100 marathons in 100 days is not boring, it’s soul-destroying
FOR most of us, running a marathon is fulfilling a lifelong ambition, but for Mike Buss it’s an everyday chore.
Buss, a former Army PTI and record-breaking endurance athlete, is making a mockery of the gruelling 26.3-mile challenge by completing it every day for 100 days – all in the name of charity.
Since 16 June, Swindon-based Buss has ran the four-hour trek on a treadmill at various
locations up and down to country to raise around £50,000 for Help for Heroes and double
the existing world record of 50 marathons in 50 days.
Buss nailed his colours to the mast after he was given a medical discharge from the Army in 2000 after he was almost killed by an IRA car blast in Northern Ireland.
Since then, he has reinvented himself as one of Britain’s top endurance athletes, but admits it was the inspiration of an overweight comedian which prompted him to take on the biggest challenge of his life.
“I was going to go for the 51 marathons, just to break the record, but after Eddie Izzard did 47 in 53 days, I felt I had to raise the bar further,” Buss told City.A.M. on his fly-by visit through the City last week.
“I’m on day 49 and my calves are absolutely killing me, but there’s only 51 to go. I’ve got no sports therapists, managers or physiotherapists so it’s all down to me to condition myself properly.
“To be honest, it’s not so much the physical side, it’s actually more mentally demanding. Being on a treadmill for four-and-a-half hours a day every day for 47 is not just boring, it’s soul-destroying, but if it was easy, I wouldn’t bother doing it.”
Living up to his motto “Beyond Impossible’, Buss has now set his sights on completing several other barn-storming endurance challenges in an attempt to claim the unofficial title of the world’s fittest man.
In March next year, he plans to ran the 120-mile 6633 Ultra A challenge in the Arctic, amid temperatures of minus 43 degrees, before then flying down to Morocco for the Marathon Des Sables – a six-day, 256km trek across the Sahara Dessert in heat of 40-degree Celsius. If he succeeds, he would be the first person to do so before warming down with the London Marathon.
Buss is also looking to take Hero 100 to the extreme, in completing 100 marathons in
Death Valley, Nevada – the hottest place on the planet – before then attempting to swim
five miles across the Arctic Ocean.
“I want to show there’s nothing I can’t do,” he said adamantly.
Mike Buss is being supported by Chrysler UK, who are donating a Jeep Patriot as the top prize in his charity raffle, which is running throughout his Hero 100 challenge.