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Aleksandr Sorokin smashes 24-hour world record with 198.6 mile run
- throwthere 4y agoAmazing feat. Also makes you wonder what he was thinking for 24 hours through the solitude— the mental toughness and… the boringness.
- dmurray 4y agoPlenty of people have run for 24 hours, or spent far longer in far more solitary conditions. You could ask any of them. Sorokin "just" ran 5% faster.
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoI don’t how it is for you but the longest I have ever run is three hours and I don’t remember feeling bored nor thinking about anything apart from the running. If your effort is intense you don’t really have space to think.
- nl 4y agoIt's worth noting that the previous record had stood since 1997. That's an incredible amount of time for a running record, especially with the huge increase in ultra running over the last 10 years.
- oakesm9 4y agoI beleive that he broke the 1997 record last year and this was breaking his own record.
- eatwater123 4y agoLink doesn't work for me for some reason.
- sp332 4y agoIt took a few seconds to load, but it worked for me.
- joelrunyon 4y agoThis type of distance / pace is hard for some people to even grasp. This line helps sum it up nicely: > That’s 7:15 per mile or 4:30 per kilometer for 24 straight hours. Incredible
- cafard 4y agoBack in the 80s, Yannis Kouros seemed to be able to crank out 6:30 miles for many hours a day, for several days in a row. But I don't remember how many hours--eight or ten maybe.
- stevesimmons 4y agoYannis Kouros was a legend. When I was a teenage, he was a 5-time winner of the Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, from 1985 to 1990. The distance was 800-1000km. It took 5-6 days, running non-stop. He was so much better than everyone else that "in 1988, the race organiser challenged him to start 12 hours behind the rest of the field. Kouros overtook his competitors and won the race with a one-hour lead over New Zealander Dick Tout." [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_to_Melbourne_Ultramarathon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_to_Melbourne_Ultramarat...
- cafard 4y agoThanks! Several years ago, I was running in Rock Creek Park when a couple of men in their twenties passed in the opposite direction, and were apparently discussing Yannis Kouros. He isn't or wasn't forgotten.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoI can't even imagine. I'm gassed at that pace after a couple of KM.
- js2 4y agoI have a 1:28 half-marathon PR, a 3:07 marathon PR, I've twice run 100 miles in under 24 hours, and I can't imagine even more. That said, the marathon WR is 2:01:39 which is 4:38.39/mile (2:52.98/km). So Sorokin is running about 55% slower than that, or what would be considered an easy pace for an elite marathoner. AFAIK, we have yet to see an elite marathoner transition to ultras. However, there are quite a few elite ultra-marathoners who run marathons. The one I'm most familiar with is Michael Wardian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wardian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wardian He's run both a 2:17:49 marathon and finished 15th as Western States (19:32:07). And to be clear: I'm not diminishing Sorokin's amazing accomplishment here. I've run a 24 hour race. I got to 105 miles. I'm just noting what the best in the world are capable of at different distances. Humans are amazingly adaptable. I'm reminded of Howard Schatz’s Athlete series of photographs: https://www.boredpanda.com/athlete-body-types-comparison-howard-schatz/ https://www.boredpanda.com/athlete-body-types-comparison-how... https://howardschatz.com/human-body/athletes/ https://howardschatz.com/human-body/athletes/
- dmos62 4y agoI've started running and an unexpected challenge is boredom. The running is challenging as is, but doing it for ~1h30m has been, for me, well, tedious. I guess that's a byproduct of always being within arm's reach of a phone.
- chipgap98 4y agoI think that's also an upside of running. It's a forcing function to be away from screens and occupy your own mind. Though music or podcasts can be a nice way to break up the monotony if you are struggling
- fallat 4y agoThis. It forces you to start actually using your imagination again, and your current working memory to work on problems being away from things.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoI queue up podcasts or audio-books and use it as uninterrupted me time, though I do find audio-books harder to listen to on 2+ hour runs just because my mind tends to wander by that point. I find that podcasts are easier to mentally tune in and out of.
- yreg 4y agoFor me it's the only time (perhaps other than driving) I can truly focus on an audiobook. Ideally a nonfiction one, so it can be paused until the next workout at any time without creating a cliffhanger.
- hombre_fatal 4y agoWhen I find a particularly engaging audiobook, I reserve it only for running. Works really well. I've done extra laps just to hear more of the book.
- CitrusFruits 4y agoI've been a runner for a long time and this is absolutely a thing, it's not just you. Running do over an hour gets boring unless you're trail running and have different scenery to look forward to. That being said, a lot of people get bored (or worse, are actively displeased) much quicker and can't even run without music to entertain them.
