Eric O’Connor to Raise Awareness with 24-hour Treadmill Run
In 2004, Christopher Bergland ran 153.76 miles in 24 hours on a treadmill to set the World Record. Eric O’Connor doesn’t anticipate breaking that record. Instead, the driven runner will try to run for 24 hours, using his Garmin fenix 2, to raise awareness for the National Blood Clot Alliance at a local Chicago running store on April 10-11.
And Eric gets this question quite a bit. Why 24 hours?
“I wanted to do something where people would stop and say ‘Wait, what are you doing?’ he says. “Then I want them to start reading into the event and the awareness message that we have because that’s all we need. We need to get signs and symptoms in front of people.”
Eric plans to chronicle his run on a Garmin fenix 2 and upload all his information onto Garmin Connect. “I live by my Garmin watch,” Eric says. “All of my training is a mix of heart rate and per mile pace with every single one of my workouts loading into Garmin Connect. I only want to use products that work for me and I can’t say enough about how the Garmin helps me out.”
On March 26, Eric ran on a treadmill for six hours at WGN in Chicago to train for his 24 hour run.
A photographer and father of three, Eric started running seriously 14 years ago and has completed more than 20 marathons. His connection to this cause was the diagnosis of blood clots in his calf and multiple pulmonary embolisms in his lungs four years ago. Eric battled back and is currently in excellent health.
Eric explains that, “it doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, cancer or no-cancer, surgery or no-surgery, people get blood clots and it’s pretty staggering,” According to the National Blood Clot Alliance, 274 people die every day from blood clots.
To raise awareness, Eric intends to run from April 10 at noon until April 11 at noon at the Run Today in Glen Ellyn, IL. He says he will only get off the treadmill to use the restroom and maybe eat a non-liquid meal once or twice. Otherwise it’s full go until the next day.
“The nice part about coming up with this idea myself is that I can do what ever I want,” Eric clarifies with a chuckle. “But I want to stay on this thing for as long as I possibly can.”
Runners in the Chicago area can sign up to run alongside Eric or you can donate to his cause. After 24 hours, Eric will upload his information and statistics to Garmin Connect to show to other users.
Make sure to follow Eric on Twitter @EricOConnor and follow his progress by searching #tread24.
The post Eric O’Connor to Raise Awareness with 24-hour Treadmill Run appeared first on Garmin Blog.
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