Dean Karnezes is America's Greatest Runner

There used to be a pretty popular annual Run Across America. Do some research. Looooooooong Distance Running used to be quite popular. Search: Kouros, Deerfoot, Walter George, London to Brighton race. Ultra marathons, day races, etc, used to be pretty big news.

Alan

It is all about feats! wrote:

That is what the magazine promotes is accomplishing feats! For example, it would feature a person who is currently attempting to climb the Top 10 Mountain Peaks in the World.

Dean completed 50 marathons in 50 days and currently has covered 1118 miles in 24 days as he runs across the country. In the middle of his Run Across America he finishes 4th at the US National 24-Hour Run Championship in Grapevine, Texas on November 18-19, 2006. (could have qualified for Worlds with reducing mileage instead of logging all those miles-may still have the opportunity if he decides to get the qualifier with 140 miles) In addition, he has run 350 miles nonstop around the clock.

MEN

1. Alex Swenson, 42, Vashon, WA, 146.40 miles ($1,500*)

2. Roy Pirrung, 58, Sheboygan, WI, 139.68 miles ($1,500*)

3. Philip McCarthy, 38, New York, NY, 138.72 miles ($1,500*)

4. Dean Karnazes, 44, San Francisco, CA, 137.76 miles ($500*)

Looks like Dean is doing a little self-promoting.

Let's review a few things about Dean and his "accomplishments".

Claim: he will be the first to run 300 miles non-stop.

Reality - Pam Reed was the first.

Claim: He will run 50 marathons in 50 days.

Reality: Sam Thompson was the first and ran 51 marathons in 50 days.

Claim: Caught a red-eye after the Vermont 100 to return to the west coast for a race.

Reality: There are no "red-eyes" from east to west

I see in Outside that he claims to sleep only 4 hours a night and that he rises at 4:00am on a normal day to log 20-25 miles. At the pace he runs I suppose he has to, but I am not buying that he has taight himself to be able to accept only 4 hours of sleep at night.

He has got some good PR people since he has made 2 RW covers and now Outside - with what has to be the dumbest claim they have made since Bode Miller last year.

Dean is the distance running version of my comedy.

Anybody want to go to his site, go to the contact Dean page, and ask him to join this thread and defend himself, or comment on "America's Greatest Runner" title? That would be sweet. Maybe lots of us could do it. Reply and let everyone know if you do, and copy and paste what you "said" to Dean.

http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/contact.php

Now, if you're going to be really insulting in your e-mail to Dean, that won't be interesting, it will have to be a smart approach to get him to come to this board.

I'd try it, but I'm an idiot.

WARNING: if you are not a Dean fan you may lose your lunch when you see his website.

PS: He also has a wikipedia page. :-]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Karnazes

"Karnazes is a controversial figure in the ultramarathon world. His self-promotion is regarded by some as out of sync with the relatively self-effacing world of ultrarunning. Others welcome any attempt to increase the sport's popularity by anyone."

There's a long list of high schoolers who could quite easily fit into this list.

that makes me wonder though, what is dean's 5k pr (ie: what has he actually run before, not what he "thinks" he could run... like that 2:30 marathon)?