62 miles on a treadmill . . . in a single session!

Photo courtesy of Canterbury Christ Church University.

I don't mind the treadmill the way that many runners do, but 10-11 miles is about my limit for a single run, even with TV (which I love). The guy in the picture is British Ph.D. student and ultramarathoner Phil Anthony, who ran 100K in 6:40:35 on a treadmill!

You could watch the entire original Star Wars trilogy in that time (A New Hope = 2 hours, 1 minute; The Empire Strikes Back = 2 hours, 4 minutes; Return of the Jedi = 2 hours, 12 minutes), or 9 episodes (stripped of commercials) of 24.

Of course, given that Anthony averaged just under 6:30 per mile, it would take me a lot longer to run that distance. I'm sure I'd have time to squeeze in another Star Wars movie. Then again, since that would have to come from the execrable prequel trilogy, maybe it would inspire me to run faster just to endure less Jar-Jar Binks....

You cannot be serious . . . Badwater x4???

The Badwater 135 advertises itself as the world's toughest foot race - imagine running 135 miles in July through the California desert and finishing on Mt. Whitney!

The record for finishing is just under 23 hours, which is pretty staggering to think about.

Now imagine running it back to back.

And one more time.

And one more after that.

That's what Lisa Smith-Batchen accomplished this month. 584 miles! Not surprisingly, she did this as a fundraising event for Badwater4Goodwater, a non-profit she founded to help build wells for clean drinking water in Ethiopia and India. It makes sense that running for a goal like that is what it takes to run Badwater four times in a row.