In order to finish a marathon in the time Leroy Stolzfus finished the Harrisburg Marathon Nov. 8, you would have to run a 7:05 mile for 26.2 miles straight. The biggest difference between you and Leroy is that Leroy is Amish and he ran those 26.2 miles in full Amish gear.
You can see the AP picture here for yourself, after all, Amish aren’t allowed to necessarily bust out the Asics. In fact, full blown orthodox can’t have their picture taken — who knows, maybe Leroy is in the middle of an epic rumspringa??
I mean, 3:05:45!!!!??? DOES ANYONE REALIZE HOW INCREDIBLE THAT IS?
This guy is the Amish Prefontaine!
Seriously, one minute faster — or simply 3-4 seconds more per mile — and Leroy would have qualified for Boston. And all of this coming after what he says is something he hardly trained for.
The 22-year-old told PennLive that “he’s used to running in slacks and suspenders and that he turns to running whenever he’s tempted to sin.” And that he runs during evenings after leaving his job at a tobacco shop and says “he doesn’t even get up to 10 miles sometimes.”
According to the article, he also added that he had no pain during the race and that “It was more mental anguish than in my legs. You have to train yourself not to think about it. It will just slow you down. I was once told by someone that it’s 20% training and 80% mental. I do believe that.”
Leroy, it doesn’t matter if I have the mental strength of Rambo, as someone who’s ran two marathons nowhere near your time and trained my ass off to do so, I can assure you it’s not that easy. You have a gift.
Stolzfus told reporters he would like to run an ultramarathon (typically a 50-100 mile race) and would like to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
What cracks me up is that Stolzfus also reportedly said he got into running only after getting “involved with some stuff” he shouldn’t have. Yup. Sounds like rumspringa to me!
Why did it take the world almost two weeks to find out about this story?!
I can’t wait to see my Amish friends run with me in the Cheese Festival 5K this next fall in Arthur, Illinois. There’s a precedent now, friends. Don’t let me down!
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports and originally from the Amish capital of Illinois – Arthur, IL.
