Nick Butter to run 196 marathons in 196 countries in 550 days

Based on how he exaggerates all his race times a relatively small amount (a few minutes) I would bet he is the type of dude who stops his watch in the Porta-potty and doesn’t count the time lost like the normal people would. That would explain the gps watch photo with the time and distance.

One question. What is the definition of marathon?

Could an elite athlete call their training runs over 26.2 miles marathons and become eligible for these type of records?

Could Kawauchi get the record for most "marathons" under 3 hours using his lifetime training runs over 26.2 miles?

What is a marathon? wrote:

One question. What is the definition of marathon?

Could an elite athlete call their training runs over 26.2 miles marathons and become eligible for these type of records?

Could Kawauchi get the record for most "marathons" under 3 hours using his lifetime training runs over 26.2 miles?

for the attention seeking, self promoting, record breaking, raising awareness for charity, scamming fraudster a marathon is covering (or pretending to cover) 26.2 miles in a 24 hour period.

runners know what a marathon is. most of the general population dont really care enough to question it and they are the ones supporting these people.

What is a marathon? wrote:

One question. What is the definition of marathon?

Could an elite athlete call their training runs over 26.2 miles marathons and become eligible for these type of records?

Could Kawauchi get the record for most "marathons" under 3 hours using his lifetime training runs over 26.2 miles?

This is likely how he's coming by the figure 300 marathons as he simply has NOT done 300 marathon races.

If you work out what the average person (non runner) walks in a lifetime, imagine how many "marathons" the average 80 year old has done!

That's why MARATHONS are official races, not how far you walked or ran in general life!

None of his "300 marathons" can be proved.

I've asked him twice which races they were. He opens messages and ignores.

wierd wrote:

his first marathon in on strava in toronto.

4:39. average cadence 145 (very low - odd). flyby doesn't work - odd. says he met up with a local club but strava doesn't show he ran with any other people - odd.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1346017551

GPS looks bogus

At Mile 4: Look how it goes from a 2:44 min / mile pace to a 14X min / mile pace... gtfo

AnotherScammer..Sad wrote:

wierd wrote:

his first marathon in on strava in toronto.

4:39. average cadence 145 (very low - odd). flyby doesn't work - odd. says he met up with a local club but strava doesn't show he ran with any other people - odd.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1346017551

GPS looks bogus

At Mile 4: Look how it goes from a 2:44 min / mile pace to a 14X min / mile pace... gtfo

Oh do behave. No one has ever fabricated a 4.39.

do you really need to ask? wrote:

What is a marathon? wrote:

One question. What is the definition of marathon?

Could an elite athlete call their training runs over 26.2 miles marathons and become eligible for these type of records?

Could Kawauchi get the record for most "marathons" under 3 hours using his lifetime training runs over 26.2 miles?

for the attention seeking, self promoting, record breaking, raising awareness for charity, scamming fraudster a marathon is covering (or pretending to cover) 26.2 miles in a 24 hour period.

runners know what a marathon is. most of the general population dont really care enough to question it and they are the ones supporting these people.

I would venture that most people would consider a marathon as run or walked in one go. Try telling someone at work you did 10 miles in the morning and 16 at night and see what they think

Even on the broader interpretation there is no way he has run the marathon distance in a day on 300 separate occasions.

I've stayed in Toronto for some time. In fact older daughter's old apartment was just by his turn round point on Younge St at mile 20.5. My younger daughter is on King St. at miles 11.4 and 25.3. I have a few comments on his route but nothing too damning - it is probably genuine.

My first reaction was it was a bizarre route , Younge St. and King St. are major arteries and are virtually impossible to run smoothly along due to the traffic - even on a Sunday. If I was trying to define a route I would have stayed on the waterfront after mile 9 and carried on a couple of miles then turned north into High Park. High Park is good for at least four miles without ever having to run the same trail twice. Also, at his turn round point at mile 20.5 I would have used Mount Pleasant cemetery - the Yellow Creek Trail and the Don Valley Trail to get some traffic free miles in. I suspect though most of these trails are snow and ice packed but every Canadian runner has a set of spikes mounted on a rubber frame that you can slip over your trainers. He probably doesn't have these but his buddies could have lent him a spare pair.

