777 Challenge

A P

Hi. Some of ye may have heard of this already, but a Mayo man called Mark Scanlon set himself the challenge of running 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 months for charity. They are as follows:

North America: San Francisco
Europe: Longford
Australia: Sydney
Africa: Nairobi
South America: Buenos Aires
Antartica: Arctic Circle
Asia: Mumbai

He's doing them to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society. He's aiming to raise E50k, and he's made nearly E9k so far. He's completed the first 5 stages of the challenge, with two tough ones to go (Antartica and Mumbai). There was a large article about this in the Sunday Tribune a couple of weeks ago in the "Mad About Sport" magazine. It was a great read. Part of his acclimatisation for the Antartica marathon involves running laps inside a frozen foods factory at -24 degrees!

I've never met the guy, but I think its a great challenge and a great cause, so if you are interested and want to donate, you can visit http://www.777challenge.com.

Good luck to him!

jrar

Saw the article in the Trib. magazine - I cannot believe the guy is doing what he's doing with so little training etc. On the day the article appeared, he was doing the Nairobi marathon I think, and then somehow making his way to B. Aires do another one the following Sunday !!

He's either foolhardy or brave - you decide !

A P

He's either foolhardy or brave - you decide ![/QUOTE]


A little from Column A, and a little from Column B methinks! He's living the dream though - it's something I'd love to do!

Abhainn

Results of the Buenos Aires marathon home page say Mark Scanlon completed it in 3:08:23. which is a brilliant time.
Don't know what time he did in the Nairobi marathon a week earlier

jackfrost

Abhainn wrote: »

Results of the Buenos Aires marathon home page say Mark Scanlon completed it in 3:08:23. which is a brilliant time.
Don't know what time he did in the Nairobi marathon a week earlier

its a brilliant time alright but i'd doubt thats the same guy to be honest.

From his blog he says he ran San Francisco in 4h 11min, Longford in 4h 38 and Sydney in 4h 35m. Add the fact that he also runs in a daffodil suit and ran a marathon in Kenya the week before makes it unlikely he put in a 3hr 8min race in Argentina (though if he did it's some achievement).

His site hasn't been updated since the sydney run in September, so hopefully he updates it soon so we can see you he's getting on
http://http://www.777challenge.com/challenge.html

Stupid_Private

I've done a bit of detective work there and it seems it was him who ran3.08.23.

There can't really be that many Mark Scanlon's running the Buenos Aires Marathon.

I also put the race number from the results into the photos and came up with a picture of him - although sans daffodil suit (it looked kind of Sunny for one to be honest)

Now to do some proper work....

jackfrost

jesus, i'll have to train for next years Dublin marathon in a daffodil suit then, anything to give me that extra edge - i've been trying to break the 3:30 mark for a while now

Tiriel

What an amazing guy!!

Just checked the site and so far he has raised 8,870.00 out of a target of 50,000.00 so come on lets give it a boost!!

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/777challenge/
Takes Laser and Credit Card

woundedknee

jackfrost wrote: »

its a brilliant time alright but i'd doubt thats the same guy to be honest.

From his blog he says he ran San Francisco in 4h 11min, Longford in 4h 38 and Sydney in 4h 35m. Add the fact that he also runs in a daffodil suit and ran a marathon in Kenya the week before makes it unlikely he put in a 3hr 8min race in Argentina (though if he did it's some achievement).

His site hasn't been updated since the sydney run in September, so hopefully he updates it soon so we can see you he's getting on
http://http://www.777challenge.com/challenge.html

Dont want to burst the bubble but have to agree with Jack Frost. Its very unusual to knock that much time off a marathon in such a short space of time, going from a 3hr08min to 4hr35min would sound more realistic. His site also mentions a world record but the record for this challenge is 30 days!

Keep on Runnin

A P

Fair points Runnerbean - I was amazed to see the improvement in his finishing time, especially after running a tough marathon 2 weeks previously. I wonder will we see a 2.03 in Antartica!

Stupid_Private

A P wrote: »

Fair points Runnerbean - I was amazed to see the improvement in his finishing time, especially after running a tough marathon 2 weeks previously. I wonder will we see a 2.03 in Antartica!

I'd have to say its possible for him to have got that 3h 08 marathon. And judging by the results in his blog he did.

