Dean Karnazes, in his bid to break the treadmill 24-hour record tomorrow, continues to get a label he doesn't deserve. Accelerade gives him the title in the following press release via prnewswire.com:
"World Record Endurance Run: To highlight the national launch of Accelerade, Dean Karnazes, often considered one of the world's the greatest endurance athletes, will attempt
to break the Guinness World Record for the longest run on a treadmill in a 24 hour period. The event will be broadcast live from the heart of New York City in Times Square on June 21 as Karnazes runs on a platform on the side of the Reuters building and broadcast live on
http://www.accelerade.com. In
addition, Karnazes will help raise awareness and funding to find a cure for prostate cancer through a partnership with Athletes for a Cure."
Karno ran 147.96 miles in 24 hours on a treadmill on April 30, 2004, but was bested by the guy on the next treadmill over, Christopher Bergland, who ran 153.76 miles. Apparently, this past April 12-13, Erwin Valdebenito of China ran a "not yet confirmed" world record 153.9.
Karno may be able to overtake that record, whoopdeedo. But for perspective, Yiannis Kouros ran farther than that in less than 22 hours at the Spartathlon in 1983, the very first ultramarathon he ran. Kouros went on to set an astounding number of mind-boggling distance records, including a 24-hour world record of 188 miles, 1038 yards on a track in Adelaide, Australia in 1997.
Hell, if Karno merely matches the much shorter treadmill record, he will only be able to boast of running as far as the outdoor record set in 1953.
None of this will likely matter to Karno's sports drink pushing sponsors though. Who cares as he does his meaningless thing as eye candy behind a plate glass window on Time Square.