This weekend I’ve been reading a lot about Stefaan Engels. If you haven’t heard of him, I’m sure he’ll be in every running-related magazine soon as he’s just run 365 marathons over 365 consecutive days. That’s 9,569 miles – or around twice the length of Africa. Imagine being on the tip of South Africa and thinking “I need to go to Tunisia”, but instead of getting a plane – you ran. And when you got there, instead of stopping, you ran home again just for the fun of it. That’s pretty much what Stefaan did, except it was probably wasn’t as hot as Africa and there wasn’t as high risk of being eaten by a lion but you get the picture.

He completed a race a day in seven countries: Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, the UK and the US. He says the key to his success was running at a ‘slow’ pace – he averaged 4 hours per marathon and did his quickest race in 2 hours 56 mins. That’s pretty impressive and not at all slow in my book.

Coincidence or not, then, that Dean Karnazes – the ultramarathon man – has announced that he’s going to be running across to US to fight obesity. Not his obesity, he’s already quite trim from all the running, but general obesity among Americans.

Karnazes will run nearly 3,000 miles, averaging 40-50 miles daily. From California, he’ll make his way cross-country through the Southwest, passing through Arizona and New Mexico on his way to America’s Heartland. After running through Kansas, Missouri, Indianapolis and Ohio, he’ll head down to the nation’s capital, then travel north through Maryland and Pennsylvania, before completing his journey in mid-May when he runs into New York City. If you’re in the US, you’ll be able to follow Karnazes’ run ever morning on Regis and Kelly. I’m sure the rest of us can find it on Youtube.

So tomorrow, when I head out for my speed workout in the dark, I’ll think of these guys, feel a little less sorry for myself and suck it up. And then I’ll start planning my own ultra.