Quebec man will attempt 1,500 miles in 30 days–on a treadmill

Pablo Espinosa of St-Polycarpe, Que. is about to start his most ambitious ultrarunning quest yet: this morning at 6:40 a.m. he got on a treadmill at the Kondition gym in Kirkland, Que. and will run for about 12 hours a day for the next 30 days. His goal is to set a world record while racking up 1,500 miles (2,415 kilometres)–that’s 386 miles (621 kilometres) more than the current 30-day treadmill world record, set by another Canadian, Michel Gouin of Drummondville in 2015.

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Espinosa, 40, won the 6-day race at the Icarus Florida Ultrafest in November, with 405.47 miles (648.75 kilometres). He has twice made the Canadian 24-hour team (though he was not able to compete in 2019) and won the Beebe Farm 48-hour race in Vermont in 2018 and the Ethan Allen 12-hour race (also in Vermont) in July 2019. At Across the Years in Arizona over New Year’s, he was the only Canadian in the 10-day event, finishing in eighth position with 534.37 miles (859.96K). That’s right–just three weeks ago, Espinosa finished a 10-day ultra, and now he embarks on a 30-day run.

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What makes Espinosa’s story so unusual is that until a few years ago, he had never participated in athletic activity and was overweight. Espinosa arrived in Montreal from Argentina 15 years ago, and took up jogging to avoid spending too much money and to have something to do in an unfamiliar new city. His first race was the Montreal Marathon in 2008, and without really knowing much about marathon training, he ran a 3:36–impressive for someone in the throes of a major physical transformation.

The weight came off through a combination of running, walking and weightlifting. “I loved it,” Espinosa says, adding that it came naturally to him to run longer and longer. Then he went to college to study nutrition, and in 2013 he developed GO Juice, which he uses to fuel his mega-distance projects.

Espinosa says GO Juice was born purely out of necessity. He tried many different commercial products but found that with the exception of Clif Bars, none delivered consistent results: “Big companies use mixers with drums to blend ingredients, and the results are never the same twice,” he says. By contrast, every single serving of GO Juice is mixed by hand, individually. “It’s the only way I can guarantee consistency,” he says.

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There are two GO Juice products, one for hydration (consisting of dextrose, pink Himalayan sea salt and a little maltodextrin) and one for recovery (which also includes protein in the form of hydrolized beef in addition to the ingredients in the hydration product). All of the ingredients are non-GMO, dairy-free and gluten-free.

Espinosa plans to average 50 miles (80.5 kilometres) per day over a 12-hour period and going home to sleep each night. (He lives not far from Kondition, in St-Polycarpe.) He’ll eat food provided by Jarosh Cuisine, along with his own Go Juice products. He is using a Star Trac 7600 Pro treadmills at Kondition, that’s been specially calibrated for the attempt.

Anyone interested in supporting the project (or running a few kilometres with Espinosa) can learn more on the Facebook page.

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