Meet Mike Wardian - The World's #1 Runner - Is He The "Eliud Kipchoge" Of Backyard Ultras?

Wardian, until this past weekend, was more of a crapshoot. Sure he had lots of potential, but with so many other races on his calendar, it's hard to know what will remain whatever level priority in his mind during a race. Off the top of my head, there are a dozen people with equal potential. Of course the best litmus test is to see the multiday experience these people might have. Vol State and Six Day races are good indications. Among them we have Christian Mauduit, Dan Lawson, Johnny Hallneby, Eoin Keith, Olivier Leblond, Ashprihanal Aalto, Budjargal Bymbaa (sp?), David Johnson, Greg Armstrong, Johan Steene, but sure, Mike just added his name to the mix.

zzzz wrote:

That was a nice listen. Thanks, rojo.

Wardian needs such little sleep normally, it sounds to me like he could do this for way longer. I mean, if he starts getting tired, he could catch a 10 minute nap every hour and that would be close enough to his normal sleep (10x24= 4 hours). I could see him doing it for a full week if pushed.

What's amazing, is that 4.167 x 24 hours over 6 days will get you just to 600 miles, not even the modern American record (605). It would be a great effort, of course--second-best in modern America--but it still makes you realize just how hard it is even to top 500 miles, let alone reach the mid-500s, in a 6-day race.

[Apologies if my knowledge of 6-day records is out-of-date.]

Engrish much? wrote:

He's the king of "look at me"

Nope, that would be Dave Proctor.

have run some 6-days wrote:

zzzz wrote:

That was a nice listen. Thanks, rojo.

Wardian needs such little sleep normally, it sounds to me like he could do this for way longer. I mean, if he starts getting tired, he could catch a 10 minute nap every hour and that would be close enough to his normal sleep (10x24= 4 hours). I could see him doing it for a full week if pushed.

What's amazing, is that 4.167 x 24 hours over 6 days will get you just to 600 miles, not even the modern American record (605). It would be a great effort, of course--second-best in modern America--but it still makes you realize just how hard it is even to top 500 miles, let alone reach the mid-500s, in a 6-day race.

[Apologies if my knowledge of 6-day records is out-of-date.]

Indeed, you are quite right (though the modern era 6 day American Record is 606). If Wardian were in prime 6 day shape with multiday experience and good strategy and crew (involves some trial and error, and those are some major qualifiers) he'd be capable of 630+ miles. I don't see him interested in suffering enough to chase that and suffer the recovery that a multiday effort like that would entail.

What RoJo doesn't realize is Kouros once ran the Sydney to Melbourne ~1000 km race route on his own (with crew) out of spite outside the race, in under 5 days. His last 6 day race he spent 4 hours off the course. His 6 day record (perhaps his softest, and one he only broke in increments for record payments each time) is a mere 65X. He posited that a strong multiday runner should be capable of 1200 km in a 6 day race. Initially I thought the claim ludicrous, but a man of his talent and tenacity should have been capable of something a lot closer to that than he ever actually ran. That solo Sydney to Melbourne run in addition to his single 1000 mile race (which he ran out of shape, entering at the last minute, and almost breaking 10 days) are helpful signposts.

I always have to smile when a 50k runner talks about 6 day racing.

Kouros was the absolute best from 24 hours to 72 hours. Over 6 days things evened out a little. He didn't even have the overall Worlds Best of quite some time. Party because different surfaces had separate records.

6 days are a long time and a lot of things can and will happen. I think 8 people have run over the 1000k mark. All of them were superb ultrarunners.

Could Wardian run that? Probably not, is definitely the easy answer. He is a very good runner from Marathon to 100k but I like to see a 6 day performance before I believe it.

SteelTown’s right; Kouros’ best competitive effort at Sydney-Melbourne was 123 miles a day, over a 1000kms in just over 5 days.

Backyard backbencher wrote:

I always have to smile when a 50k runner talks about 6 day racing.

Kouros was the absolute best from 24 hours to 72 hours. Over 6 days things evened out a little. He didn't even have the overall Worlds Best of quite some time. Party because different surfaces had separate records.

6 days are a long time and a lot of things can and will happen. I think 8 people have run over the 1000k mark. All of them were superb ultrarunners.

Could Wardian run that? Probably not, is definitely the easy answer. He is a very good runner from Marathon to 100k but I like to see a 6 day performance before I believe it.

Kouros has the WR for 6 days. It is well documented that there were times he stopped prematurely before time was expired to negotiate a higher payout for breaking a record. His best 1000 km / 6 day efforts he saved for the Sydney to Melbourne races which varied in precise distance every year, but was generally 1,000 km +/-. As I mentioned, he broke 5 days one year running the race route separately from the race. There is no question that he could have gone farther than he did in 6 days. How much? It's tough to say, but his 1200 km projection (not clear he meant it for himself) is far from as crazy as I initially thought. If memory serves, his 6 day record on a non record quality course was something like 658 miles.