He succeeded! He arrived on Sunday.
https://therunningchannel.com/deo-kato-completes-run-from-ca...
Does anyone know how he ran from continental Europe to England?
Looks like you could walk, in theory (but not legally):
> During one Sunday in October 1993, Wally Michalski and Mike Turner, working as contractors on the British side, used a pair of the Saracen bicycles to cycle the 100-kilometre (62 mi) round-trip from Folkestone to Coquelles and back again. The pair took around five hours to complete the journey, while wearing full overalls and needing to carry respirators.[1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_the_Channel_Tunnel
Seems like he took a ferry from Calais to Dover
https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a63224509/deo-kato-lond... https://www.instagram.com/p/DDynCvFAph_/?img_index=1
Looking through his Strava, I don't think he did?
He reached Calais on the 19th and started from Dover on the 20th, so I'm assuming a ferry.
Having to deal with police four times a day on average on the part of the journey through Croatia is insane. I’d have given up and flown to the next country.
It’s pretty wild, although if I were Mr. Kato I might be somewhat more grumpy about being jailed for 3 weeks in South Sudan, apparently on the authorities’ opinion that their immigration laws required ministry approval for his run [0].
I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody non-local doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies—and I imagine the runner being a Ugandan guy would be an especially surprising sight to people in Croatia (91% Croat, 3.2% Serb, officially recognize 22 other ethnic minorities, none of them from Africa) [1]. Which I suppose is the point he was trying to raise.
What an astonishing extreme of human endeavor.
[0] https://archive.is/4T13g [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Croatia#:~:t...
> I have to say I don’t find myself too surprised that anybody doing extreme-long-distance running through insular Croatian towns might arouse the interest of the local constabularies
I don't live in Europe, but just help me out, why call the cops on a guy running down the road, in running gear, even if he's an ethnicity you rarely ever see?
Most of the comments here are missing the mark IMO.
The primary reason why he got so much police harassment is because Croatia is a EU Schengen border country, the patrols here are much stricter than everywhere else, and the associated problems are much worse as well.
I don't think it's entirely due to racism - if you were a border policeman, and you are tasked with bringing in people illegaly entering the country, what would you do seeing a person of color running on back roads near the border of an otherwise extremely ethnically homogenous country?
For every case of someone who entered legally and got harassed, they probably bring in thousands of people which they are supposed to bring in (ie. entered ilegally).
If you're travelling through sensitive border regions, attracting unwanted attention is unfortunately an occupational hazard.
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/indy-nelson-man-who-visited-eve...
https://www.pap.pl/en/news/pole-wrongly-sentenced-life-congo...
How can it not be entirely due to racism, if race is the only factor determining whether you stop someone who is jogging on the street in jogging clothes and likely athletic supershoes?
Ya know, this is an incredibly interesting question. Because my instinct is to say that, if the patrols duty is simply to analyze anyone who stands out, and they do so in the proper channels without malice or harassment, then that would be the least racist possible scenario in which this occurs, some may say, not racist. But then even if the guard is kind and helpful, is the guideline "people who stand out must be questioned" racist itself? It sounds like yes. But then what justification do they have for that, is it genuinely that the vast majority of illegal crossings come from people who stand out? Or do most of them blend in, or is it just the stand outs that get caught, thus making it appear in data as if they're the problem and intensifying the patrols around them? Like the airplane problem.
Then the hypothetical, what if it were true that the people attempting to harm your society singularly visually differed? Would that be racism, some strange "justified racism" or simply not racism? If you say, we are not prosecuting on race, but on propensity to crime. Well that starts to sound like some things I've heard in my country, which we believe is racist. Interesting questions.
Well, the neighboring country to Croatia is Bosnia and Herzgovina. The ethnicy is similar and some from there also have motivation to enter illegally. Basing on race ignores those.
Also turning it around: Is it right for somebody, like the runner, who legally entered to repeatedly be treated bad just because others who share skin color do bad?
exactly this, and add to that, the demographics are similar in all eastern european countries. so what's special about croatia? https://brilliantmaps.com/european-black-population-by-count...
after reading the article i found the links to other articles on the guardian site linked to this: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/10/p... "Croatian police accused of burning asylum seekers’ phones and passports". the problem seems to be more than just never having seen a black person.
> so what's special about croatia
To add relevant context Croatia is at the edge of the Schengen zone. On the other side of the border are Serbia and Bosnia with less strict border controls and visa rules, so this is one of the roads for illegal immigrants to reach rich western countries. This and Hungarian borders are what's between them and their goals. Connect that with the fact that Croatia doesn't have non-white minorities, there were probably zero cases before this of black person wondering down the roads who was not an illegal migrant.
Passport are also needed for deportation. I can not see any reason, why police would burn their documents. It creates a lot of extra paperwork and headaches.
