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Comment by bhousel | Hacker News Reader

"He redefined what it means to run a marathon, that's all."

No, not even close.

What he did is impressive, but stupid. He is doing a lot of damage to his body. If he were trained properly, he wouldn't be having all the physical problems like the missing toenails and the blisters.

Also, anything much longer than a 6 hour marathon is basically a walk (for a middle aged man in decent health). Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine because I'm a runner, but it just feels like bad "running journalism".

I'm much more impressed by someone who sticks to a proper training plan and finishes a single marathon in a respectable time for his/her age.

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> He is doing a lot of damage to his body.

If you read the material kicking about from real doctors about this you'll see it's not the case.

It's fairly short term damage: in the long term he's going to see lots of benefits :) (edit: im not sure you could even call it damage, thety are just "flesh wounds". I bet some of us here have worse RSI from sat typing all day!)

The human body is incredibly resilient and it is often truely difficult to really seriously damage it in the long term.

There is a big difference between the proper cycle of "damage" and repair caused by proper training, and what this guy is doing.

He is overtraining. From the article it sounds like he may have stress fractures already.

Hell, I'll just forward this article to my athletic trainer and sports med friends and see what they say, and post their comments in a followup post.

Well yes there is a better way. I was more commenting on the idea he was causing really bad damage. He certainly pushed the limit of physical endurance but it doesnt sound like he really broke it.

People racing to the South Pole regularly screw their feet up (with blisters, tears, ripped nails and all sorts) within a few days (or even hours). The foot is quite easily damaged and just as easily repaired :)

As to ligament damage I dont really know because Im not a serious "trainer" but I do cycle regularly and ligament damage I have done in the past has healed in a week or so.

On the other hand after a month or so of not cycling (say on holiday) I find a week of intensive work is great for retoning your body. This sounds like the same - just a little more extreme.

Marathons ARE damaging. Often permanently to some degree. Very long distance running is fairly stupid from a health perspective.

Top ten reasons not to run marathons: http://www.arthurdevany.com/2005/08/top_ten_reasons.html

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