Meet the Oz man who finished 52nd marathon in one year!
By ANIMonday, December 27, 2010
MELBOURNE - A Melbourne man has become the first person to finish 52 marathons in 52 weeks, which included all seven continents.
Tristan Miller received a grand welcome from supporters and also made it to the record books when he crossed the finish line at Albert Park Lake.
The 33-year-old sold almost everything he owned to fund his 120,000 dollars, 42-country, globe-trotting marathon.
He racked up a personal best of 3.03 hours in Berlin and came second in a 100km ultra marathon in Mongolia.
Miller started running six years ago following a divorce, but the catalyst came last year when he lost his sales job during the global financial crisis.
“I thought, I don’t have any attachments, I want to go and see the world … so it was going into the unknown,” News.com.au quoted him as saying.
“Can you possibly do it in this manner? Maybe you can, maybe you can’t, what would be really good is just to go and try,” he said.
Consistently, he kept trying to find various marathons taking place across the globe to participate throughput the year.
“My philosophy all year was to break it down into the most simple terms: I just had to make sure I was there and then worry about the race when I get there.
“I did two in two days a few times because I needed the space to get to the Antarctic marathon and the Mongolian marathon too,” he said.
Moreover, he added, that off all the marathons he took part in, New York was his favourite where some of his Australian friends joined him and ran.
“New York City is just a city on steroids, the marathon itself is out of control, there’s two million people out there yelling at you just to make you keep running,” he added.
He has raised about 15,000 dollars for UNICEF and Facing Africa. (ANI)