Mauri trains on gym treadmills capped below his marathon pace
The 2:05 debutant races Chicago next week off a gym membership and 36 miles at 4:56 pace.
Vinny Mauri does most of his training on Planet Fitness treadmills, Jonathan Gault reports, and he lines up at the Chicago Marathon next week.
Gault's profile is the source of the detail everyone has latched onto. Mauri ran 2:05 in his marathon debut, in Toledo. One of his sessions, per Gault, is 36 miles at 4:56 pace in a single day. Gault calls him an enigma, and the workouts are the reason.
Then Steve Magness added the part that turned it into a running-internet story. Magness says the treadmill Mauri uses tops out at 12.4 mph, which is just slower than his marathon pace. In other words, the machine cannot run the pace the man races at.
The offer
Magness made a public offer off the back of it. If Mauri breaks the American record, Magness says he will sponsor him with a treadmill that actually goes his marathon pace. It is a joke with a real point underneath it. The fastest marathoner in America right now is not working off a lab setup.
@nxthompson summed up the appeal of the whole thing, saying he loves that the fastest marathoner in America does 30-mile runs at sub-5-minute-mile pace on a treadmill at a random Planet Fitness in Ohio.
What it actually means
Mauri was already in the American record conversation for Chicago. Brady Holmer picked him or Hicks as the most likely man to take it down earlier this week. What is new is not his form, it is the picture of how he got here, and it does not look like anybody else's.
One caution before you build a training philosophy out of it. Gault says Planet Fitness, Magness refers to a gym treadmill topping out at 12.4 mph. Nobody in these posts is claiming the treadmill is why Mauri is fast, and nobody is claiming he never runs outside. The claim is narrower than the memes around it. He does most of his training indoors, on commercial belts, and he still ran 2:05 first time out.
The test is Sunday week in Chicago. If the American record goes, the story goes from strange to legendary, and Magness owes him a faster treadmill.
If this guy breaks the American Record, I'll gladly sponsor him by giving him a treadmill that at least goes his marathon pace
He ran 2:05 in his marathon debut -- in Toledo.
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