Running a marathon is a particularly arduous task, even for the most able-bodied athlete. But for a four-year old to run a marathon is extraordinary. Especially a four-year old Indian boy who, at the age of two, was sold by his mother to a street peddler for 800 rupees. Meet Budhia, a prodigious runner and product of the slums, who is taken in and raised by a relentless trainer named Biranchi Das. After Das pushes Budhia to run a 42-mile race (which he completes), governmental agencies intervene and attempt to remove the boy from the custody of Das. Local protests erupt, a man is murdered, and Budhia returns to the care of his mother. This is the story told by the documentary
Marathon Boy. //
trailer //
review //
interview with filmmaker
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates
on Nov 12, 2011 -
18 comments
Feeling tired today? Back a little sore from that yard work? Morning run left your knees aching? Maybe you just had a lazy weekend. Well, in case you aren't frustrated enough with yourself for what you're (not) accomplishing, enjoy the story of Fauja Singh. Yesterday, the 100 year old
became the oldest person ever to complete a full marathon, finishing the 42 km Toronto Waterfront Marathon in under 9 hours (beating his personal target).
[more inside]
posted by dry white toast
on Oct 17, 2011 -
30 comments
"
24 Hours of Reality will focus the world’s attention on the full truth, scope, scale and impact of the climate crisis. To remove the doubt. Reveal the deniers. And catalyze urgency around an issue that affects every one of us.” — Al Gore on the worldwide event to broadcast the reality of the climate crisis. The Climate Reality Project will live stream starting at 7pm CT on September 14.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Sep 13, 2011 -
47 comments
24 year old Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru
died yesterday in Nyahururu, Kenya after "falling" from a balcony.
Sammy set a world record for the half marathon of 58:53 in the United Arab Emirates in 2007, only to best it again two months later in the Netherlands, with a 58:35. He won five marathons, setting an Olympic record of 2:06:32 in 2008, and a personal best of 2:05:10 in London in 2009. He might be best remembered for his
dramatic win in Chicago in 2010.
[more inside]
posted by roomthreeseventeen
on May 16, 2011 -
28 comments
Since approximately
26% of Canadian children age 2-17 are now considered obese, few would disagree that drastic measures are warranted. A dude and his wife have decided that the best way to inspire kids to get some exercise outdoors is to
run daily marathons across the country.
[more inside]
posted by sarastro
on Dec 17, 2010 -
41 comments
“Several of you told me that I was “going to die” if I drank 13 beers while running the San Francisco Half Marathon. I did not die. I puked three times, blacked out for miles 11 and 12, and needed five hours to finish.
This is my story.”
posted by sveskemus
on Aug 3, 2010 -
64 comments
Next weekend, thousands of runners will take to the streets of San Francisco to run the
SF Marathon, on a course with hills that skate a 300 ft. elevation about
six times over 26.2 miles. However, the non-corporately sponsored marathon attracts few than a third of the runners who tackle New York City and Chicago. While the organizers are trying to
re-brand the race, offering
two different half marathon courses, they have shied away from making the course any easier.
posted by roomthreeseventeen
on Jul 15, 2010 -
26 comments
"Of the four strokes swum in competition, butterfly is almost universally regarded as more exhausting than freestyle, breaststroke or backstroke. And therein lies its allure.
In an age of ultramarathons, Ironman triathlons and crowds chugging up Mount Everest,
long-distance butterfly swimming is becoming a new and less-crowded frontier for fitness fanatics."
[more inside]
posted by emilyd22222
on Jun 3, 2010 -
37 comments
"In 1968, I received an invitation to the hundred-mile run at Walton-on-Thames, England, scheduled for October 1969. I pulled out all the stops for this one, running every marathon possible and enduring unheard-of training mileage when not racing.
In July alone I ran a thousand miles, two hundred short of my goal[...]My only goal was to break the existing American record of 16:07:43." (Which he did, finishing in 13:33; still the U.S. 45 to 49 100-mile record.) Ted Corbitt, Olympian, American Record holder at 100 miles, died yesterday.
