Let’s be serious here; most of us will never run a marathon. The idea of running 26.2 miles of muscle-aching, nipple-chafing, shit-inducing road are just outside the realm of what most of us consider normal. My hat’s off to those that can do it, but my admittedly rotund self just can’t imagine the horror these runners face over a treacherous two-plus hour run.
Sports Experts, a Canadian athletic apparel company, wants you to experience a marathon without ever leaving the couch. ‘Scrolling Marathon‘ recreates the grueling 42.2 kilometer (26.2 mile) Montreal Marathon with a mobile website that turns your thumbs into legs and allows you to ‘run’ the entire course by scrolling. Along the way, you’ll get playful messages that encourage you to keep scrolling, ever-changing color effects to keep things interesting and a map of your progress on the actual course.
Unlike actual marathon runners, you can do the entire thing from the comfort of your recliner, with the air conditioning on, all while snacking on your Hostess weapon of choice — I like the honey bun.
To complete these feat of non-athletic achievement, you need nimble fingers, endurance for days (hours, really), and an un-flinching desire to be the very best at running a marathon using nothing but your smartphone and thumb (or both thumbs).
After grabbing my Gatorade and loading up a run playlist on Spotify, I managed to make it all of a kilometer before getting bored and checking Twitter. Good luck lazy athletes of the world.
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