Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

sports.espn.go.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–57 of 57 posts

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#51

Post by lazyant »

ehsanul wrote: post #25
rewind wrote: post #4

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.

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...

Sorry to be a snob but it's not a recent theory, I heard about something like this (men being able to sweat and run long distances, being scavengers, competing with hyenas) about 25 years ago.

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#52

Post by marcc »

ojbyrne wrote: post #28
ojbyrne wrote: post #27

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.

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..."

The travel logistics for running in daily organized marathons would be too much. If he were putting daily flights/travel to the next city where there was a scheduled marathon, it would probably be impossible.

That said, still very impressive. Running 26.2 miles a day is amazing. Anyone who can run over 100 miles per week deserves nothing but praise.

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#53

Post by [deleted] »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #16
mingdingo wrote: post #9

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 in…

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.

[deleted]

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#54

Post by mingdingo »

goalieca wrote: post #13
mingdingo wrote: post #9

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 in…

I'm sure if he had a serious problem he would have been injured months ago.

I'm not talking immediate damage, just the difference between getting a hip replacement in 10 years versus not.

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#55

Post by mark_h »

adamtj wrote: post #48
mark_h wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#56

Post by 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.

Re: Belgian man completes 365 marathons in 365 consecutive days

#57

Post by liuhenry »

ehsanul wrote: post #25
rewind wrote: post #4

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.

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...

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
Post reply on HN