Serge England Arbona ran 152.27 miles on a treadmill in 24 hours to stake a claim to four world records.
Up since 5 a.m. Saturday, Arbona was ready for a hot shower and a long nap. But he was alert enough to savor the moment.
"This is the best and most exciting day of my life," he told The (Baltimore) Sun. "I was dreaming of a world record when I was a kid. It took a long time."
Arbona, 38, started running at noon Saturday and reached the milestone at a YMCA the next day. He broke the 24-hour treadmill record by more than three hours. Along the way, the Baltimore resident also beat the 50-mile treadmill time by 22 minutes, the 100-mile time by two hours and the distance record for a 12-hour run by more than four miles.
"Four records in 24 hours might be a record itself, said Christy De Vader, a Loyola professor who runs with Arbona sometimes. "He just whipped them all off."
Guinness World Records has to analyze the documentation before it's official, but to Arbona's fans, that's just a formality.
"The man is like a machine. I don't know how he does it. He's an inspiration to all of us," said Linda Tice, 58, a member of the Baltimore Road Runners Club, as is Arbona.
Ultra runners those who run distances longer than a marathon are different by nature, said De Vader, 44, who headed the crew attending Arbona.
"They just don't accept boundaries like other people do," said Dave Cameron, 40, a fellow runner from Millersville. "He's got tremendous mental focus and discipline. He was hurting three hours into this thing, but he just keeps going and going and just doesn't stop."
Friends kept Arbona moving through the night by singing and playing guitar, and showing videos of runners and of his 18-month-old son, Anjelo. The only time he stopped moving was during infrequent bathroom breaks.
By 10 a.m. Sunday, Arbona had given up running, though, and was sticking to a fast walk. His muscles were cramped, his ankles were shot, and he was nauseated and exhausted.
In addition, his mind was cloudy. He could no longer compute the distance he had run by looking at the treadmill display. He forgot that he had taken a salt tablet, to keep his sodium up, five minutes after downing it. He stumbled over words.
But his feet kept going.
01/26/04 22:41 EST |
