Anyone watching Paul Johnson on this journey? Pretty interesting. He is a Naval Officer by day and has been logging some heavy runs to prepare for this journey. He starts today.
Looks promising! Is it also on X or just a website or is there some other way to track it? I don’t have instagram or strava, so those links aren’t working for me.
Looks promising! Is it also on X or just a website or is there some other way to track it? I don’t have instagram or strava, so those links aren’t working for me.
Here is the website:
Thanks, that one is mucho better. And we were just discussing these kinds of running records on another post. I hope he makes it!
He is a Naval Officer by day …
Why is it always Navy guys? LOL
It’s not an easy challenge by any means. I think luck plays a large factor in these attempts. Sometimes injuries just happen. And he’s gotta have an amazing crew! We should take bets on how many toenails he’ll lose.
It says his avg cadence is almost 90. That’s crazy. Idk how people can get it that high running so slowly. In a 10 minute mile 80 is about as fast as I can move my legs. But I’m also 6’4†and all legs…
This is going to be really, really hard. Let’s say you run 10 minute miles. That’s 12-13 (edited because I can’t do math) hours of running. You need ~8+ hours to sleep. There is 21+ hours of your day gone. Eating, showering, etc- not going to be easy. I wish him luck- it is a worthy cause.
Yeah and it looks like he’s only done 62-64 miles on the very first day. He’ll hopefully get into a rhythm eventually.
75 miles a day?
This dude is clueless. He has no chance.
If he finishes, it will be in way more than 40 days. If he chases 75 mile/day, I’m expecting a DNF. If he does it 40 days, the performance will be justifiably questioned.
This is going to be really, really hard. Let’s say you run 10 minute miles. That’s 7.5 hours of running. You need ~8+ hours to sleep. There is 15 hours of your day gone. Eating, showering, etc- not going to be easy. I wish him luck- it is a worthy cause.
It’s more difficult than you image.
10 minutes/mile or 6mph for 75 miles would be 12.5 hours on the road.
Running 75 miles (120km) in 7.5 hours requires running at 10 mph, the equivalent of stringing together nearly three consecutive 2:38 marathons. That’s elite level 100km pace.
We should take bets on how many toenails he’ll lose.
Preventing toenail loss is really simple. Cutting the toe box off the front of the shoes removes all pressure on the toes and eliminates nail loss. It also minimises the chance of toe blisters.
Ultra runners have been doing this for at least 40 years, probably way longer.
We should take bets on how many toenails he’ll lose.
Preventing toenail loss is really simple. Cutting the toe box off the front of the shoes removes all pressure on the toes.
Yeah. In theory. For a couple days. But we all know that nothing about running 75 miles per day over an extended period of time is simple.
If this were any kind of race, there would be one or two A-holes on the side of the road screaming “YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!!!†Haha. I hope he can break the record. I wont lie. This is the kind of thing I dream about doing until I mention it to my wife… 😆
Yeah. This isn’t easy. He’ll be in pain or hallucinating much of the experience. No time to recover. He’ll be trying to rest while his crew runs compression pants or ice on him and tries to stuff food into him. Definitely the type of experience the 99.999999% will never be able to wrap their minds around.
You’re right. My head was in metric mode which is obviously wrong for time. This is crazy. Will edit my post.
We should take bets on how many toenails he’ll lose.
Preventing toenail loss is really simple. Cutting the toe box off the front of the shoes removes all pressure on the toes.
Yeah. In theory. For a couple days. But we all know that nothing about running 75 miles per day over an extended period of time is simple.
If this were any kind of race, there would be one or two A-holes on the side of the road screaming “YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!!!†Haha. I hope he can break the record. I wont lie. This is the kind of thing I dream about doing until I mention it to my wife… 😆
Absolutely. Running 75 miles per day over 40 days is extraordinarily difficult.
How difficult? Here’s a reference point.
The Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile race in New York has been held for about 35 years. Only one man has completed it averaging 75 miles/day on a flat loop course. These are insanely experienced multi-day ultra runners.
He’s a rookie of only 10 months ultra experience. He has only finished a couple of 100 milers and run a fairly average performance in a 24 hour.
When someone like that announces they’re going to out perform some of the best ultra runners in the world, at a distance they’ve never attempted, it reveals a lot. Either they’re clueless as to the requirements of the undertaking (a precursor to DNF in ultras), or the run is more about hype than substance, or it’s an outrageous claim to solicit donations to a charity, or way too many cases, a “charity”.
Sadly, the charity angle often insulates against scrutiny or criticism.
As for the “theory” of cutting out the shoe toebox, it is highly effective in practice for multi-day ultras on road or track.
