Germán Silva, one of the best athletes in Mexico's history, is running the entire length of his country, from Tijuana to Tulum. More than a marathon a day over 3,100 miles. I joined him for a while, and it ended up becoming one of my favorite stories ever.
Aside from the physical challenge of running through some of the most difficult terrain in North America, there were other obstacles. Among them: cartel checkpoints. washingtonpost.com/world/interact…
Silva was running to showcase the parts of Mexico not featured by Hollywood or on Instagram. He chose mostly quiet dirt roads that wound up and down mountains, through old mining towns and ranches, past abandoned haciendas.
He was 54 years old. Nearly three decades had passed since his two New York City Marathon victories. By the halfway point of his run, he struggled to climb a flight of stairs. I wondered how he would finish.
But running alongside him, it looked like he was floating. His body had somehow adapted to the grind of running 30+ miles a day. (Mine had not).
As a kid, he had chased semi-trailers up the sloping roads of Veracruz. As a professional runner, he trained by doing repeats up a volcano. This weekend, he'll end his 3,134-mile run ahead of schedule. He's been speeding up towards the finish.
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