Back before the days of cars and planes, the mail used to be delivered by horseback. The Pony Express was set up in the 1860s to facilitate communication from the East to the West and it stretched from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California.
In commemoration of the 150 year anniversary of the Pony Express, ultra-marathoner Karl Meltzer actually RAN THE WHOLE TRAIL. Yes, Meltzer ran 2,064 miles in just over 40 days, averaging out to over two marathons a day. Yup, people talk about preparing for a single marathon by running 10 miles a day. This guy did more than two of them per day and completed the journey last week.
So how the heck did Meltzer do it? “It took a lot of preparation, including about 5-7,000 calories of food each day, and half a can of Red Bull every 5 miles to keep Karl at his pace,” said Meltzer’s trainer Ted Meyer.
For just over 40 days, Meltzer’s job was to run from 7:00am-5:00pm. On a typical day, he would wake up at 4:50am, take a blood test, eat breakfast, and then set out to run. After he was done running, he would use a heart monitor then take an ice bath for an hour to recover before eating a greasy dinner. Check out some of these cool stats from his run:
- + Total miles run – 2,064
+ Total calories burned = approx. 247,000 (equivalent to 281 pounds of food)
+ Pairs of shoes worn = 7
+ Gallons of water consumed = 60
+ Cans of Red Bull consumed = 143
+ Number of pounds of bacon consumed = 14
+ Number of hours of music listened to = 440
+ Number of pounds Karl lost on his first day running = 8
+ Highest Temperature = 98°F
+ Lowest Temperature = 30°F
+ Highest elevation = 11, 138’
+ Lowest elevation = 1,286’
+ Total elevation ascended = 91,068’
+ Total elevation descended = 98,567’
Meltzer puts Forrest Gump to shame. Anytime someone runs over 2,000 miles in just over a month it deserves a mention on the site. Congrats to Meltzer on the accomplishment.
