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news
Jens Voigt (picture via Strava).PNGJens Voigt to run seven marathons in seven days for charity
Retired pro cyclist Jens Voigt has announced his latest charity challenge – and while, as ever, he’ll be employing his catchphrase “Shut Up Legs!” it won’t be while he’s pedalling, as the German sets himself the task of running seven marathons in seven days.
Supported in his effort by Fitbit, the 46-year-old will be raising funds for Tour de Cure, which was also the beneficiary of his successful attempt to ‘Everest’ Berlin’s Teufelsberg in January this year, when he raised more than €28,000 for the cancer charity.
> Video: Jens Voigt completes challenge to 'Everest' hill in Berlin
Entitled Jensie’s Marathon Madness, the challenge will take place from 2-8 January 2018 on a 7.1 kilometre course in the German capital’s Grunewald.
That means that Voigt, who will be running the course between 12 noon and 4pm each day, will have to run just shy of six laps to complete the 41.195-kilometre marathon distance, and 42 laps over the week as a whole.
“After my Everest Challenge a while back, which was already a special achievement, this is something I want to do for two reasons,” he said.
“First and foremost, I was overwhelmed by the positive feedback for my Everest Challenge in the beginning of the year.
“I want to raise as much awareness and funds as possible for the fight against cancer.
“The second reason is that I love to challenge my limits.
“I love to go above and beyond, trying to see what my body and mind are capable of. And what's a better way to do this than running seven marathons within a week?
It will possibly be the challenge that embodies my motto ‘shut up legs’ like nothing else I’ve ever done before.“
“Of course, people might think I’m crazy to do something like this,” he added.
“But hey, I never said I wasn‘t.”
Anyone who finds themselves in Berlin and fancies sticking their trainers on to join him for a lap or three during the challenge is invited to so.
Donations to Tour de Cure can be made here, while you can follow Voigt on Strava here.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Good job running uses muscles in the same way that cycling does, equally a good job that Eddie Izzard didn't do any traing prior to his feat, and equally Lance Armstrong never had a history of running prior to, and probably during, his cycling career. His fitness will transfer, muscle usage won't. But we all knew that, didn't we?
It'll be a piece of piss for Jensy boy, or indeed, anyone else.
I've run many marathons. Many 100m bike rides. I ran with Izzard too.
I do Ironman triathlons as well so I feel able to judge how Marathons compare to bike rides.
A Marathon is much harder than 100m on the bike and much much harsher on the body. After my first Marathon my knees locked with the impact of the running and I couldn't bend them to even cross the road. Never had that from cycling.
Running and cycling is completely different. Different muscles. They compliment each other but you really need to get your body used to the effort. It's not your cardiovascular system that lets you down as much as your legs will.
I've walked the Marathon in 6.5 hours with a pal who couldn't run. It wasn't easy and my feet were in no fit state to do anything the next day let alone repeat it.
This is a tough challenge. I've no doubt he'll do it though but it's not to be underestimated. Izzard had a big back up team fixing him and he didn't do any fast days. I'm sure Jens will be running faster.
Eton rifles is talking absolute rubbish. Come to see the London Marathon and check out the people coming in 6 and 7 hours. A lot of them in tears. It's not a bloody bimble.
I hated running for the sake of it, when I was a NIG way back when I knew that I was never going to be able to run great BFT times or be a distance runner, even though I was fit I was hardly a spindle at 87kg back then. However running through fear, fear of failure/fear of letting people down does push you on but I would never want to run that hard ever again (fortunately never had to run away from being in fear of my life).
For me back then in my fitness heyday cycling 100 miles was something I could knock out not quite as a run of the mill thing but compared to how I thought it would be to run a marathon (mainly based on how I endured company runs) I would choose riding 100 miles hard every single time as the 'easier' option. I don't think my mind has changed in that respect almost 30 years on
Running 7 marathon's in 7 days is a fantastic feat and for someone to denigrate it as being too easy simply because that person was a former pro athlete (in a different discipline) and that they aren't pushing themselves enough on some imagined scale frankly makes them a dumb fuck who should simply shut up.
Had they said any of that you may have a point. Some dumb fucks should just shut up and read a thing as many times as is required to understand it.
Physician, heal thyself.
A fella I have ridden with, well in the opposite direction to, friend of a friend; Everested the killer mile of Mow Cop. About 53 repeats from memory. Hell of an achievement and he said coming down was the most scary bit as his body and mind started to tire!
Marathon time for me 3hrs53, I was only going to try and break 4 hours and NYC is hot.
and no one mentions Eddie Izzard, 27 marathons in 27 days? Not enough for you? How about 43 in 51 days? Now that is pushing yourself beyond any limit!
But I don't think how many Jens is doing is the point, the main thing is he is raising awareness and money for a worthy charity. He doesn't have to do it, most wouldn't, it will hurt him and he gets no gain (except good PR of course).
Some will donate if he gets his shoes on the right feet others won't unless he cripples himself. Think it says more about them then him.
I retired from football when I was in my late 30s and took up distance running. I could run a half marathon in 85 minutes but couldn't manage a sub 3 hour marathon, 3:05 was my best.
30 years later I did my first 100 mile bike ride and expected to suffer in the last few miles like I did in marathons, to my surprise I felt stronger as the ride progressed.
