In the past year Kevin Sinfield former captain of Leeds Rhinos and English team captain (Rugby League) has run two very tough endurance events. Last year he ran seven marathons in seven days. I think they were all solo runs not in official marathons. Then in the past week he ran 101 miles in 24 hours. I know there are some ultra marathoners out there who can do this but Kevin is a former professional rugby player, not a lean, long legged athlete designed to run long, long races. In pictures he looks like he is built to be a fullback in American style football. Rugby league is the professional form of rugby and a very blue collar sport as opposed to Rugby union the gentleman's sport.
Kevin's reason for such madness is his concern for a former teammate Rob Burrow who is suffering from Motor Neuron Syndrome. In these two achievements Kevin Sinfield has raised several millions of Pounds for research for this disease. Hats off to both men. You can see a link of Kevin running one of his seven marathons last year. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/07/kevin-sinfield-hopes-marathon-fundraising-efforts-can-help-find-mnd-cure
Thanks to The Guardian for posting this story by Aaron Bower on Nov. 23, 2021
100 Miles in 24 Hours by Kevin Sinfield for His Friend Link to recent story on Kevin and Rob
I know that at most large marathons after about 2 hours 40 minutes you start seeing some pretty big guys coming across the finish line. I remember back in the late 1950's when only a few people ran marathons, a football player at the University of Oklahoma tried running an 'unofficial' marathon and got some publicity from a local radio station. His name was Edward 'Wahoo' McDaniel a member of the Choctaw Chickasaw First Nation, and he eventually played in the AFL and NFL for the Houston Oilers, then Denver and the New York Jets and lastly the Miami Dolphins, and after that career he was a professional wrestler scrapping as Chief Wahoo. During his 'marathon' he ran from Norman to Chickasaw, OK and the radio station had a remote announcer who followed Wahoo to the completion of the run.
Wahoo! Wahoo! Wahoo! from the Sports Illustrated Vault article by Edwin Shrake October 26, 1964
No mention of his college marathon run but indication that he weighed in at 205 in his Oklahoma days.
Considering the limited amount of training he would have done to run 26 miles, it must have been a noteworthy feat.
from Anonymous- Discus thrower Dave Weill (Stanford) got a bronze in Tokyo 1964. Somewhere along the line I read that he ran a marathon in the clydesdale class, ie over 200lbs and ran a respectable time in completing the event.
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