Putting some perspective on things: 366 days of consecutive marathons

Triathlon Forum
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So I finish my lunchhour run at the Freshii to pick up a salad a few minutes ago, and this older dude in line looks at my watch, and points to his own garmin -same model - and says “nice watch, mate” in an aussie accent. I think, “fine. Want Salad”

So he then points to my shirt and says “you’ve done the ironman, then.” And I have no reign on my ego, so I say “oh ya, it was super hot, and tons of climbing on the run, and really tough that year.”

He goes: ya, my wife and I do a bit of running.

Me: mmmm. (inner thought bubble: 7k Fun Run).

Him: ya, around Australia.

Me: mmmm. (thought bubble: I wonder if they call them ‘fun runs’ in Australia, or something else). which part of Australia?

Him: Around Australia.

Me: I know – Sydney? Melbourne? (I’ve now exhausted my knowledge of Australia geography.)

Him: last year, we ran around Australia.

Him: A Marathon a Day.

Him: For 366 straight days.

Him: Oh – and I’m 70.

Turns out the dude is here speaking at the Ideas Conference on his experience … he and his wife ran 15,000 kms, a marathon every day, around the Perimeter of a freakin’ continent. ( http://www.runningrawaroundaustralia.com/ ).

I think I would crack like an egg dropped from a second-story window after 4 days. 5 days, tops.

2

Yep, so many thing IM’s are so hard. Not.

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3

I swear they have a better gene pool over there. Just natural selection on account of the fact that everything in Australia is trying to kill you.

4

Yep, so many thing IM’s are so hard. Not.

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Ironman is not hard? Really?

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Why do you think an IM is so hard? For most, it is just a long day. Really not that hard to make 17 hour cutoff.

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he probably won most of them.

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I suppose running around Australia is a big enough feat where it’s worthy of going up to random people and telling them about it.

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Why do you think an IM is so hard? For most, it is just a long day. Really not that hard to make 17 hour cutoff.

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How hard do you think this guy was “running” his daily marathons? “It’s just a long day. Hell, there isn’t even a cut-off.”

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Why do you think an IM is so hard? For most, it is just a long day. Really not that hard to make 17 hour cutoff.

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I guess because I’ve done four of them and thought they were all hard.

Hard to make the cutoff and physically/psychologically hard are way different things.

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For anyone who can run 26 miles, 366 straight is pretty amazing, since staying healthy is not easy. But at his age, very very impressive.

As I said, folks who think an IM is that hard just need to realize in the big picture, there are many folks doing much more amazing things!!!

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That is hard, which an IM is for many, but for some, just doing a 5K is hard.

So “hard” is a relative term. Now, try RAAM, that is HARD!!

Taking care of a dying parent is way “harder” than any race I have done.

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he probably won most of them.

Did you forget the pink? Since he and his wife were likely the only ones running (or walking) them. Very few would have been at a sanctioned event or officiated. There are very few ‘sanctioned marathons’ in the summer months and very few that aren’t on Sundays. Nice feat though. Rare. Typically undocumented though.

I wonder if SurfingLamb did that too?

Dean Karnazes is one of the few people I am aware of that has done this type of marathons with officials. I recall reading that he has twice run 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states, all of sanctioned marathons courses, all officiated, all chip timed.

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Yep, so many thing IM’s are so hard. Not.

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Ironman is not hard? Really?

‘Hard’ is a relative term, but I’m going to agree with h2ofun on on this one.

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For anyone who can run 26 miles, 366 straight is pretty amazing, since staying healthy is not easy. But at his age, very very impressive.

As I said, folks who think an IM is that hard just need to realize in the big picture, there are many folks doing much more amazing things!!!

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Just because there are people doing “amazing” and “impressive” things, some of which are certainly “harder” than an IM, it does not mean that doing an IM is not hard.

I would also argue that the feats you are talking about are not the “big picture”, but rather a very small picture. IOW, there aren’t many people doing them.

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Well. I guess there are at least two members of the Slowtwitch Hipster Sub-Group.

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That is hard, which an IM is for many, but for some, just doing a 5K is hard.

So “hard” is a relative term. Now, try RAAM, that is HARD!!

Taking care of a dying parent is way “harder” than any race I have done.

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Dude. Just because other things are harder doesn’t mean Ironman isn’t hard.

I lost my mom to Alzheimer’s and I would never compare that to a one-day endurance event. You’re basically comparing Apples to a sack of armadillos.

You must be a hoot at parties. “I did an Ironman once, it wasn’t hard.”

17

I have never tried but I have heard that having sex standing up in a hammock is extremely hard.

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No, Dude. That’s not hard if you’re a circus tightrope walker and your partner is a midget.

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No, Dude. That’s not hard if you’re a circus tightrope walker and your partner is a midget.

I guess running 366 marathons in a row wouldn’t be that hard if you get to measure the course…

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It is all a play on words. Some think IM is hard as in the hardest thing ever to do in life.

I am saying IM is “hard”, but in the scope of things in life, 17 hours really is not that “hard” for a lot of folks.

So, define “hard”? Is hard next to death? All I am saying is some just really think an IM is so “hard” that I guess folks should stop and bend down to them.

So “putting some perspective on things”, is all I was commenting on. There is “hard” and there is “hard”.

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