Dawn Hamlin Update

About two weeks ago, I posted about Dawn Hamlin's plan to run seven marathons, on seven different continents in seven weeks. At that time I wasn't aware of any way to track her progress. Well, thanks to the power of the Internet, I received an e-mail today with a link to a website. It's not functional just yet, but the e-mailer said that it should be up and running "in the next day". The address is:

http://marathondawn.com

It also motivated me to check out how Dawn has fared so far. As of now, I was only able to find her results for the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon.

pos/pos(ac)/#/name, forename/ac/club/finish gun/finish mat
119/(23)/177/Hamlin, Dawn (USA)/WMC//04:44:23/04:44:02

It looks like she's gotten off to a good start, and hopefully her site will keep us up to date with her progress.

And You Thought Cutting The Grass And Washing Your Car In The Same Day Was An Accomplishment

You know how some days you feel like you really accomplished something? Maybe you cleaned out your attic, and the refrigerator in the same afternoon. I know, such physical work could leave one disabled.

Well, what if you planned to run seven marathons, on seven different different continents, in seven weeks? You would probably call shenanigans, stating that not even the great Pheidippides himself could accomplish such a feat. But that's exactly what Dawn Hamlin is hoping to accomplish.

Dawn Hamlin figured she had reached her physical limits last year when she completed the Kilimanjaro Marathon and climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in the same week.

But if her latest adventure proves successful, that outrageous feat will seem like little more than a warm-up.

Hamlin, a 27-year-old Ormond Beach marketing professional, departed for Dubai on Monday to begin a challenge sure to make extreme sports enthusiasts salivate and sports medicine physicians cringe.

Her goal: To complete seven marathons. On seven continents. In a span of about seven weeks.

Wow, just attempting to run those races in that timespan is impressive. And it's not like she's running them in the easiest of climates either.

Her schedule starts Friday with the Dubai Marathon. It also includes 26.2-mile races in Morocco, Orlando, New Zealand, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago and Antarctica, an icy finale to her ambitious quest.

So, what does she get besides respect should she complete her quest? How about a world record?

And if you're wondering whether her feat would represent some sort of record, it would indeed. Though 175 people worldwide have run marathons on all seven continents, no woman has accomplished it in less than 100 days.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the shortest time span is 113 days, set by American Ginny Turner between Nov. 5, 2006, and Feb. 26, 2007.

Hamlin's journey kicks off this Friday, and I'm still trying to track down any type of website that will keep us updated on her progress. Hopefully she completes her journey, and inspires some of our lazy American brethern to get out and get active. Remember, twelve ounce curls and changing the channel aren't exactly tests of physical endurance.

Treadmills, The Bane Of Dean Karnazes' Existence

Beginning on Thursday at midnight, and lasting for 24 hours, ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes attempted to break the world treadmill record of 153.76 miles. He fell short, running only 131 miles which is equal to five marathons. It was Karnazes' second attempt at breaking a world treadmill record, and the second time that he's failed to do so.

Back on April 30, 2004 he competed against ultramarathoner Christopher Bergland inside a Kiehl's store as they both attempted to break the record at that time of 153.6 miles set by Edit Berces of Hungary. Bergland beat Karnazes by setting the current record(Erwin Valdebenito of Chile supposedly broke it this past April with 153.9 miles, but that's unconfirmed), while Karnazes stopped at 147.96 miles.

Now, three years later, he's tried to beat Bergland again, and has failed to do so. Though, his accomplishments are still impressive given that he ran when he was younger, gave up running for 15 years, then started again after celebrating his 30th birthday at a bar. Think about all those beers and Jagerbombs you consumed on your last birthday, then imagine running 30 miles after that.

"According to a profile in Wired Magazine, Karnazes traces his current passion for running to the night of his 30th birthday, when, while celebrating at a bar with friends, he found himself "being hit on by an attractive woman who was not his wife." Karnazes felt ill, slipped out the back door, walked to his house, changed into running clothes , and started running. After 30 miles of running he was near Santa Cruz where he realized that there were "untapped reservoirs within him." He described this moment as being akin to a religious conversion."

Although, it's probably a good thing that Bergland is an American, or else Karnazes might call the State Department on him. For all of the great running feats that Karnazes has accomplished, he was involved in a very odd incident in 2002. This followed the running of the South Pole Marathon where Irishman Richard Donovan had been proclaimed the winner.

"Karnazes was dissatisfied with the outcome and had a falling out with Donovan. Karnazes contacted the Department of State to report that Donovan was “a non-U.S. resident acting aggressively and potentially with malicious intent toward a U.S. citizen.”

The State Department? Doesn't Karnazes know that in this day and age a call like that could have landed Donovan in a cell at Gitmo? Geez, he should have just challenged him to a race, as long as it wasn't on a treadmill.