Destroying passports is a normal practice for illegal immigrants. It extends their stay in EU by several years. Most countries are considered safe, and it is hard to claim you are from Syria with Egyptian passport.
He's doing something weird hence the police calls.
I'm from that part of the world and had the same thing happen when I went camping.
The police officer asked if I lived in the west, then left me alone with a warning about bears and gypsies.
I'm not from Croatia, but for context
>ethnicity you rarely ever see?
Rarely... I was 20 years old when I first saw a black person in real life. This was in a center of a big city, and it surprised me so much that I remember exactly where and when it was.
Nowadays times have changed and it's not that rare in my country - at least in big cities. But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on.
> But I imagine a Croatian farmer seeing a black person - running! - and calling the police to investigate what the hell is going on.
So is this common? I would not call the police immediately among seeing something odd or unusual that isn't threatening...
You wouldn't, but someone would. Cops get called all the time for out-of-the-ordinary things that you'd not even think of calling for.
Power failures, parked cars, loose animals, strange kids, balloons, weather, etc.
For a laugh I used to read the local paper which published a log of police calls, they were along the lines of "A dead racoon was reported on Oxbow Rd. When officers investigated they found it was a hat."
Loose animals can be a danger to traffic, and the police should be called.
I've done this when a horse had escaped from a field at the edge of a village.
And as unfortunate as it is, some people see black people running in their neighborhood as a danger to society and will call the police (or in some cases will just hunt them down and kill the person themselves https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-sentences-three...)
This is schengen area border country, dealing with tons of smuggled immigrants, most of which are coming from Africa. While having from 0 to next to 0 local population of same/similar ethnicities.
First thing to many occur to especially older folks watching news is illegal immigrant running ie from busted police operation, not some epic runner. They definitely dont recognize running sportswear.
It’s racism. I’m guessing you’re from the US, the least racist country in the world.
People see he’s a different race so they treat him badly because of it. No one is worried about being called racist.
He was arrested several times a day for being black. No one in the whole chain of events viewed this as a problem.
Do you believe the US is the least racist country in the world or have i missed some sarcasm? I'm truly not trying to antagonize, just curious
Thankfully our hero is made of sterner stuff than either you or me:
"On other occasions, however, he almost packed it in. In Uganda, his one-man support crew resigned, leaving him without a support vehicle or help at a time when his funding for the run was almost exhausted. To compound matters, all routes ahead involved either conflict or extreme risk."
This surprised me too. I am from Croatia, and while there is a fair bit of discrimination against anyone that's different in the country, I am very surprised about this magnitude of it. I'm curious about the route he took. Some road types are illegal to run along, and coincidentally the one going from south to north along the coast is illegal to be on for pedestrians to my knowledge. I wouldn't be surprised if any pedestrian was stopped on that road, it's dangerous to run where the speed limit is over 100 km/h.
He grew up in Britain, and would easily understand the concept and the symbolic "no pedestrians" signs.
Others comments mention a route map, but I can't find it.
I was surprised but apparently I was dumb, and people see a black person and think "criminal migrant" all the time and that it's somehow not racist to think that, lol. Very many comments in this thread saying exactly that.
Why did you have so many issues in Croatia? Traffic police and ID checkpoints?
"The police stopped me at least four times a day. Sometimes, I caught locals taking photos of me and reporting me to the police,” he said.
Reminds me of Karl Bushby, who's walking from Chile to England. He made it to at least Kazakhstan so far.
Apparently he swam over the Caspian Sea and made it to Azerbaijan.
> The swim covering 179 miles (288 km) was achieved in 31 days as part of his global expedition on foot.
With the help of Azerbaijan's coast guard and some swimmers. Wow!
See also: Paul Salopek, who's walking from Ethiopia to Patagonia, tracing the path of human migration out of Africa.
See also, Nabil Islam who left France in 2023, crossed Europe, Asia, Oceania, and currently crossing America north to South in a single bicycle trip.
Mastodon: https://masto.bike/@nabili Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/113690657
> They were detained by Russian border troop officers while they were crossing the Russian border near the Chukotkan village of Uelen, for not entering Russia at a correct port of entry. They were threatened with being banned from Russia, which would stop the journey.
You can always trust russia to be a pain in the neck, to put it mildly.
I'm sure the US would just let anyone in at any point along their border...
if i have to believe musk, there is no issue at all doing that.
concerning if true.
Luckily, it isn’t.
What a terrible take. Go outside and touch some grass, and then throw away your documents and try to walk across any border on the globe.
Just yesterday/past few days russia bombed Ukraine on a Christmas Day, downed Azerbaijan Airlines plane and cut power cables between Finland and Estonia. My take is good. Your turn to touch grass and stop defending fascists.
Check out the history of Papua, Mr. CIA ;)
A man went on a mission to raise awareness. I'd say he accomplished that.
