Top two American’s in the Run The World Challenge which just finished are both over 70
The third Run The World Challenge sponsored by My Best Runs (MBR) has finished. The team of 105 active runners who ran and logged miles in 23 different countries finished last night (January 5) in 68 days 17 hours and 18 minutes.
The event created by MBR Founder Bob Anderson is all about running and walking and then logging in those miles, posting photos and comments. The team has to run/walk and then log in 24,901 miles (42,200km) to reach the finish line.
“This is the distance around the world,” says Bob Anderson who himself ran and logged in almost 300 miles himself.
“Our team from around the world and ranging in age from six to 74 did an amazing job,” says Bob. The team of 105 logged in an average of 362 miles per day.
34-year-old Eliud Lokol Esinyen from Kenya and running most of his miles in Eldoret logged the most miles with 1,298.59. He averaged 18.9 miles daily, many days he worked out three times. Finishing in second was 27-year-old Boaz Kipyego also from Kenya. However he spent about five weeks in Minnesota USA running and racing. He ran and logged in 1,129.41 miles.
First American was 74-year-old Frank Bozanich from Reno Nevada. The previous five time national champion at 50 miles and 100k ran and logged in 1,036.19, good enough for third place. “This is his third time around the world with us,” says Bob. “Many people say that age is only a number and certainly age is not stopping Frank. He told me he is running a lot slower these days because he has put a lot of miles on his body, however. Well done Frank, on an age-graded basis this has to be the best performance,” says Bob.
There were five male runners 70 plus in the top 31 places. In fact 72-year-old Paul Shimon placed sixth overall running most of his 893.06 miles in Winfield Kansas. Like many of the team he had to deal with a lot of issues including the cold, snow and darkness.
On the women side ultra super star 48-year-old Gloria Nasr ran and logged 422.54 miles. Gloria lives in Paris, France. Some of her miles were also ran in Peru when she travelled there to run an Ultra three. She has also run the six stage race through the desert of Morocco in the past.
In second place was Kenya’s Rosaline Nyawira who currently is living, training and racing in South Africa. She ran and logged 394.01 miles to help the South Africa group.
Third and first America was 71-year-old Karen Galati who logged in 223.88 miles. She ran most of her miles in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. As she wrote on her profile “Better late than never to this addicting sport.”
Miles run and logged in the top five countries are USA, Kenya, Palau, South Africa and India. The small country of Palau was in second place the first two weeks. The Run The World Challenge group there lead by Aaron Salvador have so much spirit. Most weekends they get together and run ten to fifteen miles. You can always count on them to post photos and comments too.
Our group from South Africa lead by Lize Dumon has just as much spirit. During the challenge Lize completed her first marathon. And in fact the Fourie family, there has to get the top spirit award. The two kids (Michelle age 6 and Jonathan age 7), the mom (Erika) and grandma (Johanna) all were part of our team. Even through the father was not on the team he was there must of the way. They posted nearly every day and collectively logged in 455 miles.
“This was not our best performance but this one has to be our toughest with many challenges,” says Bob. “Many of our team had to deal with early cold and snow in the United States and Canada. Our runners in Palau had to deal with heavy rain and wind many days. Our runners in South Africa had to deal with really hot weather. In California our Runners had to deal with the smoke from the wild fires. A majority of our team had to deal with shorter days. And in the middle of everything was three major holidays.”
”I am very proud of our whole team. It is hard to stay focused on something like this for over two months but we did it. We made it around the world. For many of us for the third time. Well done. There are so many more stories I want to share but there just is not enough space,” says Bob.
The next Run Tbe World Challenge is in the planning and details will be announced soon.
posted Sunday January 6th