250 marathons in 365 days - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Cowperson · 12-31-2009, 11:59 AM

This Cochrane guy was just on CNN after his story appeared a few days ago in the Calgary Herald.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Co...388/story.html

http://www.marathonquest250.com/

His plan is to run five marathons a week, two days off, then do it again. . . . . throughout 2010.

He's got 12 other off-days built-in for "poop happens" reasons.

He's doing it for charity, Right To Play, which you might remember is something Zdeno Chara, Robyn Regehr and others have travelled to Africa to be involved in.

Bravo!!

Cowperson

Dan02 · 12-31-2009, 12:05 PM

Crazy, odds have to be pretty low that he'll complete this, I just don't see him being able to run that much that often without sustaining a injury that will derail the effort, then again wth do I know just because I manage to get injured all the time

Wookie · 12-31-2009, 12:24 PM

Pretty impressive!

Reminds me of this guy.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/ultraman.html

Cowperson · 12-31-2009, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan02

Crazy, odds have to be pretty low that he'll complete this, I just don't see him being able to run that much that often without sustaining a injury that will derail the effort, then again wth do I know just because I manage to get injured all the time

He's running nine minutes and then walking one minute. His average time per marathon is expected to be 5 hours, 30 minutes which is actually pretty lengthy even for a duffer. So he's trotting a bit.

On the other hand, even if you were hiking 42 km a day . . . that's a lot over a repeated time frame. It's just a lot of running period.

He's also doing a lot of it on the Cochrane marathon course which, I think, means running up out of that valley every day.

I bow in admiration in his general direction.

Cowperson

vanisleflamesfan · 12-31-2009, 12:42 PM

Reminds me of some guy I heard about who ran approximately 23 miles per day for around 143 straight days... with one leg.

Terry Fox.

MoneyGuy · 12-31-2009, 01:14 PM

I'm not sure what to say about this guy. I've raced four marathons in about 15 years. I don't do that any more. I use the term raced because that's what I did. Two of those marathons were under three hours. This guy has to be jogging them otherwise I don't see anyone surviving that. A fellow I used to run with was a really good marathon runner and would complete the distance in about 3:35 and also did Iron Man triathalons. He told me once that running a marathon all out was harder than the Iron Man because it was all out for about 2.5 hours, with no opportunity to pace yourself like in a tri. I bow to this guy for what he's doing, but he's still nuts for trying.

Buff · 12-31-2009, 01:27 PM

My hats off to him for attempting. Not since Grade 10 gym class have I run for any discernible amount of time, other than short bursts of speed while playing ball hockey.

...and those short bursts of speed while playing ball hockey are few and far between.

I did try to jog once, but stopped after maybe two minutes.

Now I'm wondering why I bought a treadmill the other day.

Do they have ice skating, or even inline skating marathons? I'd be willing to try one of those.

Cowperson · 12-31-2010, 09:36 AM

Following up on this one year later, last run is today. I think he's on CNN this morning too.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...446/story.html

Cowperson

Weiser Wonder · 12-31-2010, 09:39 AM

Wouldn't that be extremely bad for your health? I keep hearing stories of marathon runners keeling over in their 40s or 50s from heart attacks. Does it depend on the person or methods?

Sample00 · 12-31-2010, 09:41 AM

infriggincredible!!

thats beyond amazing!

Cowperson · 12-31-2010, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weiser Wonder

Wouldn't that be extremely bad for your health? I keep hearing stories of marathon runners keeling over in their 40s or 50s from heart attacks. Does it depend on the person or methods?

He's trotting, finishing in about 5.5 to six hours each time, rather than outright running. Bear that in mind.

So his heart rate is probably pretty sedate, so long as he's hydrating himself adequately. He would drink about eight pounds of liquids through each run.

A duffer is probably strongest for this kind of thing in their 30's into ther mid-40's to perhaps 50. You see the bulk of registrants in that age range.

I think this guy is in his mid-50's.

I know one guy who ran the Calgary marathon at age 70. I ran a marathon earlier in the year and there were guys at the starting line doing their 600th and 500th marathons, older men. One guy in the States did a marathon every weekend for a year and was actually running as opposed to trotting.

Basically, our Cochrane man made it a job, working six hours a day, five days a week, where he was running, trotting, maybe a little walking, 42 km a day.

An admirable accomplishment. It would be a hard thing to do for sure. Not everyone could do it. You'd need to be fairly special physically.

