Runner to Take on 50 Marathons in 50 Days

News Type: Event — Seeded on Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:12 PM EDT

Article Source: Reuters

sports, running, marathon, distance, dean-karnazes, ultra-marathon

This fall, 43-year-old long distance runner [Dean Karnazes] will tackle one marathon a day for 50 consecutive days, running a total 1,310 miles (2,108.2 km) in 50 days. And for each 26.2-mile (42.2 km) race, Karnazes and his family of four will travel to a different U.S. state.

Arguably the world's best-known ultramarathoner, Karnazes has already run 350 miles (563.3 km) in one stretch, run a marathon in the South Pole, and raced across the California desert in the middle of the summer.

With this fall's challenge, however, Karnazes said on Tuesday he is going a step further in testing the human body's limits.

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{"commentId":256846,"authorDomain":"HonkyTonk"}

HonkyTonk

He averages 4 hours of sleep a night? This seems unsustainable. I wonder if he'll experience any serious negative physical effects later.

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#1 - Fri Aug 18, 2006 4:48 PM EDT

{"commentId":292665,"authorDomain":"super-structure"}

Jason Coleman

Sorry I didn't follow up on that comment for nearly a month I must have just missed it.

That would make sense, if Karnazes was a normal human being; and I mean that with all seriousness. He is very much on the edge of what a human can accomplish and is likely that his body (and brain) simply does not need as much rest or recovery time as the average person does. I've known a number of ultra-atheletes and this seems to be common among them. That is, they are all extraordinary individuals whose abilities do not necessary lie in their speed or strength, but rather their ability to ward off pain and recover faster than others.

My wife and I are going to be running the Marine Corps Marathon in DC at the end of next month and we both hope to be able to run the Richmond Marathon just 12 days later, but that will be a huge feat for either of us to pull off. Trying to accomplish that comparatively small goal has really underscored what Karnazes and other runners such as him are capable of, for me at least. However, to underscore my last point above, he actually has an expected finish time around what I hope to run MCM in, which is to say, not all that fast. I just won't be able to walk the next two days, where as he'll be running another and another and another…

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#1.1 - Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:25 PM EDT

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JASON COLEMAN

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Runner to Take on 50 Marathons in 50 Days

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