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Till November 7, 2024, no human being had ever run 100 miles throughout Antarctica in lower than 24 hours. However this month, when Paul Johnson and Rob Sembiante got here jogging throughout the end line, they made historical past. The 2 endurance athletes coated 100 miles in one of many planet’s driest, coldest, harshest environments in simply 23 hours, 22 minutes, and 57 seconds.
Johnson is a GOREWEAR-sponsored endurance runner and naval officer. Earlier this 12 months, he accomplished the three,000+ mile transcontinental run in simply over 51 days and a couple of hours. Nevertheless, in line with the web site fastestknowntime.com, he has no beforehand verified FKTs, and the positioning has but to verify his Antarctica accomplishment.
In the course of the transcontinental effort, Sembiante was Johnson’s crew chief. In accordance with Johnson, this Antarctica goal was his thought.
“He has needed to run 100 miles in Antarctica for a very long time now, and when the chance arose, we took benefit of it,” Johnson instructed GearJunkie.
Sembiante presently holds the FKT for “The BRAWL,” a 293-mile linkup path that follows the Wasatch mountains from southeastern Idaho to Herbert Metropolis, Utah. Regardless of his in depth expertise as an endurance runner, this specific endeavor took its toll on him.
“These had been the toughest situations I’ve ever operated in any capability,” Sembiante wrote in an Instagram publish in regards to the accomplishment. “By far the coldest night time I’ve ever had in my life.”
The trouble was facilitated by Antarctic Ice Extremely by Runbuk at Ultima Ice Camp. GearJunkie caught up with Johnson following the world file.
100 Miles on the World’s Harshest Continent
Johnson solely skilled for this world file try for a few months. He stated his coaching for the transcontinental effort had been so in depth that he was nonetheless well-prepared on a health degree. Within the 3 months main as much as November, he ran between 50 and 80 miles per week and did 1-hour lifting periods 3 times per week.
By the point he and Sembiante had been heading to Antarctica, Johnson felt ready — particularly when their climate window opened up, he stated.
“I’ve persistently run 100 miles in solely 19 hours in longer races earlier than. I additionally run extraordinarily properly within the chilly, so the unknown and limiting issue was going to be the wind,” Johnson stated. “Getting into with excessive confidence that we might get it completed put us in a great psychological area.”
Johnson by no means frightened that he and Sembiante wouldn’t make 100 miles in below 24 hours. However he did query how briskly they might be capable to do it. At one level, Johnson was so fatigued he was falling asleep on his toes.
“My preliminary purpose was below 22 hours, however after being properly on observe for tempo at mile 50, I used to be actually combating staying awake and doing a variety of sleep working and strolling for about an hour,” he stated. “Took on much more caffeine and was in a position to battle via the low, however [that] undoubtedly affected my psychological area on [my] means to go sub-22 hours.”
He tried sustaining his coronary heart price below 160 beats per minute and continually slammed snacks as they moved. Their our bodies had been burning energy at an exorbitant price within the freezing situations simply to remain heat, he defined. The windchill was -13 levels for many of their run, they usually climbed over 6,300 vertical toes.
Lastly, 23 hours, 22 minutes, and 57 seconds after Johnson and Sembiante began, they arrived on the end with a brand new world file. They’d damaged the earlier Antarctic 100-mile file by over an hour.
A World File Johnson Received’t Quickly Defend
Johnson is extraordinarily pleased with his accomplishment with Sembiante regardless of not breaking the sub-22-hour purpose he’d had his sights on. And he invitations different runners to come back attempt to take it from him. He’s not going to be defending this one.
“Information are supposed to be damaged. Don’t fear about me attempting to take the file again,” he stated. “I’ve no plans to do that race once more any time within the close to future. If you happen to fail, you continue to get to have an unimaginable expertise in such a tremendous place.”
Johnson is now “onto the subsequent journey.” He plans to add a mini-documentary overlaying this 100-mile world file on his YouTube web page within the “coming weeks.”
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