Self Described ‘Fat Man’ Sets Marathon Record in 9:48:52

I know only enough to know that running scares me. Over the weekend, I climbed a molehill of a mountain and thought the 3.1 mile trek was going to be the end of me. But I felt great when I had finished it. Until I saw this.

The Los Angeles Times reports Kelly Gneiting ran/jogged/walked the LA Marathon in just a shade under ten hours Sunday. Before you scoff at that — as if you've ever run a marathon!! — consider that Gneiting is a 400 pound, 40 year old dude. Not of the Colorado green & granola set.

He also happens to be a former champion national sumo wrestler, if that gives you any idea of his girth.

The Times previewed Gneiting prior to his dash. That story is available here, but here are the highlights: he can do four sets of pushups, his waist is five feet around and he can do the splits before touching his forehead to the ground.

"I honestly think I'm one of the best athletes in the world," he told the Times. I won't argue with that, and hopefully, neither will the Guinness Book of World Records, which gave him instructions for certifying his run as record-breaking: the heaviest person to finish a marathon.

As he himself said before his finish, of himself and of the effort: "I'll have something very few thin people out there can say about themselves. I'll have made a little history."