- bergenty 4y agoThis has to be with substances
- manholio 4y agoOne could safely assume he drank and ate some substances during this event.
- lake_vincent 4y agoThe guy was clearly juiced up on dihydrogen monoxide.
- MerelyMortal 4y agoI can't believe the run ogranizers allowed him to use DHMO (dihydrogen monoxide), it's a very deadly substance if one isn't careful. There's even a website dedicated to how devistating it is: https://www.dhmo.org https://www.dhmo.org
- lake_vincent 4y agoThe performance advantage is ridiculous too. You see a guy on DHMO next to a regular guy without it, and the results are very predictable. Totally unfair.
- toss1 4y agoCould be, but I think he was using hydrogen hydroxide
- Victerius 4y agoEven if it is, it's still his leg muscles, his cardiovascular endurance, his ability to remain awake for 24 hours doing an intense exercise without collapsing of fatigue. Substances don't confer superpowers.
- bergenty 4y ago
- typon 4y agoHow much weight did he lose? It's quite amazing how calorie dense our energy storage mechanisms are.
- jordanmoconnor 4y agoSomeone on Twitter calculated about 55,000 calories burned. Not sure if he had things to consume while running - but 8 - 10 lbs of fat burned in one day is wild to think about.
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoDefinitely had things to consume. I don’t think you could go through this kind of effort on your energy storage only. I don’t think it can be mobilised that fast. Hydratation probably is a major concern too.
- cfj 4y agoThat seems way too high. A rough ballpark of energy expenditure while running is 1000 kcal per hour. Strava has the activity at 16,751 kcal.
- darkwizard42 4y agoDang, that would be SO impressive... <1000 calories an hour would mean he is running SUPER efficiently from a body perspective, but of course, with the right hydration, nutrition, and temperature it is all possible to burn less calories.
- Majestic121 4y agoI don't know about that, it's probably not super precise but an hour running is 600-700 kcal burned, reported by Garmin Connect
- mikestew 4y agoWhether you walk it or run it, a mile is about 100 calories. So, give or take, ~20,000 calories. Divide by 3500 calories/lb. and he burned five pounds of fat he probably didn't have to spare. But not so fast, he was also consuming calories along the way, and consuming a lot. So calculating the net burn would be quite difficult. But the gross burn was probably about five pounds/2.25Kg.
- ryannevius 4y agoAleksandr's training is public on his Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/26934035 https://www.strava.com/athletes/26934035 Something to remember is that this is his pace _after_ pit stops, so his actual running pace was faster. Also notable is that this course was kind of terrible, with four 90 degree turns and three 180 degree turns each lap for 209 laps. There's little doubt that he could run > 200 miles on a course with fewer turns.
- c-fe 4y agoStrava also shares the latitude/elevation during the run. (Screenshot in case you dont have Strava https://imgur.com/PuuKo5r https://imgur.com/PuuKo5r) What I find interesting and don't really understand is why the elevation keeps going down during the run, even though he stayed on the same track. Anyone have an idea why that could be?
- hammock 4y agoIt’s probably based off of a barometer in a watch, not GPS, and the air pressure was changing
- folli 4y agoYes, a high-pressure area was moving over Italy the last couple of days.
- gorkish 4y agoThe elevation in this case is just a proxy for storing the barometric pressure, which is because the actual air pressure is the important thing to track if you are trying to normalize against athletic performance. If the watch logged the GPS altitude, it would be a lot more accurate, but less useful as the air density would only be estimated..
- Lukas_Skywalker 4y agoAll GPS watches already calculate their altitude (GPS uses three dimensional trilateration for computing the position, so you must get the elevation because you must calculate the three dimensional position). The elevation measure is usually pretty inaccurate in Central Europe. Since the satellites are comparably low above the horizon, flat movements of the runner have a large effect on the run time of the signals coming from the satellites, while vertical movements do not really change the run time and are therefore much more affected by any error. This is why most portals like Strava run a data correction by overriding the elevation data of the GPS track by tracing the path over their internal elevation model. The barometric elevation calculation is usually much more accurate and is constantly calibrated on the watch. This breaks down a little if you run for over 24 hours and the weather changes a lot. The drift over the 24 hours of this run amounts to about 8m over 2 hours, which doesn't really matter. And while air pressure can be used to normalize performance of the athletes, the absolute values measured by the barometer are usually pretty inaccurate, while the relative changes are quite accurate. Therefore, they can be used to measure climb/descent, but not really for an absolute air density measurement. Source: I have worked on a GPS wearable (without barometric pressure sensor).
- mdrzn 4y ago> That’s 7:15 per mile or 4:30 per kilometer for 24 straight hours. That's an insane pace to keep up! I couldn't manage an hour of that, it's a real wonder what the human body can achieve.
