Some people want to climb Everest. Some people want row the Atlantic. Some people want to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail. But Colorado sales director Braden Roggow had another ambition – to run a full 26.2-mile marathon around his local McDonald’s in a challenge he called a “McMarathon”.
So that’s what he did last month. This meant looping round his local McDonald’s 187 times on a 740-foot circuit. He broke the marathon up into 47-lap sessions, and after each session, he switched directions in the parking lot.
And he didn’t fuel himself with running gels and protein bars – he scoffed one item from the McDonald’s menu each time he changed direction, specifically:
• One medium black hot coffee
• One large powerade
• One medium iced coffee
• Three hash browns
• One sausage and egg McMuffin
“You get the carbs. It’s salty. It’s delicious,” he told Outside. “I see McDonald’s as the perfect running food—that’s just me, though.”
He eventually completed the challenge in three hours and seven minutes, which sounds like a time that’s waiting for some other fast-food-loving runner to best (not that we think Guinness World Records are ever going to make it all official). His own proper marathon personal best is 2 hours 45 minutes, but he says, “this marathon was definitely the most memorable and the most meaningful”.
And the only dodgy moment was, “a close call with a bathroom pit stop,” though he hastens to add that had nothing to do with the food upsetting his stomach.
Amazingly, Roggow wasn’t even sponsored by McDonald’s. He just loves the place. He worked at a branch as a teenager and used to date his future wife at a branch in Denver. And he admits to Outside that when he became a dedicated runner he continued to eat cheeseburgers and McMuffins. “You can still treat yourself to fast food when you run 100 miles a week,” he reckons.
We’re not sure Morgan Spurlock (RIP) would have approved.
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