An interesting visitor – 52 marathons in 52 weeks

Facebook is really a weird and wonderful thing. I got a message via facebook about a week and a half ago from an old school friend Amanda who I hadn’t heard from in oh about 15 years!

I was first a bit sceptical – we’ve had quite a lot of visitors this summer which has been fantastic, but I must say Joel and I were quite enjoying having the house to ourselves once again. Hosting a marathon running stranger wasn’t exactly high on our ‘to do’ list that weekend! But then I took a look at his website (http://www.runlikecrazy.com/) and read a bit about his mission, and wow, did I change my tune.
The guy’s name is Tristan Miller. He’s about my age, grew up in Melbourne, and quite likes to run. He decided to sell his apartment and all his worldly belongings to fund a year-long mission to travel the world and run 52 marathons in 52 weeks. He’s raising money for charity (Unicef and Facing Africa). His marathon in Stavanger was his 34th. Joel and I agreed that Tristan was doing something pretty special and we would be really happy to help him and his mate John (An Aussie living in Sweden joining him for part of the trip) with some accommodation.

Tristan has been running marathons all over the world, from Tokyo to Mongolia, Rwanda, South Africa, the Great Wall of China…you name it, he’s run it (or is about to run it). It’s quite remarkable, but honestly what really struck me after meeting him is that running the marathon is not even half of it. In a way that’s the easy bit! Can you imagine crisscrossing the world many times over, spending no more than a few days in any one place, having to work out flight plans, train and bus timetables, travel visas, hotels, maintaining clean jocks and socks, just all of the logistics and headaches and flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants exhaustion that must come from spending a year travelling? Add to that the physical and mental exhaustion of running a marathon every single week…I just find that utterly amazing and inspiring.

I wanted to help Tristan generate a bit of publicity for his cause. I contacted a couple of local newspapers and managed to get a pretty good response, Rogalands Avis ran almost a full page article on him as well as a snippet on the front page http://www.rogalandsavis.no/nyheter/article5254795.ece. Stavanger Aftenblad ran about a quarter page article in their sports section. Not bad for a PR novice hey?! A TV2 film crew also arrived (through one of Tristan’s connections – I can’t claim that one!) and did a great story for the Saturday night sports news http://www.tv2sporten.no/ovrig/maratonmannen-foeler-seg-som-forrest-gump-3276858.html. Joel also took some fantastic photos. For Tristan, having a photographic and video record of the trip is hugely important. He is getting about with his little digital camera but Joel’s Digital SLR with fancy lenses and filters provided some great pics which Tristan took with him.

What was also special about this particular weekend was that Tristan was running the Stavanger marathon on Saturday, then leaving on a 6pm flight to Denmark, taking a bus down to a ferry port, and then taking an overnight ferry to a little island called Bornholm to run an Ultra Marathon – that is 100kms after travelling all night. The man ran 142km over a weekend. That is just mind blowing.

Tristan at the finish line, Stavanger Marathon

We spent a bit of time with Tristan before and after the race. He’s a fantastic guy, and not nearly as crazy as you’d think! He’s basically a normal guy who’s been given some great (but also fairly “normal” – not unlike you or I) opportunities in life, who found himself in a bit of a rut and decided to just turn it all around, to think big and do something amazing. That was really his message – that you can do anything you set your mind to it if you set a goal and then go about planning the steps it takes to achieve it.

Joel and I have been really proud to help Tristan out over the weekend with hopefully a welcoming smile, some good food and a warm, comfortable bed to sleep in for a night. I hope the publicity helps him get the attention he wants for the charities he’s supporting. We’ve also donated a small amount to Unicef in his ‘everyday hero’ appeal. I also know that each and every donation is so appreciated by Tristan, he was reading his twitter “runlikecrazy” and checking the Unicef donation page and commented about how thrilled he was that people had been inspired by his self-proclaimed “Captain InsanO” double-up marathon/ultra weekend and were making donations.

It was a really interesting weekend, and definitely one that we felt great about – it’s fantastic to every now and then open yourself up to new people and experiences and to give something of yourself and your time to help someone else. However I’d argue that we were really the beneficiaries as we really felt like we’d been part of something special and important. We truly wish Tristan all the best for the months ahead and the many kilometres still to run. He plans to finish up with an ultra marathon in Antarctica (!!) and his final run will be in Melbourne during the daytime on New Years Eve. If you’re interested to read more or get involved (maybe run with him on NYE!) I highly recommend his website http://www.runlikecrazy.com/.

L-R John, Tristan, myself and Joel

Bump Watch, 16 weeks