He said he wanted to break Pete Kostelnick's record. Of course that was never possible just looking at Nels previous performances.
After 9 days he is averaging 59.36 miles which is quite a lot lower than Pete's 71.9 miles per day.
What I will never understand is, why so many promote these outrageous goals and fall short within a couple of days. But I guess these runs look a lot easier on paper than it actually is. 60 miles a day? How hard can that be if I can do 100 in less than 24 hours. Turns out, it's a lot harder because you have to do it every day.
He has been very up front about why he is promoting his goal. His goal is to raise public attention and get a desired number of donations to the wounded warrior project. All to fulfill a killed soldier's wish.
It is definitely personal to him.
No one is disputing his charity isn't worthy or his motivations aren't deeply personal.
It's the disconnect between his athletic goal and his abilities that is questionable. It's akin to 40 minute/10km runner hyping a marathon WR attempt and predictably blowing up in the first mile.
Such stunts detract from the legitimate record attempts. Charlatans and no-hopers make it more difficult for talented ultra runners making serious attempts to attract support, sponsors and publicity.
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Hey, every time I run 100m I'm trying to beat Bolt's record. It's always obvious early on that it's not going to happen that time. If you're going to do a transcon it's natural to note and even target the record. The transcon is more deceptive because it's possible to hold the pace for a few days.
No, Pupil, I'm afraid not. Either you've got a very short memory, or you're pretty bad at critical thinking.
It was evident about 30 seconds into his first post that this a**hole was the same guy as that a**hole --or that he was trying very hard to impersonate him.
Either of which by definition makes him a fraud/troll.
Engaging with him as if he were an actual good-faith human is not only a really god-awful waste of time, it's also destructive, as it just encourages a**hole trolls to waste the time of everyone who attempts to get any use of the LR boards.
No, Pupil, I'm afraid not. Either you've got a very short memory, or you're pretty bad at critical thinking.
It was evident about 30 seconds into his first post that this a**hole was the same guy as that a**hole --or that he was trying very hard to impersonate him.
Either of which by definition makes him a fraud/troll.
Engaging with him as if he were an actual good-faith human is not only a really god-awful waste of time, it's also destructive, as it just encourages a**hole trolls to waste the time of everyone who attempts to get any use of the LR boards.
Just send an email to the Google ultra running list telling the geezers that there is a "social media influencer" breaking Pete's transcon record and you'll have them on the next plane over
Are you SOTG from the last thread?
Yeah, like I said earlier, it was obvious almost instantly that this a**hole was the same guy as that a**hole. Which has to make you wonder exactly which category of sad psychosis would make some a**hole want to spend the incredible amounts of time and effort this idiot is putting into this. Internet trolls are quite possibly the most pathetic category of human being around.
Exactly. Thank god I'm not the *only* person here with the perspicacity necessary to recognize this dip-sh*t. (And yeah, you seriously have to wonder what the hell is wrong with him.)
You seriously don't get this? I'll try and explain it for you.
Because he undoubtedly knew there was zero chance in hell he could break Pete's record, but pretended that's what he was aiming to do, because that's a sure way to get idiots to pay attention to you, sponsor you, give you donations, etc.
This makes him a fraud --even he is actually a fairly decent ultra runner, and even if he isn't actually cheating, like Goodge and Robby Young obviously were.
This is 1) inherently revolting on its face, and 2) distracts, detracts, discourages and steals attention from legitimate contenders who really do have the requisite talent, and might make legitimate attempts at it.
He has been very up front about why he is promoting his goal. His goal is to raise public attention and get a desired number of donations to the wounded warrior project. All to fulfill a killed soldier's wish.
It is definitely personal to him.
No one is disputing his charity isn't worthy or his motivations aren't deeply personal.
It's the disconnect between his athletic goal and his abilities that is questionable. It's akin to 40 minute/10km runner hyping a marathon WR attempt and predictably blowing up in the first mile.
Such stunts detract from the legitimate record attempts. Charlatans and no-hopers make it more difficult for talented ultra runners making serious attempts to attract support, sponsors and publicity.
Precisely. Nice to see at least one or two guys here get it.
You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Pete ran 163 miles in a 24 hour race in 2015. That's an excellent result.