He probably left the Waterfront Trail after mile 9 due to the wind off Lake Ontario. The wind was from the southwest so going around Trillium Park / Ontario Place must have been hell. I noticed he didn't go to the end of the island and I don't blame him. I am surprised he ran back and forth along King St. and The Esplanade. These both align with the wind direction and King St. can be like a wind tunnel. Strangely, on King St. he ran faster into the wind than he did with the wind behind him. But this could be due to having to stop at more junctions due to traffic. Personally I would have tried to avoid east - west streets and stuck to sheltered north - south routes.

On his Young St. out and back he ran faster uphill than he did downhill. But again this could be due to traffic conditions and the fact that he had done 20 miles by then.

I don't see any smoking gun here but the route looks like it was unplanned and he just set out and ran until his Garmin said 26.2. His running round and round Parliament Square at mile 15 looks like someone thinking where do I go next.

All

Whilst I appreciate the constructive sceptisism that I’m sure lies behind these posts I’d encourage you to see the bigger picture. Nick is attempting to raise a considerable amount of money for a charity he has selected as a result of meeting a truly inspirational guy (Kev) whilst running the MdS. I run with Nick, and can vouch for his running capability, but more importantly I am a colleague and friend of Nick and can vouch that this is a genuine effort to raise a quarter of amillion pounds for charity. Yes, Nick will hopefully benefit from the amazing experiences along the way, but he is also (and has been for the past year +) putting a huge amount of time and effort into making this happen.

I know I’m have massive admiration and respect both of the journey itself, but also Nicks drive, determination and self belief (and support team (family, friends, charity, corporation and paid help)) to make this happen. I hope you can all step back, reflect and feel the same. If not now, then when he hits his targets.

If you really don’t believe, then why not find his nearest marathon to you (you will find the itenary on his website) and go join him (you can also ask as many questions as you like then with his complete attention!!)

Happy running

Gary

Hi Gary, thanks for posting.

I don't know how familiar you are with letsrun but mixed in among all the troll posts there will be some skepticism. This comes from a long history of scams, nearly always involving a world record of some sort. Some are blatant fraud attempts some are free loading attempts.

A classic example of the blatant fraud could be Jason Easter, the Wish Runner. His plan was to run a record number of triathlons in a year and raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation. The problem was the donation button wasn't to the MAWF but rather to a similar sounding name that was in fact a Go Fund Me type account. Buried in the web page was a statement that at least 10% of the money raised would go to the MAWF. The remaining 90% could be used to cover his expenses. His goal was to raise $600,000 - I'll let you do the math. Unfortunately for Jason he cheated on his first triathlon, cutting the course, and was quickly exposed. He quit his campaign a few days later.

Nick is definitely NOT in that category, he is a real runner with some decent times to his credit. The concern many have is that he may be a freeloader. Basically, spend a year travelling the world, have other people cover the costs and raise a bit for charity on the way. A classic example of this could be Paul Wheeler who is running across the USA pushing a trolley. If you went to his web page the first thing you saw was a great big Donate Now button. Unfortunately that took you straight to his Go Fund Me account. The real charity donation link was buried away in a pull down menu. Until letsrun got onto his case exactly $0.00 had gone to charity. He has since revamped his page and both buttons are now on it and identified properly.

I notice Nick has a Go Fund Me account and a Just Giving account. This morning the donations to each account were:

Go Fund Me: £41,608

Just Giving: £11,304

That is setting off a lot of alarms. So far only 20% of the money raised has gone to the charity, it should be the other way round. In fact the proportions are worse if you consider the contributions by his sponsorship partners, most of which will cover expenses in kind.

Interestingly, when I went back to his page just now I can't find the Go Fund Me link anymore. That is good. Basically Nick will face skepticism unless the charity amount really starts to ratchet up. I'm prepared to give Nick the benefit of the doubt but he has got to get the charity donations ahead of the support donations.

Gary,

One final thing. The opinion on letsrun can shift. Recently a runner called Sandra Vi set out to break the record for running across the U.S. He attempt was met with a lot of skepticism as her marketing company was polishing her resume and also was looking for $90,000 to cover expenses. She ditched the marketers and did it just with friends supporting her. Opinion changed and by the end the support was huge.

Nick is ATTEMPTING to raise a considerable amount of money.

ATTEMPTING.

