Dean Karnazes @ REI Saratoga

My wife and I attended a presentation last thursday by Dean Karnazes. Dean is an ultra-marathoner - and he does mean Ultra: he has run up to 350 miles non-stop. Here is the REI Blurb for the event:

Imagine running 226.2 miles nonstop… Or enduring bone-chilling cold on a marathon to the South Pole… Or running across Death Valley in 120-degree heat to the summit of Mt. Whitney (135 miles in 27 hours, 22 minutes)… In tonight’s presentation, Bay Area ultrarunning legend Dean Karnazes will share his amazing story, with highlights from his book, Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner.

Interestingly he doesn't focus on running quickly (he said he's only an average marathoner) but running far. He described falling asleep running after 3 days without sleep and continuing to run until he wakes up in the middle of the road. He talked about running through Death Valley in a 100 mile race where you need to run on the white lines or your shoes melt and his peanut butter sandwich getting toasted as someone hands it to him from a support vehicle. A lot of the crowd were long distance runners so they had a lot of questions about running technique (he doesn't stretch - just like me!), what he eats (mostly salmon unless he's running when he eats pizza) and his gear. Dean is now sponsored by The North Face and they designed a running shoe according to his specifications that is pretty amazing. It's a laceless shoe that instead has a rachet knob on the back of the shoe to tighten it - when you want to remove it, there is a quick release. The shoe also has insoles that you heat in the oven and then step into to provide a better fit. And to prevent heel-lift, the inside heel of the shoe has a "lizard skin" type material so it's slick as you slide the shoe on but it grips when you pull your foot out. The presentation was very entertaining - I think Dean is so far beyond what other people can do that what seems normal to him is extrodinary (or crazy) to us. For example, it transpired during the Q&A session that when he did the 262 mile run (it was a 200 mile / 12 person relay race but Dean did it himself, tacked another 62 miles onto it and actually beat some of the teams) it was actually raining for several days of the run. The other extrodinary thing was how much he has to eat during these runs - for the 262 mile event, he said he ate 28,000 calories but that he burned about 38,000 calories and ended up losing 5 miles. Dean has many more entertaining stories so if you have an opportunity to hear him speak, it will be well worth it.