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The above gent, Kim Gi Joon, a dude in his 30s, did the end-to-end route of the Appalachian Trail, staying on the route the entire time except when he ran out of supplies. He completed the over 2000-mile route in what is, for me, an astonishingly short amount of time: a mere 5 months. That's not five months on paved roads, folks-- that five months' hard mountain hiking. The mountains in that range aren't that high (probably nothing over 4200 feet-- mere hills by Rockies standards), but you'll come to respect them after you've tried hiking over one or two of them in a day.
Yes, Kim puts me to shame. I can try to comfort myself by noting what the article says about his training: 6th dan in seonmudo (literally, Zen martial arts), 3rd dan in hapkido, etc. The guy was obviously tough as nails going into this, even though he'd had no experience hiking such a long distance before. I can also tell myself that his purpose was simply to cross the distance, nothing else. But part of me still can't help comparing my easy trek to his feat. Of course, the flip side of my reaction isn't quite so self-centered: I admire and respect the guy for his accomplishment, and hope he ends up making some money off this experience (he'd worked in a laundromat before embarking on this hike, and said he wanted to make some money).
Pretty amazing, eh?
Side note: it's become something of a morning ritual for me to try to puzzle over the Korean newspaper, something I do with Mom's help as she's busy making herself up and I'm busy making, uh, stuff while on the pot.
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