152.27 Miles on a Treadmill

[NME]

TOWSON, Md. Jan. 26 — Serge England Arbona ran 152.27 miles on a treadmill in 24 hours to stake a claim to four world records.

Up since 5 a.m. Saturday, Arbona was ready for a hot shower and a long nap. But he was alert enough to savor the moment.

"This is the best and most exciting day of my life," he told The (Baltimore) Sun. "I was dreaming of a world record when I was a kid. It took a long time."

Arbona, 38, started running at noon Saturday and reached the milestone at a YMCA the next day. He broke the 24-hour treadmill record by more than three hours. Along the way, the Baltimore resident also beat the 50-mile treadmill time by 22 minutes, the 100-mile time by two hours and the distance record for a 12-hour run by more than four miles.

"Four records in 24 hours might be a record itself, said Christy De Vader, a Loyola professor who runs with Arbona sometimes. "He just whipped them all off."

Guinness World Records has to analyze the documentation before it's official, but to Arbona's fans, that's just a formality.

"The man is like a machine. I don't know how he does it. He's an inspiration to all of us," said Linda Tice, 58, a member of the Baltimore Road Runners Club, as is Arbona.

Ultra runners those who run distances longer than a marathon are different by nature, said De Vader, 44, who headed the crew attending Arbona.

"They just don't accept boundaries like other people do," said Dave Cameron, 40, a fellow runner from Millersville. "He's got tremendous mental focus and discipline. He was hurting three hours into this thing, but he just keeps going and going and just doesn't stop."

Friends kept Arbona moving through the night by singing and playing guitar, and showing videos of runners and of his 18-month-old son, Anjelo. The only time he stopped moving was during infrequent bathroom breaks.

By 10 a.m. Sunday, Arbona had given up running, though, and was sticking to a fast walk. His muscles were cramped, his ankles were shot, and he was nauseated and exhausted.

In addition, his mind was cloudy. He could no longer compute the distance he had run by looking at the treadmill display. He forgot that he had taken a salt tablet, to keep his sodium up, five minutes after downing it. He stumbled over words.

But his feet kept going.

Source

This guy is, apparently, right down the road from me. I'm surprised I haven't found his obituary yet; I don't think any amount of cool-down would cover 24 consecutive hours of running (at probably a pretty quick pace).

Somehow, my 45 minutes on the treadmill doesn't seem so tough all of a sudden...

[TheWhoRocks]

Heh, that's insane. At least he wasn't just staring at a wall for 24 hours, he had his friends and family to distract him.

[Ranger17]

I knew a guy that used t tell us that your body is a machine....it only does what your mind tells it to....tell it to run, it runs...until you tell it to stop.
Guess this guy is living proof of the machine theory.
J

[NME]

In the local paper it said the guy got off of the treadmill to eat and use the bathroom. That makes the whole thing underwhelming as far as I'm concerned.

"I ran on a treadmill for 24 hours....over a 30 hour span!"

...Probably doesn't have much body fat on him, though.

[--D--]

150 miles in 24 hours is impressive no matter how you slice it. His average speed, 6.3 mph, for the 24 hour period was better than my average speed in a marathon (a mere 26.2 miles) I ran last year. Granted, I'm not the pinnacle of cardiovascular fitness, but I did beat a couple of old ladies.

[BeefKakBuk]

He did get off the treadmill, but the clock kept running, but not the belt. I saw the other day his hourly splits, but cannot find them now. I would not consider this an underwhelming task. From noon one day to noon the next he ran 152 miles.

"Probably doesn't have much body fat on him, though" I don't know what that is supposed to mean. Of course he doesn't, I don't think having low body fat makes this an easy task. That is him on the right.

Most here probably cannot run 150 miles for 24 hours over a 1 week span. A marathon ever day of the week save one for rest still would not be underwhelming.

[Zef82]

He will never beat forest gumps record.

I'm tired just thinking about it.

[marcus]

Wow thats amazing, good on him

My friends uncle who is an extremely fit ultra distance runner once ran in this race with a distance of 1000kms. For 2 weeks he would run for 4 hours and then sleep for 4 hours and repeat. Absolutly amazing. He came second. I dont know how their bodies can take it, they also must have amazing mental strength.

Marcus

[FionaMaeve]

My father is a marathon runner. He runs 6-12 miles every morning, and on Saturdays he runs 16-24 miles (usually about 18 or 20).

He won't, however, do ultra distance races. Supposedly they do irreparable (sp?) damage to the body.

That story is amazing though. I can't imagine.

[jtelling]

Originally Posted by Ranger17

I knew a guy that used t tell us that your body is a machine....it only does what your mind tells it to....tell it to run, it runs...until you tell it to stop.

mine tells me I want doughnuts. must be a bug in the software...

[Specialbear]

lol