He ran the marathon in Kenya at altitude. If that was done at a slow tempo and with all the other runs he ran there then coming down from altitude he would have felt very fresh and probably bouncing around the place. If the Kenya run was at the pace of a long run rather than his marathon pace there's no reason why he couldn't improve that much. I'm not one for running marathon distances in training but plenty of athletes will run them and then some.

deadlybuzz

An admirable feat... from a charitable point of view, but would be hard pressed to break any world records. Didn't Ranulph Fiennes complete a similar777 challenge, except within 7 "days", a few months after returning from heart surgery? Mind you, a support team and sponsorship from LandRover probably helped a bit!

woundedknee

Stupid_Private wrote: »

I'd have to say its possible for him to have got that 3h 08 marathon. And judging by the results in his blog he did.

He ran the marathon in Kenya at altitude. If that was done at a slow tempo and with all the other runs he ran there then coming down from altitude he would have felt very fresh and probably bouncing around the place. If the Kenya run was at the pace of a long run rather than his marathon pace there's no reason why he couldn't improve that much. I'm not one for running marathon distances in training but plenty of athletes will run them and then some.

Correct and right if you have the time to recover and Taper for the next race! From my experience you would need more than one "training run" at altitude to increase VO2 max and as far as I know the benefits from training at altitude are acheived from training high / recovering low. To acheive a 3hr08 marathon the leg muscles would need a lot of speed work and that takes time.
I'm not knockin the guy as i think its a great achievement and for a great cause but I don't think the figures add up.

Keep on runnin.

Stupid_Private

runnerbean wrote: »

To acheive a 3hr08 marathon the leg muscles would need a lot of speed work and that takes time.

I'd have to disagree with that part but my knowledge of altitude training isn't up to speed as I don't think I'll ever need to do it. I ran a 3h 01 a few years back, which was my fastest at the time, without ever doing speed work. I only started speed work for the first time this year. Looking back at the training I did I still don't understand how I managed it as it wasn't up to much. Sometimes it just works for you at the time though.

Hopefully he does well now in the one next week as its by far the toughest one he has in my opinion.

High&Low

Was just reading his blog - interesting stuff. But wow he seemed a little naive in Nairobi, arriving with nowhere to stay, going out clubbing with someone he just met and then heading off with those girls.... I have been to Nairobi and there is a reason it is one of the most dangerous cities in Africa...

aburke

From the blog...

I made some sort of gesture to the race steward that was standing there and all the other runners went straight and I went right. So I got to the end of the slip road and there was this tiny patch of green with some bushes on a street corner which was better than any option I had contemplated thus far!! So there was a guy and this is really unfair to say but I think a prostitute with him and they were shouting at each other on the diagonally opposite side of the street intersection and just kinda stoped their argument to look at what I guess was an apparition of this guy in tee shirt and shorts with a number accross his front running into the bushes!! Anyway after using some grass as toilet paper I got back running as fast as I could back up the slip road (which was quite steep as it turned out) and got back on track. So once again I was feeling good and I was making some progress overtaking the runners who had gotten ahead. .

And after all that he still ran a 3:08...
I call Shenanigans!

woundedknee

Stupid_Private wrote: »

I'd have to disagree with that part but my knowledge of altitude training isn't up to speed as I don't think I'll ever need to do it. I ran a 3h 01 a few years back, which was my fastest at the time, without ever doing speed work. I only started speed work for the first time this year. Looking back at the training I did I still don't understand how I managed it as it wasn't up to much. Sometimes it just works for you at the time though.

Hopefully he does well now in the one next week as its by far the toughest one he has in my opinion.

You might not have done specific speed work but you probably trained at a fast pace. Going from 4.35 to 3.08 in such a short period of time without sufficient time to rest and recover to me doesnt add up.

Keep on runnin

TheRoadRunner

aburke wrote: »

From the blog...


And after all that he still ran a 3:08...
I call Shenanigans!

Yeah I think this is a bit strange. I can't see how he went from a 4hr+ marathoner to a low 3hr marathoner so quickly. I would have thought good solid training for 12 months at least would have been called for ! But hey fair play to him if its legitimate.

Abhainn

Well after Mark Scanlon's efforts in Buenos Aires marathon you have to hand it to the guy in finishing second in the Ice Marathon, Artic Circle in Dec.
He finished second just behing the winner whos best time in a marathon is 2hr 40.
Good report in the Tribune last Sunday also.
Keep her lite Shane. Almost there.

http://www.icemarathon.com/live/172.html