For most people, finishing just one or two marathons a year is considered a successful season, especially if you can manage a personal best in there.
The key word there? Most.
Some people can get in two marathons in less than a week. Former NHL player Zdeno Chara is one of those people.
Since retiring from a career as a professional hockey player in September 2022, Zdeno Chara, the former Bruins captain and tallest player in NHL history at 6 feet, 9 inches, hasnโt called it quits on all sports.

Despite his gargantuan stature, Chara has found a new passion in running and endurance sports and has been remarkably successful at that.
After running his first marathon at the 2023 Boston Marathon, Chara was hooked and wound up running five more marathons within the year, including three within the span of just one month.
Chara returned one year later to run the 2024 Boston Marathon, the place where this all started, and run the course in 3:30:52. Considering heโs nearly seven feet tall, we think thatโs pretty impressive.
To one-up himself, he got on a plane to fly across the pond and run the 2024 London Marathon just six days later (also his eighth marathon in just one yearโs time).

Not only did he finish two majors in one week, but he also ran a new personal best in London of 3:11:04 (thatโs 4:32/km or 7:17/mile, if youโre wondering).
The Boston Heral spoke to Charaโs former teammate from the Boston Bruins, Brandon Carlo, who said, โI think that speaks to what we saw here for many years. Heโs very dedicated to his craft in every way. His dedication to things is impeccable. But thatโs very impressive to see, obviously.โย
โIโm not sure Iโll be doing that same sort of thing, but you can tell that thatโs what made him such a great athlete. He always wants to push himself and kind of grind through those suffering moments. Itโs great to see that mental side of him, and thereโs a lot to be learned there.โ

โI think he enjoys it, to be honest,โ said Carlo. โThatโs part of his character of wanting to feel that sort of pain that heโs pushing himself. All the mentally strong people do that, and heโs up there with some of the best Iโve known.โ
Chara plans to continue to dominate in road races and, with a training regimen that incorporates a lot of cross-training, has announced he will be competing in the Challenge Roth Triathlon in Germany.