A considerable achievement, especially for an athlete who suffered asthma as a boy and was advised by doctors to steer clear of sport. The Ghent runner set his first world record in 2008 by completing 20 Ironman events within one year - each of which consists of swimming 3.8 km, cycling 180 km and running 42.2 km.
"After running 20 triathlons in one year, I was not ready to go back to normal life," he told the Associated Press after his final run in Barcelona. "I also wanted to inspire people by showing that if I could run a marathon a day for an entire year, that anyone could run or bike a little each day."
One 20 km run would finish off most of us, but Engels did twice that every day for a year. "I recover quickly. I don't run fast, and my heartbeat is slow. But it is more a mental story," he said. "The problem was thinking about running a marathon every day. I just told myself to run that day and did not think about the next day or the next week." Engels' average time for a marathon (officially 42 km) was about four hours, with a best time of 2h56.
Flanders Today is a 
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