MUSKEGON, MI -- A 68-year-old Swedish distance runner is passing through Michigan on his journey to run coast to coast across the United States for the fifth time.

Bjorn Suneson started April 19 in San Francisco and plans to run 34 miles a day for 93 consecutive days to finish July 22 in Boston. He arrived in Michigan Tuesday by The Lake Express Ferry, which took him from Milwaukee to Muskegon.

"I'm just running for my pleasure," he said. "It's a wonderful way to see and learn a little more about America."

Suneson said his run is 73 percent complete. He will pass through Comstock, Ionia, Lansing, Hartland, Aurburn Hills and East China before heading to Canada for the last leg of his trip.

The Stockholm native holds the distinction for being not only the oldest person to complete a run across the U.S. from the Pacific to Atlantic Ocean, he has done it more times than any other human. Suneson will complete a majority of the distance accompanied only by a three-wheeled baby stroller that carries his luggage, meeting two of his five children in Massachusetts for a week-long rest.

Suneson tracks his progress from motels across the nation on his blog suneson.se/bjorn.php. In a recent post, he compared Lake Michigan to Vattern -- the second largest lake in Sweden -- but marveled at the superior size of the Great Lakes.

"What a day," he wrote on his blog in Swedish. "A fast ferry from Milwaukee Lake Michigan became one of the tour's highlights. (Is it) cheating to take the ferry? No, I'm not Jesus, (I) can not walk on water."

Though he punctuates most posts with the positive mantra "keep on running," the trip has not been without some hardships. He encounters Tornadoes in Nebraska, hailstorms in Nevada and very hot days in Iowa, which he said is one of the hardest states to run through due to the poor quality of its roads and rolling hills.

"Wyoming is the absolutely toughest because it has very high mountains," he said. "Nebraska is the best running road in all of the United States; it's slightly downhill with almost no traffic."

Wisconsin is most like his homeland in terms of climate, he said.

Suneson ran primarily along interstate highways, passing through 11 states by the end of his trip.

Though it's his fifth run, Suneson has never visited Michigan before. He changes his route each time.

Suneson is a retired economics reporter who worked for more than 30 years in Stockholm. He had no previous background in sports and only started to run seriously at the age of 34.

Since 1981, he's logged a total of 15,000 miles, equivalent to nearly four laps around the entire earth.

Malachi Barrett covers community news for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at mbarret1@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @PolarBarrett or on Facebook.