42-year old Richard Apolinar Herrera is the country’s top marathon runner after setting a new record last weekend. While the country celebrated the Tigres del Licey’s baseball victory, Richard Apolinar Herrera and his team set out from Parque Independencia at 8:06 pm in Santo Domingo and arrived at Parque Duarte in San Francisco de Macoris at 4:15 pm on Thursday afternoon, as part of the Duarte Day celebrations. He covered the distance of 140 kms in 20 hours and nine minutes, beating the previous longest run of 132 kms by a Kenyan runner, in the Guinness Book of Records.
Last year, he ran 78 kms non-stop from Nagua to San Francisco de Macoris.
He told El Caribe newspaper that the most difficult moment was while crossing through Bonao, someone threw him water and a pebble got inside his shoe and he had to run with it from Bonao to San Francisco de Macoris. The stone cut the sole of his foot, but the rules prevented him from stopping.
When he arrived at his hometown’s Central Park he was received by Sports Minister Felipe Payano, Agriculture Minister Amilcar Romero, Duarte province senator Hernani Salazar, deputy Yiye Fernandez, and others.