Unfortunately some sites make it hard to get past the headline with their banners (and ads) for me. So i won't know what he ought to create awareness for.
It's in the first paragraph of the linked article, and is expanded on further down.
Well obviously you didn't get it... anyway, thanks for the downvotes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Bacca
Running in the other direction seems to be somewhat more dangerous.
> Bacca's naked, strangled, and decomposing body was found in bushes
> DNA testing suggested that Bacca was raped by multiple people, and not just Karataş.
How sad. Looks to me like the dangerous part is doing so as a woman, not the direction.
Being a woman may expose you to extra risks, but it doesnt mean men are safe there.
Of course, I just meant that it seems to have been the main factor in her story, rather than the fact that she entered Turkey from Europe. I can't really draw any general conclusions out of a sample of two; well, one, because this runner apparently didn't cross Turkey, so not really a similar route.
They made it fine when going through Europe.
You surely understand one travels through the same countries when doing the same route in either direction. That's not what we meant here.
You surely realize that you stop traveling when dead? In which case direction matters.
These are not the same paths so direction is meaningless. This runner did not travel through Turkey
>>"Kato wanted his journey to draw attention to the earliest migration of humans from Africa and challenge the racist notion that people should “go back to where they come from”. Viewed as a whole, he said the run had underlined the positive aspects of migration and its potential to “create a more culturally connected and enriched global society”.
This is an epic feat and gives me hope for humanity. My hats off to Mr Kato!
How many hours was he running everyday? This is an insane amount of running. I wonder if there is any health implications?
7700/516 = just under 15 miles a day or around 100 miles per week. Typical mileage for any elite distance runner or even a decent D1 college runner (and low for an elite marathoner). But they often do it in one or two continuous sessions, often with significant intensity. The task of just covering the mileage in a day (without trying to do it in one go or trying do any of it fast) is nothing particularly exceptional. Heck as a slow 50-something dude I did 100 miles weeks during Covid when I had some free time. Health effects: assuming you were biomechanically inclined to do okay with lots of running and built up to it over a long enough time to avoid the usual overuse injuries it would almost certainly just make you healthier.
Only on HN you'll see a comment like this downplaying the achievement. With Endurance sport, it's the lack of rest days that make it exponentially harder, you really can't compare with what you've.
15 miles a day is pretty tame for any long distance runner. Even without rest days. You're going to be doing 15 miles in ~3 hours. That's plenty of rest time.
I suspect this guy was actually running significantly more every day but also took some significant time off.
Russ Cook, who also ran the length of Africa, ran a route that was 2000 miles longer, in about 5 less months. He covered on average about 28 miles per day.
They're both very impressive accomplishments, but not as physically impressive as mentally, at least in my opinion.
PCT thru hikers do about 18 miles per day over mountainous terrain with a 25 lb pack. They're moving at a slower walking speed though.
He ran an average of 15 miles a day. That is absolutely within the normal levels of human endurance if you build up to it.
I think that’s about the average of what a typical Appalachian Trail hiker does, which means that it is very well within the bounds of reality for a regularly able and very motivated person
It is insane in today's world! But big mileage (barefoot, no less) is something we evolved for. Check out the great book Born to Run by Chris Macdougal which explores that concept.
Micah True, a hero of Born to Run, died after the book was published at age 58 of heart failure while doing a 12 mile training run.
You can walk 3 miles an hour at a leisurely pace. That’s a 5 hour walk everyday or probably like a 3-4 hour run. Really not all that bad if you’re used to it.
For all the people reacting that this is not a lot. Don't forget he has had a lot of border troubles, police troubles, money troubles and support troubles. Including rest days, I would estimate his running days at somewhere around the 400. That would mean about 20 miles per running day. So 6 miles short of a marathon, each day.
When he got tired, he slept. When he got hungry, he ate. When he had to go... he went.
Extreme exercise such as distance running damages the heart.
This is simply not true. Even research that suggests damage also suggests endurance athletes have better outcomes anyway: https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/03/01/is-long-distance-ru...
The article you linked doesn’t support the statement made about it. The evidence is mixed but shows worse overall outcomes for those overdoing it. Here’s a scientific publication that’s clearer that recommends 1-2 days off per week, and no more than 5 hours running per week.
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/fulltext/2015/03000/exerc...
Quote from the article:
> Recent research has raised alarms about the potential for plaque buildup and scarring in the heart in some long-distance runners. Yet other studies have suggested that when marathoners get heart disease, they may be able to weather it better than non-runners.
All articles discuss scarring and physical signs but no clear link between exercise and worse life outcomes. The article you cited noted most issues resolve themselves within a few weeks after a race. There are literally 0 people exercising at “race intensity” day after day, which is completely different kettle of fish to your regular training run. Kato here certainly isn’t doing that.
