
Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days - jeffepp
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=6092994
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wallflower
Unfathomable, I have marathon friends who run a marathon every month. I
thought that was crazy.

Before this guy, I thought these monks were the ultimate in mind-and-spirit-
and-body physical endurance:

> Only 46 men have completed the 1,000-day challenge since 1885. It takes
> seven years to complete, as the monks must undergo other Buddhist training
> in meditation and calligraphy, and perform general duties within the temple.

...The final two years of the 1000-day challenge are even more daunting. In
the sixth year they run 60km each day for 100 consecutive days and in the
seventh year they run 84km each day for 100 consecutive days. This is the
equivalent of running two Olympic marathons back-to-back every day for 100
days.

<http://www.howtobefit.com/tendai-marathon-monks.htm>

~~~
runjake
For a while, I was doing marathons or above every month. It kind of worked out
perfectly with the healing/ready-for-the-next-one balance. I never did long
runs (>22mi) for training unless I felt like it.

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rewind
This is literally unfathomable to me. This guy has to be some sort of serious
genetic freak. I workout regularly, but I think I just got chin splints just
from reading that article. When you consider how even the most elite athletes
fall victim to overtraining, I can't even imagine how his body was able to
hold up to this. Truly amazing.

~~~
ehsanul
There's a theory from the latest TED talk that says our survival prior to
inventing weapons (like spears) depended on running other animals to
exhaustion.

[http://www.youtube.com/user/tedtalksdirector#p/u/0/b-iGZPtWX...](http://www.youtube.com/user/tedtalksdirector#p/u/0/b-iGZPtWXzE)

~~~
liuhenry
The San Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert still do this today. This BBC clip on
persistence hunting (narrated by David Attenborough!) is worth a watch; their
endurance is absolutely incredible:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o>

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sudhirc
"Engels had asthma as a youngster and doctors told him he should not
participate in sports. But he decided to overcome his ailment and ran his
first marathon at 25. He said his latest feat is the result of 35 years of
exercise."

~~~
mark_h
In other words, he also did it at age 49! Just awesome. (with a best time of
under 3 hours, too)

~~~
adamtj
Christopher McDougall, in his book "Born to Run" and in various talks, tells
us that humans maintain their endurance until a surprising age. A 49 year old
has the endurance of an 18 year old.

~~~
mark_h
That's right, I remember that stat now -- a slightly later peak from memory
(compared to other athletes), but an extremely prolonged taper.

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mingdingo
He was 49 years old. Wouldn't this cause problems for his hips and knees? I'm
all for pushing physical limits, but not to the point where it could backfire.
Even 20 year-old professional footballers (soccer) are told to take 2 weeks
complete rest at the end of a season, and during the season they only train
maybe 3-4 days a week.

I hope this guy doesn't regret doing this down the line, because right now it
is very inspiring.

~~~
erikpukinskis
After the first 30 marathons, his body has probably settled into a pretty
efficient, gentle way to run, out of necessity. There are, in fact, ways to
run that put less wear and tear on your body.

It's probably possible to go out in a single day with poor form and do more
damage to your body than this guy did in an entire year.

------
lancefisher
Yeah, ultra runners like this guy are pretty awesome. There are others doing
amazing things too. Scott Jurek broke the 24-hour run record last year by
running 165.7 miles in 24-hours. Anton Krupicka averages 200 miles a week in
training. These guys race 100 mile races through the mountains. How long does
that take? Geoff Roes won the Western States last year in 15:07:04. That's
averaging 9:04 miles over rough terrain.

Most people could run a marathon if they trained for it. The human body is
made for running.

~~~
alecco
The europeans are on a complete different level. The Tour du Mont Blanc is
insane, a lot of mountain/ultra runners go there and can't finish it. I've
done it in 5 days and was exhausted (had a bad fever one day, heel problems,
you name it.) But the elite guys do it under 22hs!

~~~
mipapage
UTMB is cool, and then right next door there's the Tor de Geants:
<http://www.tordesgeants.it/> The Europeans are kinda nutz.

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prs
_Engels averaged around four hours to complete a marathon. He said his best
time was 2 hours, 56 minutes._

~~~
wallflower
The Boston Marathon is the most prestigious marathon. There are only a small
amount of spots for charity runners, the rest are qualifiers.

