As an avid, albeit recreational runner, I often enjoy throwing around the fact that almost three times as many people have climbed Mount Everest than have run a sub-four-minute mile. Some feats are still extraordinary in the absolute sense.
However, running a marathon may not be one of them. In 2011, in the US alone, more than half a million people finished a marathon. If you're a runner and you want to raise money for charity, a simple marathon just no longer cuts it. Instead, people want to see something altogether more uncommon and daunting before they're willing to part with their cash. So what does qualify as an extraordinary running feat these days?
How about the growing number of people who have accomplished some of the following: run 50 marathons in 50 states of the US, 50 marathons in 50 weekends, seven marathons on seven consecutive days (the Savage Seven is one such event), seven marathons in seven continents in seven days (the 7X7X7), running from coast to coast of the US, the Quadzilla (four marathons in four days) – and any number of other such feats. There's even the aptly named online community, Marathon Maniacs, dedicated to bringing together such intrepid runners. It seems almost trivial to so much as mention running a plain old 26.2 miles these days.
In India running as a recreational activity is barely a decade old. However, in my home town of Bangalore there are more than a dozen people who have run 12 marathons in the last 12 months.
Of those who embark on these extreme ventures, plenty fall by the wayside. In the second edition of the Savage Seven in 2011, for example, only 21 of the 51 starters completed the challenge. One who did was Navin S who actually topped off his achievement with an extra eighth marathon on Christmas Eve. Still, hot on the heels of his eight marathons in eight days came an injury-induced break of more than a year. Despite this, Navin has no doubts that he'd attack the task with similar vigour again.
Many runners undertake such feats at key moments in their lives. Bhasker Sharma took the decision to run 12 marathons in 12 months when he hit 50 years old, back in 2008. A disciplined training schedule ensured that he got into the shape of his life, and he has kept it up to this day. This eventually gave him enough confidence to chase his dream of running a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon (3 hours 30 minutes for men aged 50+). He has managed this twice in the past six months, an improvement of nearly an hour over his best marathon finishing time from four years ago. Meanwhile, several amateur runners of my acquaintance have been inspired by Bob Fletcher who wrote of completing 50 marathons in 50 weeks upon turning 50 years old, way back in 1983 in his book Spaghetti every Friday.
And if 50 marathons isn't enough, Steve Edwards has run over 500 marathons, all in under three and a half hours. If you're only running a marathon this year, good luck getting those sponsors.
• Dharmendra is an amateur runner, running coach and freelance writer based in Bangalore, India. He tweets as @dhammonia.
Do you sponsor those running a marathon, or does it take something considerably more hardcore to get your wallet out? Is the trend towards bigger and longer feats getting out of control?