EDIT: The research on marathon runners and their hearts

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...ct-your-heart/

And less fit marathoners . . .

http://www.suite101.com/content/mara...damage-a300975

Cowperson

tete · 12-31-2010, 10:02 AM

Amazing. My husband, some friends, and I ran the Regina half-marathon in September. We headed back to our friends house, which was at the 35ish km mark of the full marathon route and cheered on the latecomers, finishing around 5-6 hours - and he was one of them! He was running with someone else with Right to Play bibs on. We made sure to cheer him on extra loud.

Cowperson · 12-31-2010, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tete

Amazing. My husband, some friends, and I ran the Regina half-marathon in September. We headed back to our friends house, which was at the 35ish km mark of the full marathon route and cheered on the latecomers, finishing around 5-6 hours - and he was one of them! He was running with someone else with Right to Play bibs on. We made sure to cheer him on extra loud.

Anyone who finishes a marathon, whatever the time, is a bit of a sadist/hero.

I read a quote last year from an elite marathoner, someone who would finish in about 2:15 or so, saying the people he admired the most were those out on the course for four to six hours. He just couldn't fathom the mental effort it would take to keep going since its nowhere near the time frame he'd have to endure himself. Kind of a different way to look at it.

Cowperson

tete · 12-31-2010, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Anyone who finishes a marathon, whatever the time, is a bit of a sadist/hero.

I read a quote last year from an elite marathoner, someone who would finish in about 2:15 or so, saying the people he admired the most were those out on the course for four to six hours. He just couldn't fathom the mental effort it would take to keep going since its nowhere near the time frame he'd have to endure himself. Kind of a different way to look at it.

Cowperson

Very true! Sorry, hope my post didn't come off sounding like they were less than a hero for the time they took to finish! I just about collapsed doing a HALF (took me over three hours!) and then went and watched these people still chugging away at the full and was just in awe of them, every single one. I was happy that we could cheer everyone on who was so close to the end.

Komskies · 12-31-2010, 10:22 AM

The longest run I've ever completed is 10 miles, but that was my upper limit. I'm built much more like a sprinter than a marathoner.

mykalberta · 12-31-2010, 11:05 AM

Good on the olde balls for doing it. I would never do something like that.

I like his quote, I was never a fast runner but I could run for ever. 5mi is the most I have jogged/ran.

Muta · 12-31-2010, 11:23 AM

Such an awesome story. How do you take an entire year off from working, though? Lucky.

macker · 12-31-2010, 11:24 AM

Impressive....but then again so is 50/50/50 that Dean Karnazes did and the 250 other scenerios that we have seen in the last few years. It is getting harder to stand out....

Cowperson · 12-31-2010, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tete

Very true! Sorry, hope my post didn't come off sounding like they were less than a hero for the time they took to finish! I just about collapsed doing a HALF (took me over three hours!) and then went and watched these people still chugging away at the full and was just in awe of them, every single one. I was happy that we could cheer everyone on who was so close to the end.

A few years ago, Katie Holmes, the wife of Tom Cruise, ran the New York City Marathon in about 5:30, basically part of the process of getting back into actress form after giving birth. People magazine reported it and some overly-intense wag wrote a letter slamming her for incompetence and other crimes against humanity. The following issue comes along and he's destroyed for his criticism by a horde of marathoners of all calibers.

And rightly so.

I liked it that former chubby Alanis Morrissette ran the NYC Marathon in 4:28 too.

Others:

GW Bush II, a 3:44:52 Houston Marathon in 1993.

Al Gore, 4:54.25 in the Marine Corps Marathon in 1997.

Will Ferrell, 2003 Boston Marathon in 3:56:12

Sarah Palin, 3:59:36 in the Humpy's Marathon in 2005. Nice push to finish in sub 4 hours.

P Diddy Combs, 2003 NYC Marathon, in 4:14:54.

It's a hard thing to do. As the announcer at the start of the Edmonton Marathon I ran in the mid-1990's said, "You can't hide in a marathon if you haven't done the work."

Cowperson

CaptainCrunch · 12-31-2010, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cowperson

A few years ago, Katie Holmes, the wife of Tom Cruise, ran the New York City Marathon in about 5:30, basically part of the process of getting back into actress form after giving birth. People magazine reported it and some overly-intense wag wrote a letter slamming her for incompetence and other crimes against humanity. The following issue comes along and he's destroyed for his criticism by a horde of marathoners of all calibers.

Cowperson

Actually what probably happened was her ankle bracelet fell off and she was trying to escape from Tom Cruise and got caught in the Marathon.

What this guy is doing is amazing from a modern standpoint, but no different from what ancient messangers used to do on a daily basis.