At that phenomenal pace of 2 hrs 56 min, 49-year old Engels is beating the
qualification straitjackets for elite (non-professional) runners in _ALL_ age
groups.

[http://www.baa.org/Races/Boston-Marathon/Participant-
Informa...](http://www.baa.org/Races/Boston-Marathon/Participant-
Information/Qualifying.aspx)

------
ojbyrne
I'm actually kind of impressed by the scheduling and logistics of this over
and above the physical aspect. How do you find 365 consecutive days with
marathons, and figure out the schedule to do it, overcome travel delays, etc?
Not to mention sleeping. It seems impossible.

~~~
ojbyrne
This article suggests he's not actually running in organized races every day:

"He will do his 42km (26-mile) daily jogs at Battersea Park every day until
Monday..."

~~~
js2
Of course, anyone who has ever run a marathon knows it's 42.195km (26-miles
385 yards) and we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't round down, thank you very
much. :-)

See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon#Distance> for the interesting
history behind the distance.

~~~
ojbyrne
I just quoted from the article. I know the history.

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ck2
I expected to read he almost walked them but it turns out it was 4 hour
marathons every day for a year? Simply staggering!

------
ojbyrne
Picture of him here: [http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/41438476/ns/sports-
other_sport...](http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/41438476/ns/sports-
other_sports/)

~~~
jim_h
Is it just me or does the photo in the article have a time of 9:48? 9 hours,48
minutes.

That race has to be a rarity since he's supposed to average 4hrs.

~~~
AdamTReineke
I'd guess that's a HH:MM:SS display, and we're not seeing the whole thing.

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mbesto
Amazing video that talks about the concept of running and how it relates to
evolution:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_t...](http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_to_run.html)

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wlievens
Oddly, there is nothing in Belgian media about this.

EDIT: correction!
[http://standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF2011020...](http://standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=DMF20110205_041)

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solipsist
" _He said the key was a slow pace over the 26.2-miles._ "

" _He ran every race, he never walked. He ran at a rate of 10 kilometers per
hour_ "

The man ran 6:13 miles[1]...in a marathon...each day, for 365 days in a row.

And he calls that a _slow pace_!

[1] Update: It's actually 6.2 miles per hour (the equivalent of a 9:40 mile),
- still not too slow. I apologize for confusing miles per hour with mile
times].

~~~
albemuth
At 9:40/mile my heartrate won't go below 180, I'm 27...

~~~
nightshowerer
Exactly! I don't understand how his heart rate is below 100 when running 10
kilometers (he says).

~~~
Luc
Eddy Merckx (bicyclist) used to have a resting heart rate of 26...

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julius_geezer
More power to him. When I was young and skinny, I started noticing effects at
a sustained 60 miles/week.

I really don't think he's setting a dangerous example, because most people
trying to emulate him would find that something gives--joint, muscle, whatever
--before it got to the point of danger.

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Luc
It's even more impressive than this. He actually started on Januari 1st 2010,
but got injured and kept doing marathons with a handbike. If you don't
discount his injury period (during which he still was doing marathons, but not
running), he did 401 marathons in a row!

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Hagelin
I can recommend watching _Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man_ in which he ran 43
marathons in 51 days for the charity Sport Relief.

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m3z1f>

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runjake
On a related note, Ian Sharman apparently just won (today) the Rocky Raccoon
100 miler in an amazing 12:44:35. That's 7:38 per mile for 100 miles.

Even as an ultrarunner, I find this mind-blowing.

The physical limits of humans still keep on progressing.

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zelandpanther
Really magnificent results. This is not result just of exercise but probably
genetics, there is no many people that can do what this man does.

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gte910h
This sounds like a very good way to kill yourself dead.

