Michael Wardian looks forward to sustain his dominance at the ING Hartford Marathon
The ING Half Marathon is being organized in the notorious Death Valley where the average temperature in the months of June and July hangs around 121 degrees.
However, with the winters approaching, it is expected to slash by half during the stated event where Michael Wardian, last year’s victor, will look forward to mark his dominance all over again.
Wardian, the 37-year old strenuous runner, is perhaps the right person to dare contesting for this title since in the Badwater Marathon, run on the same track in the month of July, he hit the finish-line for a third place.
However, his performance at other prominent events that he contested in could not get him any limelight.
While contesting the Comrades Marathon this May in South Africa, the Arlington athlete ended the race at the eleventh position.
However, from an American perspective, since Alberto Salazar bagged the race back in 1994, this was perhaps the best result, produced by Wardian.
Hitting the road for North Face Endurance Challenge in Kansas this August, he bagged the title and the very next day, while embarking on the North Face Endurance Challenge half-marathon, he finished the race for a top position on the podium.
The formidable runner is truly a long distance runner as besides running the conventional marathons, he also lined up for two 100ks back in September.
Running in the world championships in Netherlands, he went for a second position, while in Charlottesville, the bronze medal awaited for him.
His record, as an athlete, marks the fact that he is not only a robust runner, but also a physically fit athlete who does not take long in recovering from the tiredness of running long meets.
Although for the past couple of weeks he made his running schedule less hectic, he has a busy schedule ahead of him, once he gets over with the present showdown.
Commenting about how the athlete has always opted to challenge the people’s general notion and approaches about him, Wardian said, “I’ve always been one to try to push the boundaries. People always told me you couldn’t do stuff, like in my second year of
doing marathons, people said I couldn’t do three marathons in a month”.
But that was what people thought of him – he himself had different thoughts in mind. In order to claim that he was different from the ordinary runners, the winner of the USA Track & Field (USATF) Ultrarunner for past three years ran the Chicago marathon,
Marine Corps marathon and the New York City Marathon along with a 50 mile contest all in a month.
The interesting thing about the runner is that he has been quite lucky throughout his running career as he never suffered from any injury that could have hindered his running prospects.
He runs for about 100 to 120 miles a week regularly and claims to be consistent in his training.
Given all these factors, it is unlikely to believe that the emphatic runner will allow anyone else to emerge on a track that has always been testing the nerves of those who dared to hit it.
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