Nels has 440 miles at a 6 day race in 2023 and a 102 miles in a 24 hour race. The 6 day result is solid but the 24 hour result is rather poor.
Pete's transcon was the most optimized run I have seen in the last 40 years. There was no low hanging fruit to pick.
A 24 hour race isn't a 42 day transcon. Your post just further illustrates that Pete is the hare and Nels is the tortoise. Pete was never able to approach 163 miles a day in his transcon because he cannot sustain that kind of speed. Pete's overall transcon wound up at a pace slower than that of Nels' 6 day pace.
Yes, a transcon is neither a 24 Hour nor a 6 Day, but running a world class multiday ultra invariably requires a level of talent that is evident over such races of shorter duration. And it often requires a lot of multiday experience.
Matson's 24 Hour (164km) and 6 Day (709km) PBs and 3000km of midpack racing are ridiculously improbable for a world class ultra runner. It only takes two minutes to peruse Matson's race history to realise he was always well out of his league with this attempt. His inexperience and lack of ability stick out like dogs' balls to anyone with any familiarity with multiday ultras.
Maybe if he had another 80km on his 24 Hour or another 200km on his 6 Day or a decent number of multidays under his race belt, we could take this attempt seriously.
If you think Kostelnik's 263km 24H and 10000km of competitive race experience is an aberration among top multiday runners, have a look at some of the race histories of the top runners in the Sri Chinmoy 3100 Mile over the years:
Wolfgang Schwerk 24H 276km, 6 Day 1010km, 40000km racing experience when he set SC 3100 Mile record.
Aalto Asprihanal 24H 217km, 6 Day 853km, SC 3100 Mile 16x finisher and current SC 3100 record holder.
You don't become best in the world at this type of running by plodding through a relative few ultras and saying, "Dude in my neighbourhood did that. Hold my beer!"
Why are the majority of armchair runners on LRC so cynical? He’s not going to get the record and that has been apparent from the first few days. That said, why are so many of you almost gleeful about it and why do you feel the need to mock or continue to seriously analyze the reasons why?
Are runners this insecure? Needy of attention? Do they revel in the failure of others? Is this just a Let’s Run thing or is it universal?
This is so lame.
No one's upset that he's running across the country to raise money. I think most here would happily encourage him and respect his achievement and his fundraising. I know I do.
What people are upset about is how we have a consistent stream of woefully unqualified people claiming they can break a world record. This guy had zero shot from the start, he was either lying or he's delusional. I'm leaning towards lying. Like others said, it detracts from people who are serious about it and it paints the sport in a bad light when every random person makes a "WR attempt" for a bit of sponsorship. It's dishonest and it takes advantage of naive people.
599.1 miles in 10 days so far. Nels just crossed into Utah this morning. It looks like he has settled into 15.5-16 hour days with an overall speed of 4 mph.
This could be a 51 day crossing if everything works out (it never does) and we assume 3063 miles just like Pete's run.
I make Nels 751 miles after 12 days, to Pete's 804. Whatever we think of him making a claim to be attempting to break the record, I don't think we should rule him out completely just yet. True, his past performances don't match Pete's, but he might just grow into this run.
I'd still like to know if anyone came up with an explanation as to why his Strava moving and elapsed times were identical on Day 3. Apart from that (and there may well be a perfectly simple reason) this run doesn't keep throwing up doubts like William Goodge's or Paul Johnstone's
Nels would have to do 75 miles every day until the end to get to a similar result Pete had. This is not going to happen. You are not "going to grow" into this run. Nels had 15-16 hour days since the beginning. This will eventually catch up with him and the crew. Pete's days were in the neighborhood of 12.5 to 14 hours. That's 2-3 hours more rest every day. That's a lot.
Sometimes numbers say a lot more than a lot of words. There will be no record.
Point taken and call me sentimental, but I am more interested in the anecdotal than the numbers. Odd, maybe, but I find the inner journey on these long quests for whatever reason or impulse moves them sort of interesting. Not always, and maybe theyd be better if they took their dog along, like Travels With Charley. Just another vapor head who prefers the experience to the numbers.
Yep, one day of 70.1 doesn't change anything. Only consistency matters. Of course some days might come easier than others. Better weather or the runner just feels a little better.
But these 15-16 hour days must be hard on Nels and his crew. Only 36 days to go at this pace.
