On the subject of insane feats of endurance, please allow me to draw your attention to this story about extreme children endurance runners:
Marathon children collapse in a copycat race for glory
From Ashling O'Connor in Bombay
A TEN-YEAR-OLD girl from a remote village in eastern India has become the country's latest under-age long-distance runner in a growing craze that has prompted allegations of abuse and exploitation.
Anastasia Barla ran 72 kilometres (45 miles) in the state of Orissa on Monday in sweltering heat before she was forced to stop because of exhaustion.
The girl had been attempting to break the 100km barrier in an effort to outshine Budhia Singh, the four-year-old boy who made world headlines in May when he covered a distance of 65 kilometres in seven hours and two minutes.
Yes, that is not a misprint. A four-year-old boy.
The story mentions other children sent to intensive care after their own attempts on the record.
Now, I know someone will want to make the point that this proves that humans have evolved to be endurance athletes. I will believe that as soon as I find the gland that we evolved to secrete our internal store of high-sugar energy drinks. (I will call it, the Gator-Nipple®). Because without a whole lot of water and sugar, there is no chance that a kid could go more than a few miles.
And then there is this:
Marathon experts maintain that children under 10 should not run more than 15 miles a week.
Well, that's a relief...er, um, fifteen miles a week? May I just say that "marathon experts" are in-sane!
