The Runners

Below you will find a short introduction & background of the runners who takes on the 40 000km of the North - South Run. Eventually runners that joins the group for a longer period or indeed runs across one of the 4 continents will also be presented here. 




Jesper Olsen, 36 years old, Copenhagen, Denmark. Political scientist, author.
Ultra-bio: founded the danish national team on 100km & 24-hour. 23 years of competetive long distance running. Marathon debut in 1985 at age 15 (3.26h.). Jesper completed the first fully documented world run - the world run one - in 2005. 

"I started out running as an average recreational runner
at the age of 12 in the local jogging club. By the age
of 15 I got courious of the 'mythical' distance of the
marathon that the older runners in my club was doing.
So that year I completed my first marathon. After 
a decade of competetive youth running on 5km, 10km
& cross-contry I took up marathon once more and set my pb.
at age 24 w. 2:27h. 

In the late 90'ties I decided to try a 100km race.
I broke the national record and a new path began:
national records on 50km, 100km, 12-hours, 24-hours,
6-day running. Many of them has later been bettered
by fellow contrymen; luckily :-) In 2004 I started out 
on the first fully documented run around the world and 
a bit to my own surprise I was able to complete the run
of 26 232km across four continents and return succesfully 
to the starting point after running 1 lap of the Earth. 

More than 20 years after taking up running and 
thousands of km's down the road the core values 
of running & ultra running remains the same to me.
Wich are in fact those of the recreational runner:
- That running should allways be with respect of the body
and not just be a quest of the human will-power at the
expense of the body. And above all - it should allways
be the joy and 'game' that running is in its basic :-) 

I think that the ability to run incomprehensive distances
is a thing we all share as humans. It's not the talent of
a few extreme individuals. We have had thousands of years of
evolution where it was common to be moving most of the day.
Only the last few centuries has it become common to sit down
most of the day. My experiense is that we have yet far from lost
the ability to overcome endless endurence efforts. 

I look forward to explore this ability together w. the Team in wr2 !
" 

/jesper olsen. 

pb's: 

10km: 31:29min.
15km: 47:58min.
½mara: 1:08:10min.
mara.: 2:27:57h. 

50km: 3:17:23h.(nat.rec.)
100km: 6:58:31h.(nat.rec.)
100miles: 15:26:09h. (nat.rec.)
12h.: 129km.
24h.: 223,7km.
48h.: 332,6km. (Scan. rec., nat.rec.)
6-days: 780km (nat.rec.) 

longest run: 26 232km /1 lap (Earth): 662days.(wr.) 

Glen Turner, 47 years old, Louisville, CO, USA. Stone-mason.
[ Continent Runner ]
Ultra-bio: Glen has run over 50 ultras, including three multidays. He won the NYC 6-days in 2006. More than 1000km in 10 days in the SCRM 10-day race, 2007. Before taking up ultrarunning he has spend several years at world class level ironman triathlon and is a former Hawaii Iron Man finisher. 

"I have been a runner my entire life. I am 47
and I began running Ultras in '87. I have been
relatively successful (6:50/50m, 17:06/100m, 131m/24h,
187m/48h), however it was last year that I finally ran
a 6 day and I found my "calling". Though I went
through many difficulties, I experienced a state of
being at different points in the run that I long to
repeat. I ran the Sri Chinmoy race in NYC running
420m. This year I am running the 10 day. During the
past 3 years I have been training with Yiannis Kouros. 

I have learned to develop a greater will and creative
use of energies with his help and other nontraditional
coaches. I say all this because I feel that my life
is in such a place where I can envision doing the run
as part of the team that you propose. Though I am not
a wealthy man my expenses are few. I have no children
and I though I have close friends, I am not married. 
I feel that this run could be the right, and natural
evolution of my purpose for being on this planet. I
know that may sound a little out there - yet what you
are proposing is as well. 

Sincerely - Glen Turner " 

Pb's: 
10km: 33min. 
50miles: 6:50hours, 
100miles: 17:06hours, 
24-hours: 131miles/211km, 
6-days: 420miles/676km. 

Peter Rietveld of Holland
[ Continent Runner ]
Peter Rietveld is born 1958, has a long career working for Doctors Without Borders as well as many years as a long distance runner to his credit. During the world run I he in 2005 took the step from beeing a marathonrunner to join Jesper Olsen at the world run stages across the Canadian Rocky Mountains, covering 900km's in less than a months before returning to Europe again. Since then he has become a talented ultrarunner (15:42 on 100miles, 201km on 24-hours) and an integral part of the world run II team working together w. Phil Essam of Australia on the route planning. During the world run II he will join the runners for lage parts of the route, starting with the streatch from Nordkapp, Norway to Helsinki, Finland.

[ LLM - Muscle Recovery System ]