So for me a marathon is a much harder challenge than a 100 mile ride and I couldn't do 7 consecutively.
Good luck to Jensie anyway.
As I thought, the fast people are not the braggers... 3.15 for me.
When I was young? 2:46. When I did 10 in 10? I ranged from 3:58 to 5 hours.
Best comparison I can offer is that running a fast marathon (well, as fast as I could manage at 3:09 in 2016) trashed my body about as much as riding Paris-Brest-Paris (1200km/750miles, 3 days), and definitely a lot more than a fairly hard sportive such as the Chiltern 100 (110 miles, 6.5h, 2000m of climbing).
Trashed in a different way, though. Cycling typically leaves me tired but not broken, whereas marathons offer both pleasures at the same time, especially walking downstairs 2 days later...
How many on here have done 7 consecutive 100 mile rides?
Only 5, but have not been an elite athlete at any time.
To be fair, he's a retired elite athlete, and elite fitness would disappear quickly if not trained. Also, he is a cyclist, not a runner and he's a big fella relative to long distance runners.
So, anyone here going to match him, 7 in 7 days?... post up your Just Giving page...
I'm interested now, anyone fancy sharing their marathon times? Lots of talk here...
Best 3:03... If I had to do one right now, I reckon I'd be happy with 3:45, and am resigned to probably never breaking 3
Comparing riding 100 miles with running one is a bit daft - you could blast or jog either. To repeat over 7 days, I'd probably take the riding; I'd agree with the point about the impact taking its toll (even in proper running shape, I feel a HM jog the next day).
@Simboid, you know 'Everesting' WRT cycling refers to doing hill repeats to the tune of 8848m, not actually climbing Everest?
[/quote] @Simboid, you know 'Everesting' WRT cycling refers to doing hill repeats to the tune of 8848m, not actually climbing Everest?[/quote]
Yes, I know that.
Do these 'Everesters' understand the difference between numbers ticked off and actual altitude? Climbing a very high mountain involves risking your life in a place where living more than a few days is physically impossible, it's not the numbers but the place that's hard.
Pretty sure there are no corpses of failed summiters frozen to the side of a rubble pile in Berlin. The comparison to Everest is misleading, a little insulting and shows a flippant lack of understanding, but sounds really impressive until you think about it.
Do you get second invite to parties?
Does he get first invites ?
Not if I can help it.
I've done 3:02
The way I look at it, I could run for 3hrs at 85% max heart rate or cycle for 5 hours at the same... no question the marathon will leave you more flogged afterwards. Even running it easy is going to be tough to back up the next day. And yes I've done (more than) 7 consecutive 160km rides (at a leisurely pace).
Lance reckoned it was the hardest thing he'd done... I think he went deep sub 3 without a lot of training.
No, his name is Tony.
alansmurhpy,
Is this you?
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10672918.Freezer_jolly_good_fellow...
Barbarus,
4 hours is almost exactly average and is the most commonly run time (4hrs, 4mins in this year's London marathon). So not fast, but not walking, a comfortable bimble for a fit man.
Jens is a top bloke. Hope he raises a ton of money for charity.
So how fast is slow on the flat, Simboid? I agree that if you are basically walking then yes, pretty much anyone can "run" 26 miles. But even from what it seems to be saying, Jens is looking at 4hrs day after day. That isn't slow. It's not fast either, but for a non runner it isn't slow. Plenty of recreational runners go slower than that. Sub 4 marathons 7 days in a row will take a toll because running is much higher impact than cycling.
I see you're doing a charity hole dig!
Have you set up a justgiving page yet?
I'm well aware how unpopular my view of these things is. That's a good thing really as if everyone shared my opinion then raising money for charity would be a long, boring suffer-fest with the only sense of achievement being in the funds raised. It's only possible to have my opinion because others have a different one.
It would be nice though if someone doing one of these things was a bit more honest and said at the start "I'm a massive big-head and want you all to be impressed with me, watch me do something you probably can't, I'll pick a random charity and you can pay for it." That kind of honesty would get me donating.
Barbarus,
Over a long period of time with huge gaps in between I've run lots of marathons, none of them even remotely fast though some were very hilly. The only difficult ones and the only ones where I didn't feel fine the next day were the mountain marathons because of the terrain.
Running a marathon fast is a very different story but simply getting to the end at a gentle pace only requires moderate fitness and conditioning. As this guy has been an athlete for decades, will be starting with a very high level of fitness and is running on a flat, springy track he should have no difficulty at all in jogging for 4 hours a day for a week.
When my brother in law ran JOGLE with me cycling in support he ran 50-55 miles a day across all sorts for over 2 weeks, now THAT was hard, way beyond me. He was only one year younger than Jens is now.
Dassie,
I wasn't being ironic. A marathon is a challenge for someone of low to average fitness and not to be sniffed at but Jens should be able to do it in his sleep. It's great that he's raising money but his reasons are 90% selfish and personal.
Have you read about Ben Fogle and Victoria Pendleton's coming attempt at Everest? Same thing, personal goals and more than a little celebrity face time. That attempt will most likely cost over a million in supplies, flights and fees. Kenton alone charges half a million per attempt as a guide. If your true motivation is raising funds for a worthy cause you don't start by spending that sort of money.
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