I can respect what this guy is doing much more: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/feb/13/erie-man-running-marathon-month/
He is not gratuitously jetting off to far-flung locales while simultaneously begging individuals and businesses to subsidize his indulgences. Additionally, he is not making it about himself and as near as I can tell this article is the only publicity about his endeavor and clearly is more about raising awareness for the cause than anything else. Also note that this was not a sports story.
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