Dean Karnazes is attempting to break the 24 hour treadmill record in the middle of Times Square (NYC) today. He’ll be running until midnight EST & there are a few live webcams setup here if you’re curious:
I’ve been watching this and it’s pretty cool. Must be hard to run in times sqaure though with the air quality where he is. I’m assuming it’s not that good. One thing, I’ve seen him hold on to the rails a few times while running…can’t think that makes the run a “legal” one but I’m no expert on treadmill records.
Ok, so he needs to run 153.76 miles in 24hrs. Does my math make sense at just under 9:30/mi pace?
I’m actually headed into NYC today so I may take an earlier train to walk by and check that out. Thanks for the post!
The only thing I can think of that would be more boring than running on treadmill for 24 hours would be watching someone run on a treadmill for 24 hours.
That would be a 9:22 min/mile pace. Then, I assume you would have to figure in breaks, pit stops and what not, say 3 minutes per hour, and that would bring it down to a 8:54 actual run pace. Then, of course if you want to break the record, you need to be going just a little bit faster than that.
From my ultra friend, I would be guessing that DK would be doing the run 9 minutes, walk one minute or some similar such strategy for a large part of the effort. The actual run pace would be that much faster again.
Dean is the man. I would think that he would have chosen a more controlled environment to attempt to break this record. The last I saw the sun was shining directly on him. If it were me I would want to be able to control lighting, temperature, humidity and maybe even a little breeze now and then…
Dean is the Man.
I kindly disagree…he’s not the man. He loves attention, yes. Plenty of other hardcore guys do things much more impressive than DK, and with much less “fanfare”. Those are the ones that should be praised.
That said, I have better things to do with my time than run on a treadmill for 24hours, or watch a guy run on a treadmill for 24 hours straight. Posting on ST is OK. 
exactly.
True, but if DK can get one person off the coach, thats a real plus.
Dave
I love this kind of shit!
I would expect a reply like this on slowtwitch. But when you say their are “plenty” of hardcore guys who do more impressive things, it would nice if you included a few examples. Dean is one of the most accomplished endurance athletes of our time. I am not sure what more the guy could do.
As far as you having better things to do than run on a treadmill for 24 hours in an attempt to break a world record and raise a lot of money for charity at the same time. I doubt that is true. If I had to bet there will not be a 24 hour span in your life where you will accomplish an equivalent amount…
Why aren’t they showing his distance traveled? Why do I care?
“He loves attention”…too each his opinion…but I think DK does live up to his billing. Have you met him?
I was fortunate to run with him (pretty much solo) for a good part of a day on his cross country “trek” back home from his 50-50-50. He is about as down to earth as anyone I have met of that stature. Is he a great marketer?? Yes. The best/fastest endurance athlete?? No. But you can’t blame him for using what comes so natural to benefit himself as well as others. What he does is motivates people…and that is good for our sport.
FWIW…in our sport…Dick and Rick hoyt are THE MEN.
The big sign below him on camera 1 shows diatance traveled.
Steve
Where to begin…off the top of my head, atleast in ultrarunning:
Serge England-Arbona did the same thing (24 hours on a treadmill) a couple years ago, broke what was the record then, and no books were published as a result…
Keith Knipling - three 100’s in 3 weeks
Karl Meltzer - winning 6 100 mile races in a year
Old ST threads have more examples…
I, too, have met DK and he’s a nice guy (what ultra dude isn’t?)…but sometimes I think he turns to many of his events into big PR stunts - and I’m not so sure thats the essence of ultra-anything.
Good call, I was having trouble getting that camera to load.
“He loves attention” = he has sponsors and likes to keep them happy?
o
“I kindly disagree…he’s not the man.”
I know 600 kids and teachers who would disagree with you on that. Slowtwitchers, JohnA, Bonkmonkey and I run a kids running program at our local school. 1 e-mail to Dean and he came out to speak with our kids a few weeks ago. He could not have been more cool to the kids and I became a Dean fan that day. That is him in the back row right with the big hair. We took the picture to celebrate our kids running 30,000 miles in 180 days.
Dave
I assume you hate all sponsored athletes the same. There are I am sure NBA caliber basketball players playing on playgrounds for the love of the game. I suppose we should “praise” all of them, instead of the guys who actually throw themselves into the spotlight and try to do great things with the whole world watching.
There is nothing wrong with either choice, dude. DK has inspired tons of people to get off their asses. It isn’t praise as much as it is respect. Show a little.