Pete Kostelnick began his transcontinental record attempt today (September 12)

Howard Dean wrote:

Live tracker:

https://share.delorme.com/PeterKostelnick

When you zoom in on the maps, you realize he is running through some amazingly boring land.

Here's a summary of his running so far.

Monday 81mi 8am to 10pm

Tuesday 80mi 6:20am to 10pm

Wednesday 73mi 6:20am to 10pm

Thursday 73mi 6:30am to 8pm

Day four finished on CA/NV border

At first glance it appears like he is doing 3 or 4 runs per day but is probably just trading watches or taking short breaks. Average pace per strava is 10.5min per mile, which will obviously slow as he goes.

Pete is putting his runs up on Strava. This is the most accurate place to get mileage. The Delorme tracker is real time but will be a little short since it doesn't ping as often.

I had heard from a friend of his that his plan was going to be to run 50 miles, then take a break and walk 20 in the evening. But it appears he is continuing to run, for the most part, except for walking parts of hills in Yosemite.

I guess some will doubt it's legit but I don't know what more proof anyone could want. His route is published

http://www.petesfeetaa.com/track-pete

and it shouldn't be too hard to predict roughly when he'll be at any given place if anyone wants to spot check him. The RV is leap frogging him by 20-30 miles, while a 2nd car or minivan stays closer or maybe with him, not sure. I know he wasn't happy about the other guy's bogus attempt because it just casts doubt on a legit run, so he's being as transparent as he can be.

notrojowejo wrote:

The live tracking in the 2nd post on this thread provides many opportunities to look at his data.

Oops. How did I miss that? Thx

He is on the move again...getting through Tonopah, NV before the traffic gets bad. ;-)

Yesterday he had a much slower average speed (4.84 mph), and hasn't gotten started yet this morning. Wheels coming off already?

he took saturday off? maybe he's seventh-day adventist

Competitor.com:

"Kostelnick, 28, has hit his stride. In 2015 he won the Styr Labs Badwater 135 Ultramarathon in Death Valley, then followed it up with victories in the Kansas Fall Ultra Extravaganza 100-miler in October and the Desert Solstice 24-Hour race in Phoenix in December, covering 163.68 miles.

In July he repeated at Badwater, becoming the first to complete the course in under 22 hours. His 21:56:32 crushed his 23:27:10 of 2015. He became the first man to win back-to-back since Scott Jurek in 2005-06.

As an encore (or is it the main event?), he’s going to try to run 3,063 miles."

can someone explain why this is called transcontinental? Geographically I suppose he's going west to east across the continent, but when I saw the title I assume he was starting in Alaska and going to Ushuaia.

trans=across

continental=continent

He is going across the continent.

Inter=between

continental=continent

An ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) travels between continents.

According to his FB site, he woke up to run but felt congested and decided to take a rest and recovery day for the upcoming mountains of Utah and Colorado. So he goes from 30 miles ahead of 70/day to 40 behind. We'll see next week if the wheels are coming off or if this rejuvenates him.

Thanks for the update. Seems like taking a zero day is an extreme option - he must have felt really crappy. Could have slogged out a few hours and gotten 20+ miles, which would have felt like rest given the last few.

5 days and he needs a zero mileage day? Not good.

His zero day was in one hell of a desolate (but beautiful) place. I've driven through there a couple times, once in the middle of the night. At one point I drove three hours at 70mph and saw no other cars on that highway.

Hope he's ok and gets back to it tomorrow!

Back out this morning, started at 3:30am local.

And you're right, that is a very desolate place. Which got me thinking, if you were going to cheat and have someone else run with the watch and tracker for awhile, or do it by car, there'd be no place better to do it. Chances of getting caught there are virtually nil. Even if they just ran 30-40 that would keep him on track. But they eat the zero day.

It's also possible that this is the most optimal way to run an american transcon run. If he can keep running 70-80 miles per day with 1 day off every once in a while then more power to him. he's already off to a good start today with almost 30 miles in 5 hours.