NYT obit. [more inside]
posted by OmieWise
on Dec 13, 2007 -
13 comments
The Bang on a Can Marathon is currently in progress at the
World Financial Center in Manhattan. This annual Marathon has taken various forms over the years, with a range of lengths, locations and admission prices; this year's features 26 straight hours of music from around the world, with free admission. Bang on a Can is the
20-year-old new music presenting, producing and recording group co-founded by composers Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon.
posted by allterrainbrain
on Jun 3, 2007 -
12 comments
Nude Marathon! Psychotherapy traveled down
a lot of strange paths in the 60s and early 70s, but perhaps none stranger than the naked group therapy sessions, some up to 48 hours long, supervised by
Paul Bindrim. Bindrim's sessions were the subject of a
documentary film and an unflattering, thinly fictionalized novel by Gwen Davis Mitchell. Bindrim sued Mitchell for libel. Can descriptions of a fictional character be libelous of a real person?
Yes.
posted by escabeche
on Mar 23, 2007 -
13 comments
72 page comic in 72 hours. Ryan Estrada has decided that for New Year's he is going to spend 72 hours creating a 72 page comic book. His site is complete with hourly updates of page count and his sanity level. And I thought the
24 Hour Comic was tough.
posted by fizz-ed
on Jan 1, 2005 -
5 comments
A walk in the park? How about 250 km (150 miles) over Sahara sand dunes in temperatures reaching 44°C (111°F) carrying all your food and gear. Stage 4 was a 52 mile double marathon. Today it was just a simple 26 miler.
4800 masochists have done it since 1986, ranging in age from 17 to 78.
The Ahansal brothers took
7 hours 33 minutes to finish the 84 km leg. Slower than last year because of the strong winds and blowing sand.
Luke Cunliffe has been
blogging his experience at the end of each day.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I guess.
Shall we form a MeFi team for next year?
posted by Geo
on Apr 11, 2003 -
5 comments
The sixth annual National Homelessness Marathon takes place on February 5-6. The 14-hour public-radio broadcast, which will originate this year from Portland, Maine, takes place overnight, outside, in the freezing cold. This year it will be joined by the first annual
Canadian National Homelessness Marathon. The event is meant to raise awareness, not money, though the
recent decision in Key West to ban panhandling in the downtown district for the good of tourism, and fine panhanders $500 for their crime, indicates that there's still a long way to go in raising awareness about this issue. Particularly troubling are comments like the one made by Key West Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt, who explains, "We have to send the message that we don't want these people to come to our city and control our streets.
We control our streets."
posted by damn yankee
on Jan 23, 2003 -
22 comments
'Diver' finishes marathon. Next time we complain about lugging our heavy shopping home, lets spare a thought for this guy. To raise money he donned an 1940s diving suit and battled on to complete the 26 mile London Marathon. I tip my hat to you sir.
posted by monkeyJuice
on Apr 19, 2002 -
11 comments
Tantalus , one of the longest theatrical experiences ever has finally opened in London, and according to one critic, there is no greater endurance test.
Always looking for an angle,
The Guardian sent four journalists around London on May Day to see what other culture can be experienced in 12 hours, 40 mins. Merope Mills did film -
"9:15pm. Both Dennis and Annette are working at the box office and, on seeing me again, Annette throws me the look of a concerned landlady, as in, "Haven't you had enough yet?" I, drunk on moving images, defy her concern and head straight back in. I might as well not have moved - it's straight back to screen five where I'm feeling rather territorial about the sudden influx of people. Nod off in the epic Traffic (18) for 15 minutes but dream about Michael Douglas so decide this little discrepancy still counts."
posted by feelinglistless
on May 3, 2001 -
4 comments
Today is the 105th running of the Boston Marathon. Growing up in Natick, Massachusetts, which is the ten-mile point of the route, the Marathon was always a huge deal. I remember watching every year as the wheelchair racers would zoom by to the roar of the crowd. We'd then wait a few minutes until the State Police motorcycles and the press trucks marked the lead runners. Before long the street was nothing but a solid wall of runners in all shapes, sizes and colors. A favorite thing to do would be to cheer someone on based on the t-shirt they were wearing. One year I saw a man wearing a t-shirt with a picture of the Mandlebrot Set. I yelled "Go fractal man!" He looked at me and smiled, and I knew I gave him a little bit of a boost that day. The race is certainly a yearly tradition around these parts. Does the rest of the world care? Is this big news elsewhere or just a small blurb on Page E-6?
posted by bondcliff
on Apr 16, 2001 -
37 comments
