Run 2,800 miles in 64 days - loose muscle, fat, and brain!

Course of a previous race, the Transeurope-Footrace 2003On April 19, 2009, 45 ultra-endurance runners (39 men and 6 women) took off from southern Italy to run to North Cape, Norway, a distance of 2,800 miles in 64 days!! Why? “Because its there” doesn’t cut it. Certainly only a few can do this; congratulations to runners. But this is extreme. Persitence hunters in the Paleolithic covered a lot of ground chasing down antelope but they did not run such distances in such a short time. The Trans Europe Footrace is possible only because of the large supporting cast. (The results of the 2009 race can be found here.)

Dr. Uwe Schutz and colleagues from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital of Ulm in Germany decided to tag along with the runners and periodically study the anatomical and physiological impact of this ultra-endurance event. Their findings were presented at the Radiological Society of North America annual meeting on November 29, 2010.

A variety of medical evaluations were performed including musculoskeletal exams, urine and blood samples, and EKGs. Twenty-two of the runners underwent whole-body MRI scans every few days using a mobile MRI unit.

Dr. Schütz did not expect the changes in the leg muscles:

One of the surprising things we found is that despite the daily running, the leg muscles of the athletes actually degenerated because of the immense energy consumption.

As reported by Medline Plus:

They found that the runners lost an average of 5.4 percent of their body volume during the course of the race, most of which was in the first 2,000 kilometers. They lost 40 percent of their body fat in the first half of the race, and 50 percent over the duration of the race.

The stress also impaired the immune system. Three runners were forced to leave the race due to rapidly growing infections. "They got a slight infection in a toe nail, and by the next day, the infection had progressed through the entire leg. This is another thing to show that it is not intelligent to do this sport," Schutz said.

The runners also lost brain volume, but this was regained a few weeks after the race, he said.

Hopefully we have found the limit to running. I am sure others will disagree. If you are thinking of entering the TransEurope Footrace 2012, sorry, the list is closed. Here is what the runners can expect:

Joachim Barthelmann is our scout for the Trans Europe race - 4000 km for 64 days, an average of 62 km per day. We plan to spend 10 days in Scotland, 11 days in England, 21 days in France, 21 day in Spain and one day in Gibraltar (Gibraltar is a British territory). We will run: 3 stages over 40 km, 23 stages over 50 km, 25 stages over 60 km, 10 stages over 70 km, 2 stages over 80 km and the last stage under 10 km, although small changes to stage distances are still possible. START: August 19th in John O’Groats, Scotland. FINISH: October 21st in Gibraltar.