Stefaan Engels, a 49-year-old guy from Belgium, just finished a marathon, a day after he finished a marathon, a day after he finished a marathon … He ran 26.2 miles each day for one year straight. That's 9,563 miles on the road, running.
His average time was about 4 hours. His fastest time was 2:56.
An asthmatic child, Engels promised himself that he would overcome that problem and he did, clocking in with his first marathon when he was 25.
Let's do that math again: 26.2 miles each day for an entire year. "Ouch" is right!It wasn't just running the same route around where he lived, either. Engels ran in seven countries. He began in Barcelona and then ran also in Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, the U.K., and the U.S.
He has a slow resting heartbeat and excellent recovery, both of which help. But this is a towering achievement of physical and mental skill and fortitude.
Why did he do it? Engels said he wanted to inspire other people to take up exercise, if only a little bit. He figured that if he ran 26.2 miles, then maybe people could be convinced to run 26 steps or ride 26 miles on a bicycle — anything to combat an overwhelming obesity problem in much of the world.
Was it a world record? What do you think? He obliterated the world record, which had been 52 straight days of marathoning, set by a Japanese runner, Askinori Kusuda, in 2009. (Kusuda, by the way, was 65 when he did that.)
We probably should have seen this coming. Engels completed 20 Ironman triathlons in 2008. An Ironman is 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling, and then a marathon. If Engels did 20 in a year, he did more than one a month. Wow!
Dean Karnazes is still the Man, because he did 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. But Stefaan Engels is now the Big Man.
No comments:
Post a Comment