The race around … a block in 42 days: an Italian ultra-marathoner won the longest and craziest walking event in the world last Sunday, covering nearly 5,000 km in a month and a half around a single group of New York apartment buildings.
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« It was really monotonous! », Exclaimed Andrea Marcato while crossing the finish line on Sunday evening, Italian flag in hand, to the cheers of the crowd, after having circled 5,649 times around a school complex in the district of Queens in the north of New York. And therefore to have walked 3,100 miles or 4,888 km.
With a lap of 883 meters, an average of 116 km per day – that’s more than two marathons – the incredible sportsman, almost a 39-year-old superman, ran and walked for 42 days, 17 hours and 38 minutes. Every day from 6 a.m. to midnight. The remaining six hours, Andrea Marcato and her six competitors – a New Zealander, a Taiwanese, a Japanese, a Russian, a Ukrainian and a Slovak – spent them sleeping, healing, eating, washing, responding to natural needs, in construction huts installed in the street during the ordeal.
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The race, completely crazy but fully internationally approved, is supposed to last another eight days, barely disrupting New York car traffic, let alone traders, residents and some 2,000 high school students in this popular corner of Queens.
“Same every day”
To break the routine and the grayness of the urban jungle, concrete sidewalks and black high school gates, the seven marathoners run one day clockwise, the next day counterclockwise. ” The first week is quite hard, especially for the mind », Admet Andrea Marcato. ” And then you end up getting used to it and accepting that it will be the same everyday ».
Whether it’s raining, windy, or New York’s heat and humidity are stifling, it has spun like clockwork, since September 5, nearly 5,700 times around Thomas Edison Technical High School. The event was created and baptized in 1997 “The Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendance 3,100 Mile Race”, by an Indian guru turned New Yorker, Sri Chinmoy , died in 2007. He advocated a mixture of extreme sport, surpassing oneself and meditation.
“Think about nothing”
On the physical side, the organizers only accept ultra-marathon runners who have already done races of the same kind of at least six days. On the mental side, ” with a focused mind, you don’t think of anything else, no fear, no worry, no doubt », Assures Andrea Marcato. ” It’s a test of endurance, effort, determination and talent ”, Summarizes the director of the course, Sahishnu Szczesiul, very proud to note that if 4,000 mountaineers in the world managed to climb Everest, they are only 49 ultra-sportsmen to have completed their race of 3,100 miles.
And what does winner Andrea Marcato gain after losing thousands of calories a day and 16 pairs of shoes? A trophy but no money, assure the organizers. ” This is the absolute, my dream and I made it come true
», Rejoices the Italian, employee of a food company.
AFP
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