Given many professionals and amateurs run over 5 hours per week and easily break 5/6 miles at a time. A quick search will show strong runners regularly hit 6-8 hours per week.
Cyclists will cover greater distances and times and, apart from Pantani (who was doped to the gills), you don’t see them dropping dead of heart attacks despite regularly covering 10-20 hours a week. Similar for triathletes.
So no, the evidence really isn’t there that distance running causes heart disease.
That's another incorrect summary. From the journal article there are multiple studies that have shown worse long-term outcomes from large amounts of exercise:
> Other studies also have confirmed the long-term adverse effects on myocardial structure (18,27–30,32), including one study suggesting that the CAD event rate during 2-year follow-up was significantly higher in the athletes than that in controls
> Recent studies have suggested that long distance runners may have increased levels of atherosclerosis and CAD (18,37). In a study 6 years ago, male marathon runners had paradoxically increased coronary artery calcification (CAC) as measured by computed tomography (CT) CAC scoring (21). A very recent study of men who completed at least one marathon yearly for 25 consecutive years (n = 50) compared with 23 sedentary controls demonstrated increased total plaque volume (P < 0.01), calcified plaque volume (P < 0.0001), and noncalcified plaque volume (P = 0.04) compared with those with EEE (Fig. 3) (37). Despite the fact that runners have better overall CAD risk profiles, these results underscore the potential for very heavy EEE to increase the severity of CAD through mechanisms largely independent of the traditional CAD risk factors.
> Very high doses of running, however, were associated with trends of worse survival compared with either nonrunners or groups of low- and moderate-dose runners.
> However, when dividing runners into quintiles of doses (miles·wk−1, running days per week, min·wk−1, and running speed), with the exception of speed (faster running always had a trend for better survival), quintile 1 (<6 miles·wk−1, 1 to 2 times per week, <51 min·wk−1) had similar mortality reductions as those in quintiles 2 to 4 and a trend to slightly greater benefit than those in quintile 5 (Fig. 4).
There are other studies that have not shown long-term adverse events. The evidence isn't conclusive and most people need more exercise, not less. But it's prudent to caution committed runners about overdoing it with this information so they can make their own informed decision.
It's entirely possible that the CAC response is evolved to have some protective factor for endurance running.
> There are other studies that have not shown long-term adverse events. The evidence isn't conclusive
So after all that, you end up agreeing with me.
Only love can break your heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364qY0Oz-xs
I don't like his take on Czechia: while being stopped by police 4 times is not pleasant, I'm guessing it's nothing compared to the (lack of) safety in many countries in Africa, South/Central America and Asia. [0]
[0]: https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2...
In the meantime, could someone with experience (i.e a local) please tell me about the current safety of and racism against a white person in Cape Town, where he started his peace run? Is it safer than Johannesburg? I'd love to visit South Africa, but I'm too scared of visiting there nowadays.
Czechia has never been mentioned.
As a matter of fact, Africa is crossed partially or completely on a fairly frequent basis by white backpackers and bikepackers. You can find numerous guides and reports on the internet. Also, around 16% of the population of Cape Town is white.
Having said that even in the most dangerous places in Africa the problem is not necessarily racism but inequalities and unemployment. Cross a place where unemployment is high and education level is low due to inequalities, crime will be rampant regardless of average skin color. If you happen to have interesting goods or be seen as a vulnerable, you may have problems. Hence the reason you might have issues in some places in Cape Town but not in a peaceful village somewhere else in Africa. And said peaceful village that could happen to have been very dangerous in another time when same country was in civil war.
I am not saying racism against white people don't exist, but there is no reason to oppose racism against white people to a black guy running to raise awareness about racism. That guy is probably against any form of racism, especially as his life partner happens to be white.
(Edit: My bad, I meant Croatia.)
Look at the mental gymnastics you need to do to hold this worldview.
1. Not 4 times. 4 times per day every day you are in the country
2. Don't complain about racism in 1st world if you are from the 3rd world because the 3rd world isn't safe. Conveniently missing that racism here is between ethnicity of the 1st world towards 3rd world ethnicities, so basically this absolves all racism in that direction in the 1st world.
3. I'm scared of visiting South Africa because of racism, but a black man scared of racism in Europe where the police are constantly called on him, that's no big deal and he shouldn't complain, which I'm doing right now.
1. Yeah, 4 times a day is a lot and I'm sorry for him. Although I would like to learn more about the details. (I.e other comments mentioning about illegal crossings etc)
2. I'm sorry I didn't fully get this (English is not my first language) but I'm also from a 3rd world country).
3. I'm guessing you are in the USA bubble (which always had and still have a racism problem on a different level) and don't know much about Europe. In Europe, racism would almost never result in any physical violence or not being allowed any rights.
Racism would almost never result in any physical violence or removal of rights in Europe? Hahahahah this gave me a great laugh.