38 people managed 300 miles in 3 days at the Backyard races currently taking place. Absolutely incredible! An up and coming area of ultrarunning with a huge depth of field.
Nels is back on it with a 70 mile day yesterday. Let's hope he gets to join the Sub 50 Day club.
Incidentally, do we agree that the Sub 50 Day club currently consists of Pete Kostelnick, Frank Giannino, Jenny Hoffman and Phil McCarthy?
There are other claimants- Stan Cottrell and Patrick Malandain for example. Any views on them?
It's always seemed crazy to me that Guinness will accept a fastest crossing record from any of the West coast cities rather than just San Francisco. We need a dedicated website to keep track of attempts and a proper protocol (carry a tracker and a gps watch etc.) which would obviously evolve with time as technology improves.
Incidentally, do we agree that the Sub 50 Day club currently consists of Pete Kostelnick, Frank Giannino, Jenny Hoffman and Phil McCarthy?
There are other claimants- Stan Cottrell and Patrick Malandain for example. Any views on them?
It's always seemed crazy to me that Guinness will accept a fastest crossing record from any of the West coast cities rather than just San Francisco. We need a dedicated website to keep track of attempts and a proper protocol (carry a tracker and a gps watch etc.) which would obviously evolve with time as technology improves.
There used to be a list online but the guy running it got tired of it because he had to deal with all the cheaters.
Kostelnick, McCarthy and Hoffmann are in the Sub 50 Day club.
Stan Cottrell and Frank Giannino are both cheaters as a matter of fact they ran at the same time. Cottrell was a couple weeks ahead and Giannino had to "pick up the pace" to be "faster". Cottrell was crewed by Japanese and they left disgusted somewhere in the middle of it. Giannino never did one ultra race in his life. This was 1980. It's very unlikely that he ran all of it and his old website indicated that he had not run everything.
38 people managed 300 miles in 3 days at the Backyard races currently taking place. Absolutely incredible! An up and coming area of ultrarunning with a huge depth of field.
Nels is back on it with a 70 mile day yesterday. Let's hope he gets to join the Sub 50 Day club.
Day 45 update 2895.1 miles run that's 64.3 miles per day
Depending on the course, I think he might be able to finish at the end of day 47 which is tomorrow.
I wish him all the best for the final two days. This is a very good performance. But it's not over until its over.
Yes John someone or other used to do a list. I think his website was 'SeeJohnRun'. I knew that Stan Cottrell was thought to be dodgy (I think one of his crew issued a statement recently when he was taken to court for something, which basically said that he didn't do it) but I'd always thought that Frank Giannino's crossing was generally accepted. I haven't read his book or seen the documentary that was made.
You make a good point though, he had no ultra pedigree (he did have a 1:12 half marathon for what it's worth) and in 1980 the burden of proof was obviously far lower...
Frank Giannino did a genius move with handing that baton to Pete Kostelnick.
Over the years I spoke to a couple of old time ultrarunners and nobody believed that he did it. And if so, he had to come up with some proof. He didn't. His math on his own website regarding his run was very dodgy.
I think 10 years ago they try to put together a book but that would not proof anything either.
The thing is, that you can't really proof that you have run a Trans con. It's all about reputation. In the 70ies there where hardly any ultra races. So it's almost impossible to think that someone could have gained that experience and knowledge on his own without even running one ultra.
38 people managed 300 miles in 3 days at the Backyard races currently taking place. Absolutely incredible! An up and coming area of ultrarunning with a huge depth of field.
Nels is back on it with a 70 mile day yesterday. Let's hope he gets to join the Sub 50 Day club.
Day 45 update 2895.1 miles run that's 64.3 miles per day
Depending on the course, I think he might be able to finish at the end of day 47 which is tomorrow.
I wish him all the best for the final two days. This is a very good performance. But it's not over until its over.
OK. High quality day yesterday of 74 miles. He is in Johnsburg NJ and Central park NY is only 58 miles per google. So it appears that tomorrow is the day. Very nice transcon and a good guy!
OK. High quality day yesterday of 74 miles. He is in Johnsburg NJ and Central park NY is only 58 miles per google. So it appears that tomorrow is the day. Very nice transcon and a good guy!
It's probably closer to 75 miles left, depending where he is ending his run. He has to run over the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, if he wants to run the whole thing and I am sure he does.
Nels has finished. Well done to him. Can't work out what his time was though.
The Frank Giannino book is on Amazon, it's called '46 Days'. I haven't read it and you're right- it can't prove anything. I suppose building an impressive running record is very important with FKTs (along with tracker and GPS watch). He must have submitted something to Guinness though, but you've only got to look at our Lands End- John O' Groats fiasco to see what they'll fall for.
Oh, I forgot- there's a Facebook group called US Crossers but it doesn't maintain a list of fastest times. Maybe I need to get on with doing one.
It was about 46 days 12 hours and 40 minutes +/- the time change.
In the words of Will Cockerell, that is clearly "impossible" and a "one in quintillion chance" of him ever being able to do that for someone of his ultra pedigree.
According to that old Trans con list, Frank Giannino said he ran it in 46.358 days with 3103 miles. 66.935 miles per day. Of course that was 1980 and there is no other proof except that he said he did it but Frank never ran an ultramarathon ever.
So I would say Nels Matson has the second fastest time and Jenny Hoffmann has the third fastest.
According to that old Trans con list, Frank Giannino said he ran it in 46.358 days with 3103 miles. 66.935 miles per day. Of course that was 1980 and there is no other proof except that he said he did it but Frank never ran an ultramarathon ever.
So I would say Nels Matson has the second fastest time and Jenny Hoffmann has the third fastest.
I've just looked up Tom McGrath's run and seen that his record was 53 days set in 1977.
That means Gianino broke the record by a whole week, and then only one other person has broken his time over the next 44 years.
That's an astonishing achievement for someone that never run a single ultramarathon in their life. In fact, it possibly sounds just as dodgy as Andi Rivett's so called UK End to end record.
