Technical Problems/Cloudy Head Prevent Wardian From Setting World [Treadmill] Marathon Record – Says Wardian: “I can’t wait to try again.”
Unable to run the canceled Western States 100 Miler, Michael Wardian setup a new challenge for himself: to beat the world record for running a marathon on a treadmill – and then continuing on to set the record for the 50K on a treadmill. Running at the Pacers store in Fairfax Virginia, Wardian was well on pace despite running on a treadmill that had a time limit of one hour of use and came to a complete stop at one hour and two hours into the run. Through 24 miles in 2:09:15 (5:23 pace) Wardian was 30 seconds ahead of where he needed to be. But with the restarted treadmill showing ten minutes and and just under two miles elapsed, Wardian experienced what so many do at the end of a marathon – a bit of confusion. Miscalculating the remaining distance required to complete the marathon, Wardian stopped his run with just over a mile to go – thinking the distance complete. When Wardian was informed of the error, the time taken to get the treadmill back to speed and the effect of having already “finished” a marathon before starting to run again were too much and Wardian ran to the 25.9 mark in 2:22:35 (already past the recrod of 2:21:40), stopped the treadmill and collapsed. Suffering from heat exhaustion, Wardian was taken to the Emergency Room and given fluids. Following the failed attempt, Wardian wrote to MarathonGuide.com: “I can not wait to try it again.”.