Very nice.....But currently the figures stand at -

Go Fund Me: to Nick's pocket - £41,608

Just Giving: £11,304

And you wonder why alarm bells are going off?

Plus he is lying about having done 300 marathons and lying about the times he HAS done.

Sorry - but if you lie about things people will have even more alarm bells going off.

Look - these trips are the chance of a lifetime. He's doing it as he really WANTS to, and he doesn't have to pay for it!

The idea he's doing something awful and suffering just for "charity" is always the usual way scammers go.

We KNOW what his real race times are. They aren't bad. But that doesn't mean he's not scamming to get a funded vacation.

No, we aren't stepping back.

We will be following his watch data to see if it's genuine, and watching the CHARITY MONEY total, to see if it ends up more than the money given to HIM personally.

I know nick personally, he is nothing but a kind guy, wanting to inspire and explore. Brands and companies are supporting him because he is genuine, and he’s doing something that has never been done. I think everyone wasting their time on here hating and spreading negativity should put their trainers on and try and do something positive,

Maybe you should contact nick through his website, run with him, ask him about his mission, then come back with a genuine informed opinion.

I can vouch for him personally having met him lots, run with him several times, and raced with him too. but don’t feel the need to go through all of these pointless conversations and justify each point.

Great that he is getting lots of attention though! I’m sure you will want to check out his autobiography when he’s done a world first.

Just because he’s not running them in 2:10 each time, doesn’t mean it’s not an amazing thing.

What have you done to inspire people to run. To make running more interesting?

He’s not a cheat, just following a dream. He’s also invested massive amounts of his own money to this mission because he knows you only get one chance at living. I could go on. Please get behind him and pat him on the back for doing something different.

Amen. Go nick! Good luck! We’re behind you!

Hello Nick's mom :-)))))

Oh here we go.....So because WE aren't doing this run then we must be jealous haters? We aren't allowed to question the dodgy funding because WE aren't running it?

The usual stupid remarks, plus "I know him, he's nice, so he can't be dodgy".

I have already tried three times to ask him questions about this dodgy funding...

Go Fund Me: to Nick's pocket - £41,608

Just Giving: £11,304

Plus asked him about lying about the 300 marathons plus loads of his other marathon times.

He won't give any reply to these questions and now has some woman answering messages, again totally ignoring questions asked. Just responding with irrelevant woffle.

He will NOT answer questions.

He is getting a FUNDED TRIP OF A LIFETIME and has been give a small fortune to do it.

Let's just see if he can raise a quarter of a million for the charity.

He's a liar. If you lie about your marathon times and lie about doing 300 marathons then you can lie about other things too.

Ah....A BOOK! Of course. The charity scammers always do a book.

What about public speaking engagements?

Sure he'll be selling himself as a motivation speaker soon.

What you don't seem to understand is that if you scream for publicity as he does, you WILL bring attention to yourself and you WILL get scrutinised.

People like him just want a load of sheep to give him money, then get mad when the public look a little deeper into what he's up to.

If he wanted a pat on the back he should have used ALL his own money for this vacation.

So, can YOU get answers to why he's lied about 300 marathons plus lied about all his other official marathon race times??

Nick's mom wrote:

If he wanted a pat on the back he should have used ALL his own money for this vacation.

Exactly.

Hi, his page says he's completed 44 ultras. I'm not calling anyone a liar.

http://statistik.d-u-v.org/getresultperson.php?runner=799840

The link above on experience will show 80% of ultras done. New source for you detectives out there ?.

Legitimate question - how many of these 196 marathons are ACTUAL marathon races?

How many of them are just 26 mile training runs in foreign countries?

Nick's mom wrote:

Ah....A BOOK! Of course. The charity scammers always do a book.

What about public speaking engagements?

Sure he'll be selling himself as a motivation speaker soon.

So, can YOU get answers to why he's lied about 300 marathons plus lied about all his other official marathon race times??

Oh he's already flogging the motivational speaking!

From this article, where he also claims to have run 308 marathons, only there's no evidence of this, just the few official races on his athlete profile.

"What’s your day job?

I make money out of motivational speaking now. I’ve done about 308 marathons myself and have done ultras and expeditions in the past."

I too asked him about where the 300 marathons were and he avoided the question several times.