Crazy People

First, these freaks:

    The longest foot race in the world is 3,100 miles, long enough to stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Those who run it choose a different route: they circle one city block in Queens -- for two months straight.

    The athletes lap their block more than 5,000 times. They wear out 12 pairs of shoes. They run more than two marathons daily. In the heat and rain of a New York summer, they stop for virtually nothing except to sleep between midnight and 6 a.m.

Then there's Floyd Landis, the winner of this year's Tour de France... he has a disease that is destroying his hip. His solution: work harder, to "wear a useful groove in the bone and cartilage of his damaged joint". (h/t Neddie).

I consider myself a fucking champion when I manage a 5 mile run on the weekend.

2 thoughts on “Crazy People

  1. joe

    man, something about this, especially the details below, really interest me. love the monotony, and how they’re taking joy in the mundane aspects of the residents environment, which usually goes unnoticed.

    “The runners seem more observant. They recognize the people catching rides to work every day at the same time from the same corner. They smile at the Bengali man who takes his son to the park most nights. And in running more than 100 laps a day, they come to know every slope and sidewalk crack in this otherwise unremarkable city block, chosen for its proximity to Chinmoy’s home and headquarters.

    The runners admire its daily sunrise, the 30-foot pine tree, the fireflies they chase at night. Traveling down one gentle straight was likened to “running on a country road,” though it borders the Grand Central Expressway.”

  2. cleek

    yeah, that monotony has got to be pretty intense. running the equivalent of 2 marathons a day is one thing, but covering the same ground 100 times a day, for 18 hours at a stretch, for two months… i bet they get to know it so well it starts to become surreal – the way repeating a simple word enough times makes it sound strange and eventually lose its meaning.

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