Moron check on those touting McRunner

Several of my friends and acquaintances (on Facebook, Twitter and email) have sent forwards about McRunner aka Joe D'Amico, who ran the LA Marathon in 2:36 last Sunday.

I am compelled to write this post, lest the less informed are misguided into not watching what they eat.

Joe ran 91 miles at peak training (I assumed he tapered 2 weeks before the race), including twice a day runs and about 55 miles in the week before. He is not an ordinary guy. He is an above average athlete. He finished 28th overall and 23rd among men. So morons thinking he is just a gobbler of McD items, note that just 5 women were ahead of him and that includes elite athletes!

On an average he must have burnt (I haven't totaled his entire mileage) about 7000 calories or more per week* assuming he maintained that level of mileage for his entire training. That is 2 kg a week lost. He could have afforded to eat about 20% more than his daily dietary requirement.

With that level of fitness, you need not watch what you eat if you have some sense of how much you are consuming by way of calories. So go ahead and emulate him first on mileage and timing and then on diet and that too, for a month.

What I found admirable is that he raised funds and without being sponsored by McD, both of which are commendable. But please don't quote his diet without context and then justify eating junk. I am sure Haile could run a 2:10-2:15 on a McD diet or a Coke diet or whatever, but he wouldn't even abuse his body for something like that. Why don't people talk more about Joe's raising funds for a worthy cause and emulate that?!

 

* Besides he has only logged his mileage from 18th Feb on his blog.