- thro388 4y agoGood for him he got Lithuanian citizenship. Many "Russians" born in Lithuania never got that privilege! Edit: not true, see comments bellow
- wazoox 4y agoBeing a multiple records holder undoubtedly helps a lot.
- rossvor 4y agoI think the GP is a bit confused and mixed Lithuania up with its neighbors. Lithuania, unlike its neighbors Estonia and Latvia, gave citizenship automatically to everyone residing in Lithuania right before the independence. While Estonia and Latvia chose to create a naturalization process aimed at excluding ethnic Russians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness#Estonia_and_Latvia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statelessness#Estonia_and_Latv...
- thro388 4y agoFair enough, I mixed up with Latvia, sorry
- baybal2 4y agoI know what you are implying here... All Russians born in Lithuania been offered Lithuanian citizenship, repeatedly, many times over. Some Russians on the far right of the political spectrum repeatedly imply the contrary. This is not even a conspiracy theory, but a "being debunked in 5 minutes Googling theory."
- yubiox 4y agoI want to run but I cough for hours after running. Doc gave me an inhaler but it doesn't do anything. Any ideas? Help!
- abakker 4y agoEver tried running while on vacation? I grew up in new england and always found that I had a lot of exercise intolerance. However, I could always do better when I was on vacation out west. Now that I live in CO, I find my exercise tolerance to be way better. Anecdotally, I find that humidity is a real performance suck for me, as well as seasonal mold.
- Accacin 4y agoThis is not medical advice, and could even be wrong. However, I had a friend with with the same problem and he did have asthma. The thing that helped him the most was dialling it back completely. Run 1km, does that make you cough? Run 0.5km. Once you get a distance where you don't cough, run it for a week or so, then increment by another 0.5km. If you start coughing, reduce it again.
- wara23arish 4y agoim not a doctor but i had the same thing happen to me, but time after time i stopped coughing. also make sure you’re breathing is correct
- dtf 4y agoI've had that sometimes during the cold seasons, and usually take a puff of salbutamol before setting out. I still get it sometimes after a hard run or a race. Maybe try reducing the dose of running (duration x intensity), until you don't suffer so much, and then slowly build up if you can over weeks. You can walk & run, couch-to-5K style, if it helps. This little-by-little approach applies to most things in running - from training your VO2max to coming back from an injury, so it may help you. The key is to understand that the timeframe of adaptations can be weeks to months, and not to rush things.
- michael1999 4y agoExercise asthma is a drag. You might be opening up your lungs more than usual during running, and dirty or dry air can be irritating to pockets that aren't used to use. Start with short runs to build up your tolerance. Running on wet days can help -- the air is cleaner, wet, and less irritating. Good nose breathing will humidify and filter the air through your sinuses instead of passing straight to the lungs. Huffing steam through your nose in the shower before or after can calm the irritated tissue. If that doesn't work, reactine or a puffer can help. A light puff deep in the lungs _before_ the run can help stave it off.
- liotier 4y agoThat is 50% of the world record on rollerskates, on Le Man's circuit and 75% of my own 24 hours records on the same... This is beyond my understanding.
- sxv 4y agoAnd he's in his 40s!
- brink 4y agoHe's also 40 years old, impressive for that age!
- xhrpost 4y agoAbout to turn 41. Amazing how old you can be as a runner and still be world class in some metric.
- inerte 4y agoI didn't know who he was and after reading about the pace in the article I decided to search YouTube for a video of him running, just to see how fast he's going, and instead found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLyzAH9Y0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLyzAH9Y0A Apparently he weighted 100kg, was a smoker and a drinker, quit both and started running in 2012, only 10 years ago in his 30s. Amazing.
- stjohnswarts 4y agoI would say it's impressive at any age.
- jeltz 4y agoNot really, actually. Most ultra runners are over 40 so he is pretty young and hopefully has a long career in front of him. Still extremely impressive of course.
- sizzzzlerz 4y agoHow does one train for a 24 hour run? Do you need to run the full 24 or is it enough to run single or double marathon distances leading up to the race?
- scojomodena 4y agoMarathon-esque training is pretty good. The difference is really in being able to slow down so you are well within your aerobic zone, below your threshold pace/effort. Running slow enough so you can breathe only through your nose is a good measure. From there, it's about eating and hydration, etc. Ultras are often described as a "an eating competition with some running thrown in". The joints of course is a big deal too, some can do it easier than others. Also, most people walk a lot, you don't have to run, you just keep making forward progress. source: I've done a few Ultras and have used a running coach.
