared, “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now.”