this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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I'm sure they're lying but running an average of 10 kilometers per hour over 48 hours isn't insane
Usain Bolt's top speed is 44 kilometers per hour. Maybe the dude wasn't that fast or running top speed the whole time but his job was running a lot I'm sure he was fast as fuck.
So maybe it averaged out and it was only exaggerated a little bit?
They have ultra marathons where you run for 24 hours straight, and this guy would have smoked the current record holder going over rough terrain.
People in general are more athletic nowadays, but our top athletes are basically inhuman compared to athletes from 75 years ago, let alone 2000 years.
It's most likely a straight up lie, or exaggerated by several multitudes. Ancient "historians" are pretty famous for exaggerating things to make things look more heroic.
For example Herodotus claimed Xerxes led an invasion force of over 5 million people, in reality it was more like 100k-300k. This was well known even as far back as the Roman, who called Herodotus both the father of history and the father of lies.
I mean yeah it's definitely a lie I'm not saying it isn't.
But I do think it's not that insane of a lie. I mean for one apparently the guy died and for two genetic freak factor.
It's insane, and science agrees. Read up on Functional Threshold Pace (FTP), which is what would be a factor in runs like this. The sheer amount of fueling (food+water) required to keep pace going would be insanely impossible for 480km, unaided, without stops. And I mean all caps INSANE.
I still think it's pretty crazy. The "genetic freak factor" is still moderated by the conditions of their environment.
We have a lot more genetically gifted athletes now then back then, and our genetically gifted athletes grew up with diets fortified with vitamins and other nutrients. If modern athletes even slightly struggle with doing something similar, ancient athletes would find it impossible.
It's just as crazy as claiming that someone from ancient greece would be able to compete on the same level as Usain Bolt in sprinting.
10km per hour over 48 hours is absolutely insane, and the comparison with Bolt's 100m world record doesn't make any sense.
The ultramarathon world record holders today might do it : the closest existing event is the Spartathlon, a one-way Athens-Sparta race, for which the records are around 20h. Which leaves 8h of sleep before you have to do the world record run a second time...
Another decent comparison is the 48h ultramarathon. Matthieu Bonne broke the world record at 485km in 48h in 2025, the previous one being 475km.
But Matthieu Bonne is running on a flat rubber track. And both examples have modern shoes, nutrition and a support team following them.
So we are supposing our guy is world record material, even though he is selected from a population of 30k male Athenian citizen at the time. We are supposing he is running the world record twice, back to back, in sandals and without anyone to help him on the way. And/or we are supposing he is running as fast as a guy doing it on flat rubber.
It's not quite impossible (or only slightly exaggerated) but it sure as hell is absolutely insane.
Definitely insane but I don't think it's that insane. There are definitely far more embellishments that are unbelievable than that.
I do also think we should account for straight genetic freaks. They lived back then too. I doubt this guy was one but I'd bet the fastest person that ever lived has a higher likelihood of being lost to history than competing professionally today
To be fair, I don't think the most gifted genetic freak in history running bare foot or in sandals would beat today's elite with access to modern training science, nutrition and equipment. That stuff makes a huge difference.
Current high school students regularly beat Olympians' times from like the early 1900s. They used to run on tracks made of ash or some shit.
To be fair the guy died after doing it. Even if you don't have a sport team, I guess it's possible if you push yourself to your absolute limits ?
He also fought in a battle immediately after the run. Then ran some more. Then died.
You don't think someone could run themselves to death? Humans are capable of miraculous things.
Imho the exaggeration is he fought in the battle instead of just ran
Yeah no doubt. If my uncles stretches his tall tales the surely this is somewhat embellished.
I remember a similar argument about how it was impossible for the Egyptians to have built the pyramids. It comes down to ‘I don’t understand how it could be done, so it’s impossible’
I mean - there's not a lot of engineering mysteries involved in this. He ran. That's the story. If he actually had a team of horses staged along the route or something that's a different story.
You can take the sandals out of the equation, its no hinderence. I basically only wear adidas slides and have ran over 10 miles in them with little discomfort, scaled rock ledges, etc.