Guess How Far This Bloke Just Ran in 24 Hours?
Intern Brayden
If there’s one thing lockdown has given us, it’s more free time. Some people have used this time to pick up a new hobby, like learning to cook or to play a new tune on the guitar. Others have taken this opportunity to finally get started on their 2013 New Year’s Resolution and get fit, be it walking the dog five times a day or working on your haymakers at Clovelly beach. Like many, I have decided to lace up the Asics and pound the pavement, and just as I thought I was making some progress, Lithuanian Aleksandr Sorokin put me in my place.
I’m by no means a runner. That’s why I was stoked to check Strava and see I had broken my 5K PR earlier this week. Little did I know that at the same time Sorokin was undertaking an unimaginable feat, attempting to break the record for distance covered over 24 hours. 309.4km.
That is how far Sorokin managed to reach and is the equivalent of running 4:39 per kilometre for more than 7 marathons back-to-back, well and truly breaking the previous record of 303.51km set by Yiannis Kouros back in 1997.
Sorokin only began running in 2012 after an injury lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, and has been in some hot form this year, setting the 150km, 12-hour and 100-mile record in April, with the one day-er being the logical next step.
During his peak weeks of training, he would run between 250-280km combined with weights and stretching routines to prepare him for the hours on his feet. When race day came around on August 29, the Lithuanian ran around the 1.725km tarmac loop for the most part in under 8 minutes, showing barely any sign of fatigue as he finished off in the 8:10 range despite 23 previous hours of running the same pace.
When Kouros set his time, it was thought to be unbreakable, as he gave up long-distance runs declaring the record will stand for centuries. For 24 years this was proving true as nobody has come within 20km, until Sorokin. In the ultrarunning world, it has redefined what is possible, and in my world, it has opened my eyes to what us dribblers are capable of. I can already hear Aleksandr’s voice in my head the next time I feel the lactic acid building up and think about slowing to a walk.
Ultramarathon’s soon x
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