The human body has limits, right?Not by running of course.
Certain scientists have tested the human body and decided 2:01:30 is the fastest time in which a human could complete a marathon. Other research points to the year 2012 as the inevitable point on the graph where the X variable equals 2 hours. Surely this is just a mathematical estimation as to when we should get there. But until Ryan Howard, Reggie Bush, Justin Gatlin (oops), Sidney Crosby or some other phenom sets his mind to it, sub-2 is just a dream. Damn Kenyans never even broke 2:04, pssh!
After that slight digression, the question remains: will anybody ever do it? Still more research indicates that running-god Haile Gebreselassie will break 2 hours, as he has been slowly cranking out world records from 5k (he ran 12:44.39 in 1995) on up. A recent 58:55 finish in the half-marathon was also a world record for Gebreselassie. It seems inevitable that this man should someday break the marathon mark. But will it be fast enough?
Scientists say no. I say yes.
There are many milestones that humans set as arbitrarily "out of reach."
Nobody will ever hit 61 homers again.
Oops.
Ok, 70.
Nobody will ever run a 4-minute mile.
Jim Ryun did it in his junior year in high school, well after Roger Bannister broke the mark in 1954.
Nobody will ever score 100 points in a game again.
Well, Kobe scored 81—but Dajuan Wagner (remember him?) scored 100 at Camden High School. Cheryl Miller hit 105 in high school as well. She was not playing 1-on-1 against her brother, Reggie, interestingly enough.
Nobody will ever eat 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
HAH! Takeru Kobayashi gained 30 pounds in one year after proving he could finish off nearly 5 dozen dogs (ok, 53.75, and a couple more during a photo shoot later).
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over 2 years ago
someone\'ll run a sub-2 one day, but I guarantee this impossibility: he won\'t be able to do it without some serious chafing. Some facts of life just can\'t be gotten around...except with some sort of space-aged lubricant, but I\'m no scientist.
over 2 years ago
In my simple mind, there are two kinds of athletes: sporting athletes and endurance athletes. And while i'm typically more entertained by the the sporting athlete, I have more respect for the endurance athlete.
Look at it this way. What percentage of athletic human beings (loose def. - i know) can run a mile in 4 minutes and 40 seconds? Probably less than 1%. These guys are running 26 straight 4:40 miles. 20 freaking 6. Runners are so sweet...
about 1 month ago
I think it is a simple question of motivation. For instance everybody is a little faster with a grizzly bear chasing them, right? Okay, based on that premise, which is undisputable, we now just motivate grizzly bears to desire marathoners as a delicacy. Only a delicacy though, not an actual entire meal, because runners lack adequate protein content to sustain a grizzly bear's life and that might lead to extinction.
BTW which record will Vern Troyer attempt?
from about 1 month ago
I think Verne Troyer could play David Eckstein in a movie about really overachieving athletes who make a name by possessing no real skills and just subsisting on grit and a fan base of 40-something mothers who see his childish face seven times on the scoreboard while escorting their Coors-toting husband to a day-night doubleheader. Because he (by he I mean both Eckstein and MiniMe) is 3'9 right?
from about 1 month ago
I was thinking more of rigging Verne's Rascal Scooter chair to do 1 mile per hour slower than a grizzly can run and use him as bait for training.
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