Some might say that juggling a marathon is crazy. How can I disagree? But there are other marathon runners that do even crazier “stunts”. Consider the following list of marathon stunt runners.
Top Ten Stunt Marathon Runners – Excluding Jogglers
10. Dark Marathon. Running in Nevada during August isn’t fun for anyone. Of course, things are a bit cooler at night so runners do just that in the E.T. Full Moon Midnight Marathon. This sounds like a fun challenge for a joggler.
9. Crazy Costumed Marathon. Every marathon has it’s costumed marathon runners (even this average
joggler wore a Greatest American Hero outfit in the New York Marathon) but nothing compares to the crazy costumes of the London Marathon. A girl on stilts, a guy in a rhino suit, Borat outfits, running with cars. You can see more of the crazy marathoning outfits on this flickr page.
8. Multi-Day Marathons. In the last couple of years there were a few runners who did X number of marathons in X days. Sam Thompson did 51 marathons in 51 days to raise money for Katrina victims. Dean Karnazes did it too. Then Brad Alsop ran 131 marathons in 131 days to raise money for injured Marines. And then there are the Monks of Mount Hiei who do 2 marathons a day for 100 days. Crazy
7. Traveling Marathons. Some people travel to run a marathon. These guys traveled really far in a short amount of time to do 7 marathons. Sir Ranulph Fiennes & Dr. Michael Stroud did 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents. That includes a marathon on Antarctica.
6. Speed Walking Marathon. Who needs to run a marathon when you could walk one. But these athletes are trying to go as fast as possible. Carlos Mercenario Cabajal walked a marathon in an amazing 3:21:54.
5. Alcohol Drinking Marathon. This isn’t the kind of marathon focusing on drinking alcohol. It’s a running marathon in which the participants drink beer or wine along the way. There’s the Beer in 5 Burroughs that is a race within the New York Marathon. Here you drink 1 beer at each of the 5 Burroughs. Then there are marathons where you drink wine along the way. Finishing is a real challenge since you drink wine every 2K.
4. Barefoot Marathon
. People are not born with shoes and these runners don’t think you should run in them either. They do their marathons without shoes and they are fast. The world barefoot marathon record is 2:12:00 held by Shivnath Singh.
3. Backwards marathon. This isn’t the kind where you run the course from finish to start. It’s the kind where the runners line up backwards and run backwards. Some people call this retro-running. The current record for a marathon is 3:43:39 set by Xu Zhenjun in 2004. I know Michal talked about trying to break this record.
2. Soccer Ball Juggling Marathon. Various people have tried but the current record holder for juggling a soccer ball with your feet while running a marathon is held by Dr. Jan Skorkovsky. He did it in 7:18:55 in Prague City, 1990.
1. Slow motion marathon. Greg Billingham started the London marathon with everyone else but he tried to do it as slow as he could. He finished in just over a week averaging three miles every 10 hours. Can you imagine running that slow? What did this guy think about?
Know of any other crazy marathon runners? Leave a comment and let us know about them.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Some of these I can understand – multiple marathons, barefoot, midnight – but some of the others I just don’t get.
A week? Running backwards? That is crazy.
I’ve been running barefoot for over a year now. I’m a pretty weak juggler, but I can juggle. I’m going to see if I can combine that into barefoot joggling over the next couple months. The challenge of it is appealing.
Wine every 2K?! Where can I sign up for that marathon!
i have been siad to be the greatest stunt runner ever as coatman who has run in heavy coat, tie dress shoes and carys waiters tray with bottle and glass . have run 130 marathons , 26.2 miles, in 31 years. ask bart yasso of runners world about me and check articles on internet
I’m very pleased that you stopped by Coatman. Indeed I’ve heard of you. Any interest in answering a few questions for an interview post?
love to answer questions. just ran 131st marathon in 87 degree heat and have guaranteed entry to new york in fall. call 954 522 2083
can e mail coatman at dennis.marsella@yahoo.com
Came across your blog. Wandering if you are interested in running the Havana Marathon. I’ll pulling together a group of 100 Americans to run it in November, first official opening since it was started in 1987 and of course, travel has been largely restricted since 1963.
Hello Dean – I might be interested. Email me with more details.
Go to http://www.insightcuba.com/marathon/ for info on signing up. And feel free to join my Havana Marathon facebook group to track our progress as we plan to run with a contingent of Americans.
even though i have a guaranteed entry to new york maratnon and will run my 28th i still would love to run the havana marathon(short flight from ft lauderdale) 2 weeks later if maybe perry will catch my expenses (ha ha ). we should get President obama to run the 26.2 miles bouncing a basketball as a stunt runner. It would be great diplomacy and help his re-election campagn coatman-dennis marsella
dean months ago you asked me to answer some questions for you,and when i replyed you never followed up. did bart yasso or somebody give me a bad reference? its wrong that i am not on your top ten list . at 61, with 32 years of running as coatman, i am the most notorious stunt guy in america. no trick guy has run 28 new york marathons or 12 grandfather mountain marathons, a marathon that has been called the toughest 26 mile marathon in america.ive also run 5 ultras. runners world did not do a complete story on me and left out key marathons including my marathon in moscow. the writer had hang ups and the photographer tried to make me look bad because his girlfriend liked me. call me coatman 954 522 2083
perry i e mailed you answers to the questions you asked me . i hope you use them as you said you would. coatman
Thanks! Look for a post next Monday!
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