scary

the toughest race in the world

by deputydog ⋅ 21 / 07 / 2007 ⋅ post a comment

(all measurements contained within are approximate)

first of all, please try and imagine running a 42 kilometre marathon…

months of preparation, getting out of bed at 6am to go running before work, changing your diet to accomodate the challenge, battling mentally and physically to reach the goal. all just to run 26 miles in a few hours.

just thinking about it makes me sweat, how about you?

now imagine attempting a ‘full distance triathlon’, which consists of the following, all in the same day, one after the other…

- a full marathon (42km)

- a lenghty swim (3.8km)

- a punishing bicycle ride (180km)

fucking insane. where do you get the willpower to even consider the 2nd and 3rd parts after running a full marathon? never mind the energy.

well it seems that even the ‘ironman triathlon’ isn’t a big enough challenge for some gluttons for punishment.

oh yes, please bow down to the ‘double deca triathlon’.

a double deca triathlon consists of the following…

- 20x full marathons (844km)

- a very lengthy swim (76km)

- an arse clenchingly huge bicycle ride (3600km)

holy fucking shit.

the only double deca triathlon that’s ever officially taken place, as far as i can see, happened in 1998 in mexico. and there was more than one competitor. the winner was…

vidmantas urbonas

this human/robot above finshed the mammoth challenge in a mere 437 hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds (that’s just over 18 days) and is surprisingly still alive. if i were head of world sports i’d have a gold statue of vidmantas in every city: the guy’s a fucking legend.

the video below is of 2006 double triathlon winner jeff landauer after his 84km ultra-marathon (please remember, a double deca triathlon competitor would’ve covered 844km - 10x that amount)..

extras:

- there’s an international ultra-triathlon association here.

- the ultraman world championships (2x ironman triathlon) website can be found here.

- the ultra-triathlon hall of fame can be stared at here, from double through to quintuple through to double deca.

discussion

8 comments for “the toughest race in the world”

  1. Don’t forget the Western States Endurance Run - 100 miles up and down in steep mountainous terrain!

    http://www.ws100.com/

    posted by Bob Morris | 21st of July, 2007, 2:33 pm

  2. sir, this website rules. you have the coolest, most intriguing stuff on here. you’re the supreme champion of ultra totally extreme in your face ironman badass website triathalons. congratulations.

    posted by emily | 23rd of July, 2007, 11:39 pm

  3. cheers emily, you can make as many comments as you like.

    posted by deputydog | 24th of July, 2007, 1:49 pm

  4. sweet!! thanks for keeping me consistently entertained.

    posted by emily | 25th of July, 2007, 4:46 am

  5. what about the karrimor international mountain marathon?

    posted by trugiaz | 27th of August, 2007, 3:14 pm

  6. Just to remember. The correct order of a triathlon is: swimming, cycling and than running. The marathon comes last.

    Nice and very interesting info. Congratulations!

    Luis

    posted by Luis Corvini Filho | 13th of July, 2008, 9:58 am


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