You of course are more experienced and in the know than I am, but I had the exact same thoughts using my limited knowledge of ultra distance events. One would think someone putting this out there like he has, that he was at the zenith of ultra running, and not a rank amateur who basically just started ultra running. Perhaps he is the real life Forrest Gump, but something tells me he is more Barnum and Bailey.
I know a lot of people get excited when folks put out such lofty goals, but for me I want it to be something based in some sort of reality. Otherwise they just end up in a dirt nap. I would have a lot more respect for the guy if he stated his intention was to get across the country in under two months, and then thrilled if he beat that goal. But these folks egos just dont work like ours do, they get a huge hit off the goal, and thus inflate it to astronomical proportions…
I agree. I would have just attempted it without anyone knowing, while documenting it all. If I failed nobody would know! Haha because he likely will fail having such a short resume. If I were to succeed then great! Sell it to netflix and make a couple schmeckles.
Day 1: 63.3 miles
Day 2: 75 miles
Day 3: 63.1 miles
Paul is already 24 miles behind schedule. While a conservative start in the opening days isn’t a bad thing, if the required daily distance isn’t consistently achieved, it will balloon out rapidly.
Numbers and reality will meet by the end of the first week.
He claims to be chasing Pete Kostelnick’s transcon record of 42 days.
Pete had run a 100 mile PB of 14 hours and 24 Hour PB of 263km, two years prior to setting the record.
By comparison, Paul finished a trail 100 mile in 23 hours, 6 hours behind the winner. He ran 187km in a “fairly flat” 24 Hour. He finished in about 750th place at UTMB.
Essentially, Paul is marketing his run largely around the transcon record. That is to say, around someone else’s hard earned achievement. The least he could do is acknowledge Kostelnick on his website.
It’s not an easy challenge by any means. I think luck plays a large factor in these attempts. Sometimes injuries just happen. And he’s gotta have an amazing crew! We should take bets on how many toenails he’ll lose.
It says his avg cadence is almost 90. That’s crazy. Idk how people can get it that high running so slowly. In a 10 minute mile 80 is about as fast as I can move my legs. But I’m also 6’4†and all legs…
I was a competitive runner for 30 years and never once had any of my coaches say a single thing about run cadence. I saw my first run cadence about 18 months ago when I finally had to replace my Garmin XT310 for a newer model. My run cadence is around 167-171 for a long run. I assume that is 83-86 the way you are counting. Some of the running workouts I was doing this time last year called for brick runs to be done at 180 so I was very self conscious that my cadence was not good. I think there were even some articles on why you need a higher cadence to improve your running. It stressed me out for a few months then I stopped looking at cadence and life has been good. I age 45 I broke my half Marathon PR running a 1:17:48. No off those people writing those articles on run cadence are doing Sub 1:18 Half Marathons for have 30 years of competitive running under their belts so I think my cadence is fine and I don’t compare myself to anyone else. Yes, I am taller too (but not 6’ 4"). Everyone is build different. My watch my two oldest daughters run and one has my long thin body type and runs with long stride and a moderate cadence like me. The other has the short legs and body of her mother and she lays down those feel like a machine gun. She has a very high cadence and short stride. They both get to the finish line together though.
75 miles for 40 days is very impressive. I ran the Trail of Tears with the Choctaw Nation a few years ago. I did 15 miles a day for my share of the 10-man relay for a week. That was not hard and was really fun but is the most miles I have ever done for consecutive days.
You of course are more experienced and in the know than I am, but I had the exact same thoughts using my limited knowledge of ultra distance events. One would think someone putting this out there like he has, that he was at the zenith of ultra running, and not a rank amateur who basically just started ultra running. Perhaps he is the real life Forrest Gump, but something tells me he is more Barnum and Bailey.
I know a lot of people get excited when folks put out such lofty goals, but for me I want it to be something based in some sort of reality. Otherwise they just end up in a dirt nap. I would have a lot more respect for the guy if he stated his intention was to get across the country in under two months, and then thrilled if he beat that goal. But these folks egos just dont work like ours do, they get a huge hit off the goal, and thus inflate it to astronomical proportions…
I had a friend who never ran a marathon set the goal to do a marathon a day from like Canada to Mexico or something. I said that’s pretty ambitious and just because you’ve enjoyed run training and feel you can run 10-20k without getting tired has nothing to do with the marathon let alone one every day for weeks. But they hyped it up to their friend network anyway. Part of their training involved running “one” marathon…which after losing a couple toenails and walking a lot the idea was called off…
If I was Paul Johnson, maybe I’d be trained for 115 days of a marathon every day first, then recovered for 2 months before building back up to a small volume first to get started on this 75/mi a day thing. How would you approach his goal from a training perspective?
I picked 115 daily marathons, because it’s building up 3000 total miles he’s shooting for, but over a longer duration. And at least half of those I would divide into two half marathons spaced at least 5hrs apart to give the body some adaption time during a short recovery.