Jesse (26) starts a marathon on all fours: ‘I started this because of my clients’ | Ghent

Jesse is ready. The Ghent resident trained hard for this trick last year: Every day he would get up at 1am to walk the 1.4km (or crawl early) on all fours. He wants to go 40 kilometers this way in the next 20 hours. Eight times around the water at Dok Noord. With this, twenty people hope to break the world record.

The current record for a bear crawl marathon – called 25 miles in every four runs – is held by a New Yorker. It took him 20 hours and 48 minutes. Jesse hopes to complete the course in a shorter time. On Friday evening, he shoots from his (imagined) starting blocks at 8 p.m., and on Saturday he hopes to arrive before 4 p.m.

With the marathon, Jesse hopes to do more than just break the world record. Meanwhile, De Gentenaar is putting his personal training studio Always Better on Stapelplein in the spotlight. “I started this challenge because of my clients,” it seems. To keep them motivated during the pandemic, I’ve pledged to walk 500 kilometers in four rides in 365 days. An average of 1.4 kilometers per day. I would crawl every day, and they would continue to take care of themselves. I recently traveled 500 km. After all that training, it seemed obvious that you would suddenly go for a marathon.”

Jesse’s crawl adventure can be followed all evening, night and day via livestream. Those who like to see it in action can immediately descend on Stapelplein where an outdoor event around the individual marathon is being held. Through the income, Jesse and his coaches will finance the additional finishing of the new studio.