- eitally 4y agoAlexandr had been running 185mi/wk average to train for this over the past 3 months. Lots of marathon and 2x marathon runs on back-to-back days. That said, there's an enormous chasm between someone like this training for a 24hr world record and your or I just training to finish a 24hr race on our feet.
- f311a 4y agoAleksandr is very gifted genetically, he ran a marathon after one week of training while being overweight (100kg). It only took him 50 days to train for 100 km after the marathon. He is also 40 years old. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLyzAH9Y0A https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aSLyzAH9Y0A
- speedgoose 4y agoIn terms of logistics, can you drink just enough water to be healthy and fast without having to pee yourself to evacuate the excess?
- zeroonetwothree 4y agoYou need to pee to eliminate some waste products
- ck2 4y agoI'm sure he's clean for classical PED, I mean they must test for that. But how about things like ADHD drugs? When I see someone do a "low boil" endurance event that is beyond all others for all of history like a 24 hour record or triple-Ironman, etc. I have to ask why is their brain so different than competitors? I guess the benchmark is how many other people are even close to his accomplishments?
- nopinsight 4y agoFor many people, the risk to long-term health (and in some cases even sudden cardiac death) due to extreme running might not be worth it. Ultramarathon running: how safe is the sport? https://theconversation.com/ultramarathon-running-how-safe-is-the-sport-162108 https://theconversation.com/ultramarathon-running-how-safe-i... Potential Long-Term Health Problems Associated with Ultra-Endurance Running: A Narrative Review https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-021-01561-3 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-021-01561-3
- sendomatic 4y agoInteresting link. But the way you introduce it overstates the statements made by the research.
- _the_inflator 4y agoI agree. Most people could not get into the area of "death risk". I am more interested in injuries.
- nopinsight 4y agoI have just a couple of friends who run full marathons on a regular basis. One of them just died this year, probably due to heart condition, one day after a marathon. He has no other ailments we knew of. It’s anecdotal, yes, but coupled with some research and other medical advice I’ve read, running marathons or longer distance too often and aiming for a competitive time likely has long-term negative effects on your health. (Note: The etymology of ‘marathon’ also gives a small hint of this, though obviously Pheidippides ran in a very different condition from modern marathons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidippides https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidippides )
- strikelaserclaw 4y agoSeems like this sport got him out of the drinking, eating, depressed type of lifestyle.
- vytis 4y agoAnother incredible ultra-runner from Lithuania is Aidas Ardzijauskas who last year completed his 444 day run covering 30303 km, which is on average 68km every day for almost 1.5 years! His plan originally was to run around the world, but during the pandemic it wasn't possible to do that so he just ran it all in Lithuania. Unfortunately there isn't much English-language coverage about the monumental feat, but this is readable with Google translate: https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/sportas/10/1568074/finisas-pasiektas-aidas-ardzijauskas-virtualiai-apibego-aplink-pasauli https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/sportas/10/1568074/finisas-pasi... And he tracked everything on Strava too - https://www.strava.com/athletes/16416410 https://www.strava.com/athletes/16416410
- spiderfarmer 4y agoThat’s an amazing feat. Goes to show we once were predators who weren’t fast but had the stamina to outrun most of our prey.
- igouy 4y ago> Goes to show… Let's think about that for a moment. No, it does not.
- boston_clone 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting
- igouy 4y agoNon-sequitur. spiderfarmer claimed — Aidas Ardzijauskas's amazing feat "Goes to show" blah blah. No, it does not. You won't find anyone running 200 miles in descriptions of persistence hunting ;-)
- boston_clone 4y agoI'm not sure why you're attempting to call out non-existent fallacies and having so much difficulty accepting the hypothesis. The person in question averaged roughly 40 miles per day. The specific example provided in the wikipedia article - full of citations to supplementary materials - detail a group running up to 35 miles per day. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- runnr_az 4y agoI know the US 24h record holder, Nick Coury from around the PHX trailrunning scene. He ran 173 miles in 24h on a track last year. Talking to him, it's all about meticulous training -- he's an engineer by background, so he basically measured and tweaked every variable, one at a time, until he found things that worked. Still, these runs are won and lost on efficiency -- to stay that focused for so long seems... uhhh... difficult. https://www.irunfar.com/nick-coury-24-hour-american-record https://www.irunfar.com/nick-coury-24-hour-american-record
- egberts1 4y agoCome on, Roman Empire’s Parateus Messenger Express do this every day. /sarcasm
- thrownaway561 4y agoI just ran a 5km today with a 6:02 pace. I was just about to collapse and I've been running for about 2 years now. I can't even imagine doing a full 24 hours just walking let alone 4:30 per km.
- furyofantares 4y agoAmazing feat Amazing legs, lungs, heart, brain, etc etc too